Before our next class, please do these things to reflect on today’s reading and our in-class discussion.
- Using a word processor, such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice, write at least 250 words summarizing your reading of Ted Chiang’s “The Truth of Fact, and the Truth of Feeling” and our discussion of the story in class. 250 words is about 1 page, double-spaced. You may write more than this, but at least 250 words are needed to receive credit on the assignment.
- Save your file someplace safe for your own records.
- Copy what you have written.
- Go to OpenLab.citytech.cuny.edu, login, and navigate to our class blog.
- Click on the title of this blog post on OpenLab and scroll down to the comment entry box at the end of the page.
- Paste your work into the comment box and click “Post Comment.”
- Wait a moment to verify that your comment is posted. If not, try again.
- If you encounter technical difficulties or you cannot create an OpenLab account yet, email your work by copy-and-pasting your writing into an email with a brief message explaining what’s going on to Professor Ellis (jellis at citytech.cuny.edu). This shows me that you have completed the work, and you can post your work on OpenLab later (but don’t forget to do this when you are able to do so).
Ted Chiang âThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feelingâ is about how his daughter being mad and not understanding of why her mother has left. Their relationship isnât really well because they donât really communicate as much and that they start to lose human touch to each other as a family. They rely on technology to help them with their memories which forces them not being able to realized that they all have their own issues. They donât really understand that each person in this story has their own memories and that itâs not being remembered by the person but they are counting on the technology to help them. Itâs not the same memory as a person remembering every little detail. When human use their mind to help them recall everything that has happen to them in life they are able to speak about them and help others like readers to visualize every little moment so they can use all other their 5 senses. But when using technology readers arenât able to use all 5 senses but they can use some. This story might be about how people use technology and start to forget that they donât always have to use technology to help them keep all their memories in store because you yourself is the person that always remember these moments because they are part of your life. When reading this story, I can kind of relate because I count on my devices to help me remember most of my things and I forget that my writing everything down on a piece of paper can also help with everything Iâve done and its more permanent.
After reviewing Ted Chiangâs âThe Truth Of Fact, The Truth of Feelingâ, it gives an eye opening reality of the world we live in. One of the biggest themes that was displayed is Nicoleâs father realizing facing the truth with others, and seeing the truth within himself which was a (self to self conflict.) The story uses the form of technology called âRememâ. This advanced technology could recreate scenes that would show what was referred to as âlifelogsâ of an event that took place and it would replay this entire scenario from beginning to end. Nicoleâs father was lost and was trying to figure out if he was at fault for his wife wanting to leave and his daughter blaming him for everything that has happened. The use of this technology had Nicoleâs father in shock as he searched for answers as to why his daughter felt so distant from him and saw all the terrible things he stated to her in the past made him realize after these years he was the blame, not her. There is another story introduced where a European gentleman named Moseby teaches Jijjingi (who is from the Tiv culture) how to write. These two characters had a very interesting connection as they learned from each other in understanding how they both had generations of oral culture from the Tiv culture, and a written culture from the Europeans. The use of orality played a pivotal role in understanding and producing spoken language because this is how people generally learn to communicate with each other. Another important concept was the âRememâ software had its advantages and disadvantages which had an impact on relationships. The software made it questionable as to how can digital technology take control of our own memories of how we view something. We begin to rely on outside sources rather than our own discretion and judgment because sometimes we may not want to accept the truth of certain situations. This is the world we live in now where we rely on technology to tell us the time, the weather, the news, a schedule of our entire day relies on technology. Quite frankly since technology advancements are happening every day, this is part of the evolution that continues to change the way we think and view our life.
Ted Chiangâs âThe Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feelingâ is a story that contrasts the reality of adding more technology to our everyday lives. Nowadays, reading and writing are basic tools of communication we use everyday, and any further improvement upon those methods are considered innovations. We take for granted the discovery itself of reading and writing years ago, once civilization became more complex. In the story, two stories are interwoven in order to show the effect of oral, digital and literate culture on different sets of people.
