What if the story had played out differently?
11 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11:1-9
What if Yahweh had not been threatened by human striving? What if He had let us build a tower to heaven? What might He have taught us? Read Ted Chiang's Story of Babylon in Stories of Your Life and Others and find out. Clever and satisfying stuff.
If you like your science fiction evocative, Arrival will deliver...
There have been (or will be) perhaps a dozen good movies in 2016, and Last Days in the Desert was excellent, but Arrival may be the only great film I've seen this year.
This compelling story of first contact, based on the Nebula Award winning novella "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, runs with the likes of 2013's Upstream Color, 2014's Interstellar and 2015's Ex Machina.
A team is urgently assembled to make first contact with whoever or whatever has arrived in the alien craft now hovering over a remote valley in Montana, as are eleven others at different locations around the planet. On the American team is Amy Adams, a renowned linguist whose passion for communication is tempered by personal loss. Jeremy Renner plays an amiable astrophysicist who chooses to follow her lead. Forest Whitaker's performance as a dour Army officer was so rigidly subdued I didn't recognize him at first.
I can't say a word more without giving away too much. You deserve to experience this lushly beautiful, deeply thoughtful, and rigorously imaginative film the way director Denis Villeneuve intended, without preconception.
I'll be seeing it again, at least once. See it cold, then let's talk.
PS, The final theatrical trailer even gives to much away. The first trailer does not.
UPDATE 11/11/16: Saw it again today. Even better the second time. I'm ordering the anthology in which the source material was first published in 1998.
UPDATE 11/18/16: Chiang's "Story of Your Life" was innovative and well-written, but it turns out the screenplay by Eric Heisserer improves upon it in many significant ways.
UPDATE: 11/22/16: Watched it again last night. Third time is the charm. What a marvelously well-crafted film.
I suppose it's possible we're not getting the whole story...
No sooner was the celestial kingdom established but a third of the heavenly host rebelled and were cast down from heaven. Then God created a physical world and humankind. But no sooner than it took for Adam to name all the critters and hook up with the only girl in town and - BAM - they give in to temptations and find themselves cast out of paradise. Maybe God is a bad boss? So, if there's free will in heaven what's to keep another third of the angels, or the souls of humankind, from rebelling again? The Book of Job (arguably the oldest book in the bible) gives other clues. What's the big deal about wrestling with behemoth and leviathan? You spoke them both into existence with a word and You can unmake them with a wink. Maybe the various Abrahamics have been snookered. Maybe the Zoroastrians have the straight scoop. Maybe it really is nasty barroom brawl on earth at it is in heaven, winner take all...and no clear winner in sight.
Yeah, some days Unbelievable gets me going...
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