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A comment on Ted Chiang returns with another awe-inducing sci-fi collection.

Re:Ted Chiang returns with another awe-inducing sci-fi colle... by motohagiography on Monday May 06, 2019 @10:14PM (#19845806)
I've only read his re-released stories in the "Arrival," compilation, but to me, to describe Chiang as a sci-fi writer is like saying Google is in the computer business.

We inhabit a contemporary world with more technological and social change than the ones which formed the collection of tropes that got authors grouped into sci-fi or cyberpunk in the first place. I don't think devices like time machines and other magic used to create the reflections of characters and situations is sufficient for relegating authors to sci-fi anymore.

Arrival and "Story of your life's" treatment of language and time and experience, and sympathy for the motivations of a super intelligence in "Understand," were succinct descriptions of huge questions. When you compare those to the stupid, 250 page harangues of living national treasures, relegating Chiang to sci-fi puts me into a fit of pique.

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Re:Ted Chiang returns with another awe-inducing sci-fi colle... by YeGoblynQueenne on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @07:43AM (#19848496)
Why "relegating"? Is this about that old chestnut of sci-fi not being good literature (so if something is good literature then it can't be sci-fi, by definition)?
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Re:Ted Chiang returns with another awe-inducing sci-fi colle... by motohagiography on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @08:14AM (#19848687)
If you are interested in publishing, it's still an issue, even if readers don't care.
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Re:Ted Chiang returns with another awe-inducing sci-fi colle... by jcantero on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @09:13AM (#19849009)
It depends on who your publisher and target audience is. See this recent article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19708789
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Re:Ted Chiang returns with another awe-inducing sci-fi colle... by YeGoblynQueenne on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @10:42AM (#19859243)
But publishing is not a problem for Chiang. He even publishes short stories, which should be the hardest to publish (I understand that publishers belive the larger the better).
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