Human Relation With Time

Human Relation With Time 

            Chiang’s story/stories in Exhalation examine time as humans experience it. The reason why readers are drawn to stories like Chiang’s is because of our fascination with time. Time, for the mortal human, is unexplainably hard to grasp. One of many reasons for this is our experiences are the only things that shape the way we see the world. As observers, we are never given an objective standpoint from which to view the world. We are bound by our own relationship with spacetime. The reader as well as our main character is so fascinated by this dynamic because we naturally want to control or grasp that which we do not understand (time, space, spacetime). 

            Our main character, Fuwaad (‏قواد ابن عباس) is told to accept time as it is but he continually pushes against this truth. Basharaat (‏بشرى) and the Muslim faith teach Fuwaad to understand time as a being greater than himself. Basharaat tells him, “The future and the past are the same[.] We cannot fully change either, but we can know both more fully” (Chiang, 41). This lesson speaks directly to the observer’s dilemma. We cannot experience time any differently then we do, just like we cannot change the past or future. However, we can understand the past and future more fully in the same way that we can understand our own position in space-time more fully. 

            This entire story is an exercise in understanding our position, Fuwaad’s position, and the entire cast of character’s positions “more fully”. Chiang builds his plot around a frame narrative, that has multiple levels that are yet to be expressed to the reader. The reader may assume they understand the level of the frame narrative only for it to be disrupted by the appearance of Raniya (رانيا) and the King of Cairo in the final pages of the story. The reader is forced to grapple with and obtain a fuller understanding of their own position through Chiang’s work.

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