The Natural Flow of Time

 Chiang's The Merchant and the Alchemists Gate, similar to many of the preceding texts this semester, touches on the concept of time and its effects on an individual's entire being - simply put, the way in which one's past, present, and future can be dramatically altered in an instant. Chiang's piece presents the audience with a number of different interesting anecdotal stories and pieces of information, but the most crucial to the plot, in my opinion, is that of the Gate of Years. The Gate of Years, which was created by an alchemist named Bashaarat, presents the speaker Fuwaas ibn Abbas, and the audience, with a passageway he claims to be able to place an individual twenty years into the future. With this being said, this aforementioned Gate of Years supposedly allows an individual to meet and converse with their future self on how they got to their present moment. While some may have found this plot point to be inspiring, I found it to be rather problematic. For example, the text states, "The future is fixed then? As unchangeable as the past" (Chiang, 25). In saying this, I found this particular line to be rather controversial because I think it greatly contradicts the natural flow of time.

    To start, upon asking this question, the two being to engage in a discourse explaining that entering into The Gate of Years will not alter one's original fate, but rather better guide them down their eventual path. For example, Abbas states, "Suppose you learn that you are alive twenty years from now. [...] You could then fight battles without a care, because your survival is assured" (26). Upon reading this statement, I found myself thinking back to the question of if someone were to hand you a book about your entire life, would you skip to the end? And to that, I would say no. While, yes, I do believe that every person's future is fated, I also believe that this fate should unfold moment by moment. In saying this, I continually found myself upset with the concept of the Gate of Years because it goes against the entire concept of time - The Gate of Years, instead, makes time a secondary concept. Because, the fact of the matter is that the Gate of Years forces an individual to run towards or away from the future he or she was already fated. To put it lightly, every day we are able to see deeper into our intended destiny - with each passing moment we become enlightened on a new token of knowledge to take into our future. So, with that in mind, I find the overall concept of The Gate of Years to be rather selfish in nature simply due to its goal of unfolding the future before the future, itself, is ready to be revealed

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