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Yeah, my #1 problem with Arrival was that it completely sidestepped basically the entire point of the short story - free will doesn't exist and how the characte

Yeah, my #1 problem with Arrival was that it completely sidestepped basically the entire point of the short story - free will doesn't exist and how the characters come to grips with that (or don't) as they start thinking as the aliens do.

ghaff 5y ago
It also threw in a bunch of predictable Hollywood action and military stuff. It's still a pretty good movie but the short story is better.
StavrosK 5y ago
SPOILERS The single most crucial part of it was the way her daughter died. In the story, she dies in a (very preventable) climbing accident, to make the point that her mother knew about it and could have just told her not to go (or go a bit later), whereas in the movie she died of cancer, which just completely invalidates the entire point.
- stared 5y ago
  In the story this climbing accident is a powerful example. It is preventable in the case of not knowing the future (yet it this case we have no idea that it will happen). If we are in the state of knowing the future, it is a part of the reality fabric, it IS, just separated by an interval of time.
  - StavrosK 5y ago
    Exactly, it wanted to show how committed the author is to not acting on changing the future, even though she knew exactly what was going to happen.
stared 5y ago
The presence of time vs free will is present in a few other stories by Ted Chiang. However, I read it somewhat differently. (Even though myself I am agnostic when it comes to free will.) It is not that free will does not exist. It is that free will is a perspective (i.e. not something true or false), one mutually exclusive with knowledge of the future. It is like the rotation of an object, which one we can see only one of its facets. In "The story..." Louise learning the different perspective is gradual. To some extent, it matches some other tropes like Lovecraftian that learning about the Great Old Ones brings insanity. Or maybe it's not that it fries one's mind, but rather - give a perspective incompatible with everyday human thinking.

ghaff 5y ago

It also threw in a bunch of predictable Hollywood action and military stuff. It's still a pretty good movie but the short story is better.

StavrosK 5y ago

SPOILERS The single most crucial part of it was the way her daughter died. In the story, she dies in a (very preventable) climbing accident, to make the point that her mother knew about it and could have just told her not to go (or go a bit later), whereas in the movie she died of cancer, which just completely invalidates the entire point.

stared 5y ago
In the story this climbing accident is a powerful example. It is preventable in the case of not knowing the future (yet it this case we have no idea that it will happen). If we are in the state of knowing the future, it is a part of the reality fabric, it IS, just separated by an interval of time.
- StavrosK 5y ago
  Exactly, it wanted to show how committed the author is to not acting on changing the future, even though she knew exactly what was going to happen.

stared 5y ago

The presence of time vs free will is present in a few other stories by Ted Chiang. However, I read it somewhat differently. (Even though myself I am agnostic when it comes to free will.) It is not that free will does not exist. It is that free will is a perspective (i.e. not something true or false), one mutually exclusive with knowledge of the future. It is like the rotation of an object, which one we can see only one of its facets. In "The story..." Louise learning the different perspective is gradual. To some extent, it matches some other tropes like Lovecraftian that learning about the Great Old Ones brings insanity. Or maybe it's not that it fries one's mind, but rather - give a perspective incompatible with everyday human thinking.