Stories of Your Life and Others

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. How does an author’s background influence their writing? Who is Ted Chiang, and how does he approach his craft as a writer? What can you anticipate about his collection of short stories?

Teaching Suggestion: Before approaching this prompt, consider starting the conversation by discussing famous authors and how their experiences, education, professions, and interests influenced their works. You might explore texts and authors already addressed in the class, or you might identify writers of different decades or writing styles, such as Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Maya Angelou, Ursula K. Le Guin, or Sherman Alexie. Providing students with a guided note sheet to gather their thoughts before engaging in discussion may be helpful. It may also be helpful to review the resource below, or a similar resource that covers Ted Chiang’s background, in advance.

• This short article from the Santa Fe Institute introduces Ted Chiang and discusses his background as well as his process as a writer.

2. Stories of Your Life and Others may be best described as speculative fiction. What is speculative fiction, and how does it embody subgenres like science fiction and fantasy? Consider the difficulties faced with categorizing texts by genre. What texts are you familiar with that defy a singular genre and include elements of many? How does a deeper understanding of the umbrella of speculative fiction help you anticipate aspects of Chiang’s story collection?

Teaching Suggestion: Consider having students participate in a think-pair-share, a collaborative learning strategy where students first reflect on a question independently and then share their ideas with a partner and/or the whole class. It may also be helpful to write a list of well-known speculative fiction, science fiction, or fantasy texts on the board that students might recognize; this could help activate past knowledge and encourage critical thinking.

• This short article describes the history of science fiction and explains how science fiction and fantasy fit under the broader genre of speculative fiction. It also includes a flow chart that defines each subgenre.
• This short article takes a look at the differences between science fiction and fantasy, and it addresses the ways in which they overlap.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the stories.

The questions below are all connected to Ted Chiang’s short story collection Stories of Your Life and Others. Choose at least one question and then free-write for 5-10 minutes:

• What are the limits of humankind?
• How might it feel to know the future but be unable to change it?
• How does language impact our lived experiences and vision of the world?
• What would you do if you had superhuman intelligence, strength, or empathy?
• What connects us most as humans? What drives us apart?
• What is the relationship between religion/spirituality and science?

Teaching Suggestion: Consider having students share their thoughts in small groups or aloud with the whole class. It could make for interesting conversation as students see similarities and differences between their own thoughts and those of their peers.