2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Exhalation by Ted Chiang.

Pages: 352 pages

Length: 1 month (July)

Participants: Alison, SarahKat, Trisha, Saha

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Hi Ladies…I am going to pick up my library book today so I should start this by Friday! Looking forward to to Buddy Reading with You! 📚🎉

I have this on hold on ebook but if it's not available by the time I finish the physical I'm working on I'll go get it in that format.

Started! Read the first 2 stories.

To be honest, my focus has been really off recently because I have some stressful real-life stuff going on. Nothing horrific, but enough to make me stress 24/7. So I probably won't have a lot of super deep thoughts.

The Merchant and the Alchemist Gate: (view spoiler)[Focus or not, time travel and overlapping people always confuses me, so I did lose track of which people were from which timeline after the 3rd story. However, before that I really liked it. The stories of how each person handled seeing the future were really good. It really spoke to the type of human they were. (hide spoiler)]

Exhalation: (view spoiler)[This was so beautifully written! I don't know if it said, but are these beings just humans in the far future who have turned into completely non-organic organisms (is that an oxymoron?)? At first I thought they were just humans with fake lungs but they have gold foil for a brain too. Really cool. I want to re-read this one if I have time after finishing the rest of the book. I like the quote "All we are is a pattern of air flow." (hide spoiler)]

What's Expected of Us: (view spoiler)[ This was an interesting thought exercise. Do we have any say over our decisions? This could cause some serious existential dread. A somewhat common fear and conversation among people who think fate or God or whatever is completely in charge, or if we actually do have free will and choice. (hide spoiler)]

The Lifecycle of Software Objects: (view spoiler)[Another interesting debate. I liked the whole first bit of this where they are creating and raising the digients. It was pretty sad where they ended up, basically alone in a ghost world. It brings up good questions when they start talking about allowing the digients to be sexual beings. A lot of decent points. How can an AI who would be programmed to enjoy certain sexual interactions give true consent? And are the owners protective because of the risks? Or just because they don't want their babies to grow up like parents? I think it's a bit creepy, but maybe I'm part of the second group. (hide spoiler)]

Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny: (view spoiler)[ I liked that the stereotypes in this story were opposite of what they actually are. Women are too emotional to handle raising babies. Children shouldn't be raised by their parents. I liked the theme of the sins of the father being visited on the son (or however you want to phrase it). (hide spoiler)]

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling: (view spoiler)[There are a couple of Black Mirror episodes that have this same type of plot. I think the recording of your entire life would be awful honestly. We all know memory is fallible no matter how sure of yourself you are, but is that a good enough reason to have every second of your life available for looking back at? I already obsess about things I've done that are embarrassing; I don't need it in 4k. I don't think it gives the opportunity to grow through conflicts. The only way I could see this being used solely for good is witnesses in crimes.

I liked the duality of this futuristic story about memory and the past village story that is also sort of about memory. Back in the day they created the technology of writing in part to help individuals and cultures remember. That's just what Remem does in the future so where's the line?

It's not an original thought but I'm always intrigued by it. There's a quote in a story in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories "We are now a race of cyborgs. We long ago began to spread our minds into the electronic realm, and it is no longer possible to squeeze all of ourselves back into our brains." And also, the whole plot of another popular book that I won't say in case people haven't read it and don't want to know the end. (hide spoiler)]

The Great Silence: (view spoiler)[Poor ignored parrots! This was sort of sweet because it's from a parrot's point of view. But also sad and lonely. We are causing the birds to go extinct and the last sentence got me. "You be good. I love you." Also found the idea of intelligent species going extinct before being able to travel through outer space was lonely. "... the silence of outer space is the silence of a graveyard." (hide spoiler)]

@SarahKat...thinking of you and hope that all is well!!
I have finally gotten finished with house guests (family came to visit and my daughter and her husband who are moving to TX from PHX stopped over for a few days ;)

My thoughts on the following:
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (view spoiler)[ I really enjoyed this one...I love stories about time travel/travelling through gates! I also got a little confused as to who was who but thought that the character of the people showed through as they tried to influence their future/past selves! (hide spoiler)]

Exhalation (view spoiler)[ I loved this story! I think that these people are robots in the future...perhaps humankind has died out and the robots survived? Maybe humankind built the chromium wall to try to protect themselves but only the robots survived whatever cataclysm happened to make the wall be built in the first place? The fact that the person writing this story was able to dissect his own brain and discover that thoughts were made from the flow of air through the brain was fascinating! I like how he stated towards the end of the story: "I hope that you are motivated by a desire for knowledge (because clearly, the person writing was :), a yearning to see what can arise from a universe's exhalation." Good question, SarahKat...do we really have any say over our decisions? (hide spoiler)]

What's Expected of Us: (view spoiler)[ "Civilization now depends on self deception." "Pretend that you have Free Will. It is essential that you behave as if your decisions matter, even though you know they don't." Note to self: Don't play with a Predictor! :) (hide spoiler)]

Thanks Alison! Things are slightly less stressful now. Getting ready for a long road trip to see family at the end of this week. Looking forward to the visit but not the car ride. Nice that you got to see your family this week too!

