“To me, science fiction is not about special effects or tight battles between the forces of good and evil, science fiction is about using speculative scenarios as a lens to examine the human condition.” Ted Chiang.
Has it ever happened to you that you hear an interview or read a quote, and it feels like looking in a mirror? Like a stranger reading an entry of “The encyclopedia of you”, and suddenly a new island in your mind is illuminated, and you get you a little bit better. (Yes, that was a reference to Pixar’s “Inside Out”. Nope, I’m not sorry).
Something similar happened to me when I watched Ted Chiang in a behind the scenes interview of “Arrival”. I heard him say that for him, “science fiction is about using speculative scenarios as a lens to examine the human condition”, and a piece of my mental Tetris was set. My Isle of Science-Fiction was on.
Has something like this happened to you?