The Great Silence (story)

”The Great Silence” is a science fiction novelette by American writer Ted Chiang, initially published in e-flux Journal in May 2015. The story also appeared in the 2016 anthology The Best American Short Stories and in the 2019 collection Exhalation: Stories.[2][3][4]

The Great Silence
by Ted Chiang
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Science fiction
Published ine-flux Journal[1]
Publication typeMagazine
Publication dateMay 2015

Plot summary

There is the grandiose Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. In 1974, a radio message from the humanity was sent into deep space, a cry into the void among the stars in the hope of contact with extraterrestrial intelligent beings. But what if they already live very close to the telescope?

"...imagines a parrot talking to the humans managing the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, for more than 50 years the largest single dish radio telescope on earth. There we are, creating technological marvels to find life in the stars, while we heedlessly drive wild parrots, among so many others species, toward extinction here at home.

'We’re a nonhuman species capable of communicating with them,” the parrot muses. “Aren’t we exactly what humans are looking for?' " [5]

See also

References
  1. "The Great Silence". e-flux.com. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  2. Fowler, Karen Joy (12 October 2016). "The Great Silence by Ted Chiang". Electric Literature. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  3. "TANK SELECTS: The Great Silence". Tank Magazine. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  4. Oates, Joyce Carol (May 6, 2019). "Science Fiction Doesn't Have to Be Dystopian". The New Yorker. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  5. Klein, Ezra (2021). "Our Aliens, Ourselves". New York Times.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.