Ted Chiang, inspiration
A look back at the work and inspirations of Ted Chiang
As the Christmas holidays are fast approaching, the Method team, like every year, has put on their red and white costume to drop you a present under the tree before the hour. This year, we are very proud to receive the winner of four Hugo prizes, four Nebula prizes and four Locus prizes, all for only 2 collections published. Arguably one of the most exciting science fiction short stories of our time, one of his texts has already been adapted for cinema by Denis Villeneuve, in the film “Premier Contact”. His latest collection, Expiration, confirms his immense talent, which borrows as much from Greg Egan as from Borges. Ted Chiang is our special guest.
Ted Chiang, exhale ... inspiration ... This is our party program for the hour ahead, welcome to The Scientific Method.
His first collection of short stories, The Tower of Babylon, questioned pell-mell the consistency of algebra and imagined that mathematics was wrong, brought together a linguist and aliens whose language allows us to remember the future, imagined a society steampunk where the Jewish Kabbalah invents words to animate the material, even a world where everything that is written in the Old Testament is true.
In his new collection, Expiration from Denoël editions, Ted Chiang continues in the line of powerful, rich, allegorical, philosophical science fiction and I go ... and we are delighted to receive it today.
Documentary bases
Find the thread of this program on the Twitter thread of The Scientific Method.
The prize for imagination in the service of society for Ted Chiang (ActuSF, 2020)
Ted Chiang, the literary genius who struggles to write (L'Obs, 2020)
Beyond this technology, humans remain valid (Liberation, 2020)
Exhalation, a special edition for Ted Chiang's collection (ActuSF, 2020)
SF author Ted Chiang on our relationship with technology, capitalism and the threat of extinction (GQ, 2020)
Musical references
The opening credits: "Music to watch space girls by" by Leonard Nimoy
End credits: "Says" by Nils Frahm
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