This is someone who is something of a god in one world, but so unknown here amongst general readership.'Ĭhiang seemed nonplussed when I asked him about Arrival's script via email, mostly reserving praise for Eric Heisserer, who adapted Story of Your Life for the silver screen: 'It was clear pretty early on that Eric's intention wasn't to make a conventional Hollywood science-fiction film… so mostly I was just interested to see what he would come up with.'Ĭhiang's path to the forefront of what Kim refers to as 'grounded science fiction' has certainly been winding. 'Maybe this is his moment, just like Philip Dick has every story of his made into a movie. 'One would hope the floodgates are about to open,' said Kirby Kim, Chiang's literary agent. 'Ted has gone under the radar here in America, and he didn't even know beforehand that he had a huge readership anywhere…' His recent piece, The Great Silence, written for e-flux Journal in a collaborative project with the artists Allora & Calzadilla, was anthologized in the recent volumes of both the Best American Sci-Fi Short Stories and Best American Short Stories.

Aside from Arrival, there are options out on three of his other stories ( Understand, Life Cycle of Software Objects, and Hell is the Absence of God). 'Ted has gone under the radar here in America, and he didn't even know beforehand that he had a huge readership anywhere, especially in Japan,' said Karen Joy Fowler, another sci-fi author who related this anecdote when I spoke with her earlier this month about Chiang's work.īut now Chiang is finally ready to break through into the mainstream.

But the masses that followed Chiang were indeed rare, especially since Chiang is still hardly known outside the sci-fi literary world. As Chiang toured the Pacifico Yokohoma Convention Center, dressed comfortably with his hair tied behind his head, he walked between the booths and various panels and soon started to attract a crowd, one that swarmed at the margins while collectively whispering in hushed tones, 'There's Ted Chiang!'Ĭonsidering his accolades-four Nebulas, four Hugos, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and four Locus awards over his 20-year-plus-long career-this reverential scene might not be surprising.

Arrival short story ted chiang