Le forum d'ActuSF.com

Ted Chiang’s story suggests a specific effect with a specific language. (Spoiler alert!) The narrator, Louise, loses her daughter to an accident, which any mother would find hard to accept. She also gets the job of helping to communicate with space aliens who suddenly arrive at Earth, and she learns that the way they express themselves through language reflects their understanding of time and the physical universe. “They experienced all events at once, and perceived a purpose underlying them all … a simultaneous mode of consciousness,” the story says.