Omphala: (view spoiler)[I don't have the book with me to make sure I spelled that right or remind myself of everything that happened in this. I figured I should write something before I get too far into the last story and completely forget. I did enjoy this one. I like that it is written in prayers. The idea of primordial trees and people and pretty much everything else was really interesting to me.

One thing I wasn't clear on. Was the paper the guy wrote that was supposedly "theoretical proof" that the Creationist approach in this story was wrong just because there were all different cultures/language and stuff? I might have lost focus around that time because toddler, but that's what it sounded like. Doesn't seem like strong enough proof. I know this isn't a strictly Biblical story but there is an explanation in there about why that came to pass.

Loved that the main character kept her faith throughout even when it seemed like she may not! (hide spoiler)]

Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom: (view spoiler)[Again this was a little dizzying (ironic) for my unfocused brain. I don't understand how the branches only occur when a prism is activated. But okay. I went with it. I did like this story though it could have been a little shorter. I loved the ending. Seems Nat does take the money from the grieving widower but uses it to show Dana that her guilt is unfounded and her friend Vinessa would have turned out like she did no matter what (mostly).

I don't know that I would talk to any of my other selves. I can think of a lot of different ways my life could have gone if I had made a different decision here or there. I guess I would be curious but I think I'm the type of person to dwell on it. I would feel jealous if another me had it better and I would feel guilty if another me had it worse. Better just to stay away. (hide spoiler)]

I won't be on much over the next week because of our trip but I am very curious what others' thoughts are!

@SarahKat...have fun with your vacation with your Family!!

I am making my way through this slowly...this book is good if I take it in little bits (the futuristic/space books are not really in my lane but my husband loves them ;)

My thoughts on:
The Lifecycle of Software Objects: (view spoiler)[ I ended up being unfocused in the middle of this story with all of the "changing of hands" and different corporations being introduced! The premise of the story I enjoyed, however, and I agree that the ending was sad with the digients being alone (mostly...Jax is very lucky to have Ana who sticks by him through the whole story)!

The immediate popularity of the digients and then the waning of interest in them reminds me of things like Furbys that were extremely popular when my kids were little...and now you don't hear of them at all!

Tricky points to think about do get brought up when you add the question as to whether the digients should become sexual beings. Do they really have a choice/are they really giving true consent? I thought it was interesting that Marco and Polo really wanted to become a corporation...was that because they felt they would have more control in their decisions? (hide spoiler)]

Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny: (view spoiler)[ I liked this one!! I can see why Edmund, the child in the institution raised by the Automatic Nanny for his first 2 years, would imprint on the Automatic Nanny and only respond to AI! I could see why Lionel Dacey, the son of the inventor, would want his child raised by AI...the nanny mimics the absent father he had and Lionel was raised without much emotional support! At least in the end of the story, Lionel saw that the Automatic Nanny had stunted his child's growth and ditched his father's invention! (hide spoiler)]

The Truth of Fact and Fiction: (view spoiler)[ It was an interesting way to put this story together...the interspersing of the missionary teaching the boy Jijingi the power of the written word and how to write himself so he and his society can remember things and then the futuristic Remem with its retinal cameras and digital recall!

I liked the observation that Jijingi had that the paper version of history was bland and boring while the oral history brought things to life! Even though something is written down, it may not be the history that people need to follow or be good for them....however, in some instances it may be ;)

I loved the argument about Remem and how it could affect marriages/solving of conflicts, etc! I certainly couldn't live with technology where you could recall past arguments/conversations etc and see into past conflicts! I think memory softens those conflicts and helps heal them...every little detail does not need to be recalled to remember! I agree with you, SarahKat, that the exception may be criminal cases! (hide spoiler)]

The Great Silence: (view spoiler)[ The first thing that came to mind when I started reading this story were the recent images from James Webb telescope...all those ancient galaxies! One of the first lines to this story brought the images to mind: "The universe is so vast that intelligent life must surely have arisen many times."

I googled the Fermi Paradox (I didn't know this was an actual theory) and this quote is very striking: "If life is so easy, someone would have come calling by now." In reading about the Fermi Paradox, my husband just quoted "It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy itself"...a very depressing thought for me at the moment with the horrible heat waves occurring in Europe and the wildfires we endured this spring in NM!!

I loved that this story was told from a parrot's point of view...it lightened the story up a little however it is sad because the parrots are dying out..."it is the silencing of our voice." "You be good. I love You." :( (hide spoiler)]

I'm sorry to bail out on you ladies this month, but my family has been down with Covid, including me, and things have been difficult. I'm hopefully picking this up next and will go through all your spoilers.