Story of Your Life--Part 2

“The ray of light has to know where it will ultimately end up before it can choose the direction to begin moving in” (156)

““Sometimes it’s good to wait” I’ll say. “The anticipation makes it more fun when you get there”” (140)

These two quotes are inherently opposite and describe respectively how the heptapods and humans view life. The first seems almost nonsensical from the human perspective as it not only personifies light as an entity that can think and reason, but would imply that we can make informed decisions about the future even before it happens. In the story, Gary talks about how the movement of light can be thought of as a chain of cause and effect or as a personified object that carefully selects a path and calculates the distance of its chosen path, the first of which is the human way of thought and the second of which is heptapod reasoning. But, how can the humans know that this is how heptapods reason just from learning their language? The fact that humans can make assumptions about heptapod reasoning due to what they have learned about their language shows just how important the concept of language is in society. The heptapods’ written language requires them to know what they want to say before they even begin to write, a concept that to us would make it seem like heptapods know the future. However, this could also mean that they simply see the world as a whole, they complete a thought before they communicate it, they do not wait until the end of their writing to make their point, but they instead know the reason behind their writing before they begin to argue. This seems to me like a very reasonable way of thought that would create stronger arguments and the ability to better appreciate the entirety of the surrounding world.

However, humans tend to reason linearly and do not always know their point before they reach it in writing. In the second quote Louise tells her daughter that anticipation is a good thing and that it makes life more fun as you get to live in a mystery which you watch unfold before your eyes. Indeed, this mode of though does seem like more fun and enables humans to make decisions and adjust their path as it unfolds to a final end that could be unexpected and surprising in an amazing way. While the heptapods’ ability to see their ends before they begin allows them to make informed decisions, it does not allow them to learn by making mistakes or to ever experience the excitement of surprise. Sometimes, humans wish they could see the future and know that their lives are going to turn out alright. However, as Louise truly says, “the anticipation makes it more fun when you get there” allowing us to become excited by the mystery of the life that lays ahead, instead of moving forward with foreknowledge and no room for surprise and excitement.

On a second note, for the entire story Louise seems to keep her narrative about the aliens and about her daughter separate, however, towards the end the two begin to meld. The first instance of this is when Louise goes to the grocery store with Gary in order to buy food for a dinner which Gary has offered to make and the second is when the two spend the night at Gary’s house. The fact that the two narratives mix under these circumstances is interesting because it implies that because Louise is beginning to move on with her life and is finding love, she can begin to integrate her memories of her daughter into her present life and no longer keep the two separate for fear of her strong emotions for her daughter. Throughout the story, Louise’s narratives about the heptapods parallel the anecdotes she tells about her daughter and because the two begin to mix as the heptapod tale comes to a close, it shows that perhaps Louise’s purpose in telling about the heptapods was to gain a way to talk about her daughter and in doing so to come to terms with her death.

Story of Your Life--Part 1

“One of the sailors pointed to the animals that hopped around with their young riding in pouches, and asked an aborigine what they were called. The aborigine replied, “Kanguru.” From then on Cook and his sailors referred to the animals by this word. It wasn’t until later that they learned it meant "What did you say?”" –(Chiang, 127)

This quote from Ted Chaing’s “Story of Your Life” has many meanings. Not only does it show that learning needs to be a careful process, but it also applies to the narrator’s life and assumptions. In this quote, the sailors assume that the aborigines understand that they want the name of the animal when they point to it ask what it is. However, it was this first assumption that lead to a vast lack in communication and most likely many jokes from the aborigines behind the backs of the foolish sailors calling animals “kanguru”, a phrase that would seem like an absurd name to the native speakers. The narrator most likely tells this story to her intro to linguistics class because it teaches the vital lesson of learning and communication: never assume that you and the other party’s ideas are synonymous because assumptions lead to foolish mistakes. Instead, linguistics and other of life’s practices must be carefully thought out and studied in order to obtain accurate communication and motion of ideas between peoples.

On the other hand, this quote demonstrating the need for caution in assumptions applies to the narrator’s life as she assumes at the beginning of the story that her daughter will live long enough to have children, a fair assumption and hope for a mother. However, unfortunately, this dream and assumption does not come true. In this manner the above quote cautions humans about the nature of uncertainty in life. This quote, when read in this way, ridicules assumption and shows how truly unknown the future is. This shows that humans should live each day as it comes and not assume anything about the future because they cannot be sure about or control anything beyond the present using assumptions that do not have to and often do not hold true.