3.5, In Conversation with Ted Chiang: "The Great Silence"

Most people may know about Ted from “The Story of Your Life” which was filmed as Arrival, but his reputation with readers and writers as a top tier craftsman of the short form was well established before then. We had the pleasure of asking Ted some questions about a short (very short!) piece of his from 2015, part of an art installation and as a result quite different from his usual style though certainly sharing the same DNA.

 

Coincidentally, it continues the Anthropocene theme from our last set of podcasts. It is also an excellent example of art in conversation with art — text and visual art co-created and responding to each other to produce a larger work.

 

Advance warning: we don’t summarise the story in this podcast. You can read it, along with a lovely introduction by Karen Joy Fowler, at this link:

 

https://electricliterature.com/the-great-silence-by-ted-chiang-e72e05eb8a0e