"Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang

Department of English

Stanley and Livingstone, dir. Henry King and Otto Brower (1939)

A supercut of the phrase being referenced in various performances

"Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?," QI: Quite Interesting
‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’ is one of the most famous quotes in history and was supposedly uttered by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley in 1871 upon finding the missing missionary David Livingstone. However, the quote is now believed to have been invented by Stanley or his biographer. Stanley’s diary pages referring to the encounter were torn out and Livingstone’s account of the meeting doesn’t mention the phrase.
Leslie Dunkling, "Quotation Vocatives," A Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address (London: Routledge, 2006)
Transferred vocatives are usually names. A person who expresses surprise at someone's deductive powers is told that it is 'Elementary, my dear Watson'. A meeting in certain circumstances inspires the use of 'Dr Livingstone, I presume'.
Andrew Delahunty and Sheila Dignen, "Stanley, Sir Henry Morton," A Dictionary of Reference and Allusion, 3^rd ed. (Oxford: OUP, 2012): 341
The Welsh explorer and journalist who, sent by the New York Herald, 'found' Dr Livingstone at Ujiji in 1871, and, according to the popular account, greeted him with the words 'Doctor Livingstone, I presume?'.
➢ Someone who eventually finds another after much searching
Eric Partridge, "Doctor Livingstone, I presume," A Dictionary of Catch Phrases British and American, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, ed. Paul Beale (London: Routledge, 2003): 101
is both a very famous quotation and a remarkably persistent catch phrase; the words were spoken in 1871 by Henry Morton, later Sir Henry, Stanley (1841–1904), when he, a journalist, at last came up with David Livingstone (1813–73) in Central Africa. Livingstone, physician, missionary, explorer, was thought to be lost
Martin Dugard, "Stanley Meets Livingstone," Smithsonian (2003)
[...]
What Stanley saw was a pale white man wearing a faded blue cap and patched clothing. The man’s hair was white, he had few teeth, and his beard was bushy. He walked, Stanley wrote, “with a firm and heavy tread.”

Stanley stepped up crisply to the old man, removed his helmet and extended his hand. According to Stanley’s journal, it was November 10, 1871. With formal intonation, representing America but trying to affect British gravity, Stanley spoke, according to later accounts, the most dignified words that came to mind: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

“Yes,” Livingstone answered simply.

“I thank God, doctor,” Stanley said, appalled at how fragile Livingstone looked, “I have been permitted to see you.”

“I feel thankful,” Livingstone said with typical understatement, “I am here to welcome you.”

Edwin G. Boring, "An Ambiguous Figure," The American Journal of Psychology 42.3 (1930): 444.

Edwin G. Boring, "A New Ambiguous Figure," The American Journal of Psychology 42.3 (1930): 444–45.
The picture presented herewith is not strictly new. It was drawn by the well-known cartoonist, W. E. Hill, and reproduced in the issue of Puck for the week ending November 6, 1915. It is, however, relatively unknown to psy- [end of page 444] chologists, and seems to me to be the best of the puzzle-pictures in the sense that neither figure is favored over the other. [...] The present cut is from a pen-and-ink copy of Hill's published half-tone. I am indebted to Mrs. W. H. Hunt for the copy, which is, if anything, a little better for the psychologist's use than the original.
This picture was originally published under the title "My Wife and My Mother-in-law." It shows in one figure the left profile of a young woman, three quarters from behind. The other figure is an old woman, three-quarters from in front. The ear of the 'wife' is the left eye of the 'mother-in-law'; the left eye-lash of the former is the right eye-lash of the latter; the jaw of the former is the nose of the latter; the neck-ribbon of the former, the mouth of the latter.

—Ted Chiang, "Understand," 1991, Stories of Your Life and Others (London: Picador, 2015): 37–84.

Comprehension Check

What does the expression to ask the question or to pop the question usually mean? What is the question that "your father is about to ask me" (111)?
Why will the narrator and her child "never get that chance" of sharing the story of "the night you're conceived" (111)?
What does the phone call from "Mountain Rescue" suggest about how and where the daughter died (115)?
When Louise Banks describes her moose call as "Sends them running," who or what does "them" refer to (120)?
What does the daughter's declaration "'I get the feeling it’s going to be a scorcher. Good thing you’re dressed for it, Mom'" reveal about Louise Banks' outfit that date night (124)?

Study Questions

Why are the "alien devices" called "looking glasses" (116)?
How does Chiang approximate Heptapod B-like simultaneity in telling the story with English which is a sequential language?
How does the description of the heptapods' physical radial symmetry (117–8) relate to the later descriptions of their spoken and written language (ex. 127–29, 132, 137, 145–47)?
In the Arrival San Diego premiere hosted by the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination Q and A session with Ted Chiang, he mentions several times the "emotional core" of the story that he hoped would survive adaptation into film (ex. at 20:30–21:20 min.). What do you think this emotional core of the story is?

Ticha Wanichtamrong

2202235 Reading and Analysis in the Study of English Literature

Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri

April 23, 2016

Reading Response 3

Title

Text.

Media		"Speculative Visions with Ted Chiang," Asian American Writers' Workshop (2016; 1 hr. 21:44 min.; Chiang reads new work; Q and A begins at 25:30)
		"Arrival Premiere with Writer Ted Chiang," Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination (2016; 1 hr. 1:22 min.)
		"Arrival Trailer," Paramount Pictures (2016; 2:25 min.)

Ted Chiang

"Summary Bibliography: Ted Chiang," Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Interviews

Joshua Rothman, "Ted Chiang's Soulful Science Fiction," The New Yorker (2017)
Meghan McCarron, "The Legendary Ted Chiang on Seeing His Stories Adapted and the Ever-Expanding Popularity of SF," Electric Literature (2016)
Taylor Clark, "The Perfectionist," The California Sunday Magazine (2015)
Avi Solomon, "Ted Chiang on Writing," Boing Boing (2010)
Lou Anders, "A Conversation with Ted Chiang," SF Site (2002)
Jeremy Smith, "The Absence of God: An Interview with Ted Chiang," Infinity Plus (2002)