In the âmodernâ story, a journalist and his daughter Nicole discuss the reasons why the mother isnât in the picture, and while the journalist doesnât want to blame himself, a new technology within the story called Remem helped him clarify to himself that it was his fault. Something that he believed throughout the whole ordeal turned out to be false, since he was able to reflect with 100% accuracy the situation that actually occurred. This makes us think⌠Are newer, more modern methods of storing information better for us? There canât possibly negatives to this, this is way better than just reading, writing and speaking.
The second story shows us the value of returning to basics when it comes to out literate culture. A man by the name of Moseby comes into a village occupied by the Shangev clan, a descendent of the Tiv people. Their only form of communication was spoken word. Speaking to each other was the only form of communication. When Moseby tried to show Jijinji the story of Adam and Eve on a piece of paper, Jijinji was surprised, as he didnât know a paper can tell a story. Moseby taught him how writing can be used to communicate, and is a tangible form of communication, one that can be stored and passed along.
Both of these stories teach us how important two forms of communication are, both Literate and Digital. But outside of both stories, we can form a discussion of how digital culture itself can affect a whole society in the way we think. Do we now have to depend of digital media instead of less modern forms of literary media to remember things? Is having an EXACT memory of things better than having it stored in our brain, and feeling a certain way about those memories? Time will tell, but Ted Chiangâs story helps us reflect on the possibility of a different oral, literate and digital culture in our future.
Ted Chiang âThe Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feelingâ is about discoveries and memories. The different characters in the stories were able to discover many different stuff about themselves, about their life and the people in their life. In the story of Nicole and his father (the author), with the help of a technology call Remen he discovered that, as a father he messed up in so many way while raising his daughter. He failed to put her first. He was so busy playing the victim and focusing on his own feelings that he didnât even realize his daughter was suffering after his wife left them both. Because of that they never really had a father daughter connection. Closer to the end of the story he found out that the reason why his relationship with his daughter got better was because she was in therapy and he had no clue about it whatsoever. One the benefit of Remen was helping people discovered their mistakes, even when they didnât think they made any. In the other part of the story Moseby who was kind of a mentor to Jijingi help him discovered words and thought him a lot more. The meaning, purpose and structure of words. Later on, Jijingiâs new understanding of words led him to discover negotiation between his people from Tivland. This part of the story focus more on the oral and literate version of how we can make, keep, and remember our memories, while the story of Nicole and his father focus more on the digital way we can do the same thing with the help of technology, which has both pros and cons.
Ted Chiangâs âThe Truth Of Fact, The Truth of Feelingâ offers two interesting perspectives into linguistic transitions. The main message I took from the stories is that too much of one thing is not good; âEverything in moderationâ. Chiangâs stories both show a transition in language technology in two unrelated instances; one where literacy was phased out by digital technologies and another where oral traditions were replaced with writing and literacy. In my opinion the story in its entirety serves as an informative but also cautionary tale. The first story shows how much digital technology can change the playing field making one rely less on natural memory and more on the digital technology used. Digitized technology makes memorizing as much content as possible unnecessary and takes away from competencies such as writing and spelling. This reliance is only as good as the technology or software aiding the person. On the other hand, the second part shows a similar situation instead with much different technologies. Learning to read and write is great and essential in the modern world. Learning to write and read from scratch can have a huge impact on the person(s) learning abilities. The second part of the story where Jijjingi becomes literate shows how different and similar orality is from literacy. Although orality and literacy are different they can go hand in hand with each other. In the context of Chiangâs story orality played a big role in becoming literate for Jijjingi. Both stories show the relevance, difference and importance of transitioning from one linguistic system to another and the repercussions they can have. Chiangâs anthologies showcase this message through a rage of perspectives with different technologies and a common message.
