I watched Arrival (2016), there was a lot more to it than I was expecting
I watched Arrival (2016), there was a lot more to it than I was expecting
I was expecting a generic alien invasion movie, and I was pleasantly surprised
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Loved the movie! Such a great concept and so elegantly made. But the tagged on love story kind of took me out of it. Could almost hear the producers pushing that love story for wider audience appeal.
It happens in the short story too.
The producers got to the book too!?
No okay did not know that. So maybe my problem is with the general need to put love stories into stories. Or maybe it was written better in the book? Might have to read the book now
I'm not sure how to spoiler tag so I'll be vague, but I think it was necessary to have her opt into that romance even though she knew there was a tragic ending to it.
Oh and the short story is very good, as is Ted Chiang's entire collection. I would definitely recommend reading them to any scifi fan.
The original short story is called Story of your life, as from the point of view of Banks narrating it to her daughter.
No love story, no daughter, no Story of your life.
I suppose you could still have a story about aliens, and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and bootstrap paradoxes, but you wouldn't have this story, and probably wouldn't have the same emotional impact.
It'd be like taking the war out of Slaughterhouse-Five, if we're staying with the aliens and alien-related psychic time travel theme. Or the air out of a balloon.