The sci-fi story is really fascinating for both its content and its form. The whole story is consisted of two parallel stories: the process of translating the alien’s language, and the past (or the future?) of the entire life of her daughter. The author gave a profound analysis on topics including linguistic relativity, free will, teleology, and ontology of beings. The author tended to presume a completely different language (the Heptapod A and B) to imagine a new way of thinking about the world. Rather than a linear mindset, the aliens followed an overlying and superimposed mindset that could create a script for communications. Through the way the author interacted with the aliens, the author tried to show us how deep down can the form of language can affect the content of it. The author used a formal transition in the storytelling to put this idea to an extreme: the juxtaposition of her daughter’s life and her own life, representing how the mindset of the main character in the story has changed by the different lingual systems. Generally speaking, the author managed to deliver his philosophical thoughts by uniting the form and the content while composing a really intriguing story.
- How do aliens in the story language and communication style different from the human language (oral, pictographic, phonetic, etc.)
The aliens’ communication style is non-linear and is written by layering up different meanings to a similar structure. The way aliens express themselves is different from human communication mainly due to the difference in thinking and words. They do not have the concepts such as ending. In their oral language, they often integrate onomatopoeia, which is hard for humans to understand.
- How does the physical structure of our body inform the way we communicate? How about the aliens?
The human body is symmetric and has a clear distinguishment of forward and backward, making our belief in linear communication that has a start and an end. The Heptapod’s bodies are radial symmetry, indicating that they have no concept of direction, such as forward and backward. Therefore, they have no concept of start and end.
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