After reading Ted Chiang’s â The Truth of Fact , The Truth of Feelingâ is about a journalist who doesn’t want to blame himself for the reason his wife left and a daughter who is upset that her mother left. But it also really opens your eyes to how technology affects us today. The article is basically showing us that the technology used â Remenâ helps the father find out why his daughter is so distant from him since the mother left. It also helps him with his inner self as well, that it’s not his fault that the mother left them. They learn that they are relationship isn’t that good because it lacks communication within them. But thatâs because they didn’t talk about why the mother left and the daughter never had an understanding as to why she left. Instead of speaking to one another , they just used technology to reminisce. Itâs common that we use technology to help with memories because everything on the internet is permanently there all the time , no way to get rid of it. But our brain and memories in our head is what really holds the most memories not matter what they are. They can be good memories or bad but they are all still in our head. This article is trying to show us how reality we use technology for everything that it doesn’t even need to be used for. Also how it can mess up certain thing like in this situation family , even if it’s not intentional.
In the article âThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feelingâ the author Ted Chiang starts off by
giving his personal story on his daughter and how he has had to struggle in order to find a way to
help her expand her knowledge without using technology. As the story continues to unfold,
Chiang starts to speak about this new application called âRememâ. This application was used in
order to record and remember certain situations that had happened once before. But just before
this, Chiang, introduced a young missionary named Mosbey to a young man named Jijingi.
Mosbey explained to Jijingiâs clan about these stories he had written down on a paper which was
perceived to be the bible. Now, how do these stories correlate to one another? Throughout these
different stories, they tied in to give a single connection. In the society that we live in today, we
are constantly on social media, or using a source of technology in order to satisfy our needs. We
forget about daily interactions with others face-to-face. Even on the trains, people use e-books or
tablets to read and no longer turn to the wonders of reading a book. Therefore, the author Ted
Chiang throughout the article made a clear motion of what society not only will look like but is
turning into, and how the future will be captivated by modern technology.
After reflecting on the reading, Ted Chiangâs âThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feelingâ, I gained and overwhelming feeling of understanding in some aspect for respecting ones language. Even though it could be said that language is many or even that language is one I believe that language is more personal than anything. I was very intrigued by the intertwined story of the Tiv people and the outcome of discovering a new communication in efforts of a benefit only to be shunned by your new understandings in favor of tradition. A sad example of the tradition of comfortability shows today when educated minorities talk to someone stuck in their environmental based personality and the concur by asking them âwhy are you talking like your whiteâ. People tend to shun what the donât fully understand or things they perceive as outside of their cultural being. As for the story with Nicole and her father and the pro and cons remen played on their relationship in opinion I believe factual realization is key. Some lean more onto the truth hurts but a âduck is a duck is a duckâ an in my opinion we should live juss as much as our truth in experience as we do in words and actions. Because truth regulates behavior more militantly than assumptions and misguided accusations. Imagine her father never seem his faults , without her acknowledgment he would have live a life of lies unbeknownst all from a misguided memory made truth . I liked the thoughts and ideas I derived from the story and they were both very interesting reads .
After reflecting on the reading, Ted Chiangâs âThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feelingâ, I gained and overwhelming feeling of understanding in some aspect for respecting ones language. Even though it could be said that language is many or even that language is one I believe that language is more personal than anything. I was very intrigued by the intertwined story of the Tiv people and the outcome of discovering a new communication in efforts of a benefit only to be shunned by your new understandings in favor of tradition. A sad example of the tradition of comfortability shows today when educated minorities talk to someone stuck in their environmental based personality and the concur by asking them âwhy are you talking like your whiteâ. People tend to shun what the donât fully understand or things they perceive as outside of their cultural being. As for the story with Nicole and her father and the pro and cons remen played on their relationship in opinion I believe factual realization is key. Some lean more onto the truth hurts but a âduck is a duck is a duckâ an in my opinion we should live juss as much as our truth in experience as we do in words and actions. Because truth regulates behavior more militantly than assumptions and misguided accusations. Imagine her father never seem his faults , without her acknowledgment he would have live a life of lies unbeknownst all from a misguided memory made truth . I liked the thoughts and ideas I derived from the story and they were both very interesting reads .
After reflecting on the reading, Ted Chiangâs âThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feelingâ, I gained and overwhelming feeling of understanding in some aspect for respecting ones language. Even though it could be said that language is many or even that language is one I believe that language is more personal than anything. I was very intrigued by the intertwined story of the Tiv people and the outcome of discovering a new communication in efforts of a benefit only to be shunned by your new understandings in favor of tradition. A sad example of the tradition of comfortability shows today when educated minorities talk to someone stuck in their environmental based personality and the concur by asking them âwhy are you talking like your whiteâ. People tend to shun what the donât fully understand or things they perceive as outside of their cultural being. As for the story with Nicole and her father and the pro and cons remen played on their relationship in opinion I believe factual realization is key. Some lean more onto the truth hurts but a âduck is a duck is a duckâ an in my opinion we should live juss as much as our truth in experience as we do in words and actions. Because truth regulates behavior more militantly than assumptions and misguided accusations. Imagine her father never seem his faults , without her acknowledgment he would have live a life of lies unbeknownst all from a misguided memory made truth . I liked the thoughts and ideas I derived from the story and they were both very interesting reads .
After reflecting on the reading, Ted Chiangâs âThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feelingâ, I gained and overwhelming feeling of understanding in some aspect for respecting ones language. Even though it could be said that language is many or even that language is one I believe that language is more personal than anything. I was very intrigued by the intertwined story of the Tiv people and the outcome of discovering a new communication in efforts of a benefit only to be shunned by your new understandings in favor of tradition. A sad example of the tradition of comfortability shows today when educated minorities talk to someone stuck in their environmental based personality and the concur by asking them âwhy are you talking like your whiteâ. People tend to shun what the donât fully understand or things they perceive as outside of their cultural being. As for the story with Nicole and her father and the pro and cons remen played on their relationship in opinion I believe factual realization is key. Some lean more onto the truth hurts but a âduck is a duck is a duckâ an in my opinion we should live juss as much as our truth in experience as we do in words and actions. Because truth regulates behavior more militantly than assumptions and misguided accusations. Imagine her father never seem his faults , without her acknowledgment he would have live a life of lies unbeknownst all from a misguided memory made truth . I liked the thoughts and ideas I derived from the story and they were both very interesting reads .
The debate is about speech recognition and synthesis versus traditional literacy. The father in the story wanted for his daughter to have the power of writing which is understandable. However, when the technology of Remen is invented the daughter doesnât find writing a tool anymore. This stresses the father and traumatizes his experience with technology. In Tiv on the other hand there is little evidence of the Europeans story of Adam and Eve being the first man and woman on earth. Yet because the story is written so well it is believed by others. Human experience is meant to be flawed. The best way to get up is when your down. Linguists say instead of seeing language as the output of a set of innate cognitive universals that are specialized for language , cognitive linguists see language as a reflection of embodied cognition, which serves to constrain what it is possible to experience. And this what it is possible to express in language. There are many interesting ideas to take away from âthe truth of fact, the truth of feelingâ by Ted Chiang. A good argument on both side of the debate. The culture is what set the two stories apart yet experiences and how they were formed is what brought them together. For me expression is what is important.
Ted Chiangâs âThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feelingâ
This novella, by Ted Chiang, interweaves two stories to compell the reader to consider âThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling.â Chiang uses contrasting settings of a Tiv culture transitioning from oral to a written literacy, and a near future culture transitioning from written to digital literacy. These tales relate principles and values, derived from our perception of truth, to our use of communication and language.
The main character from the former is Jijingi, who is taught to read and write from a missionary that comes to his village. Jijingi navigates through the rules of writing and learns how written literacy can improve oneâs ability to articulate and share exact details. This comes from the missionaryâs lessons as, âverba volant, scripta manentâ or âspoken words fly away, but written words remain.â While grappling with this new skill Jijingi becomes a tribal scribe for the tribal meetings. He makes the distinction between two understandings of what the missionary refers to as truth. For the Tiv, âthere is whatâs right, mimi, and whatâs precise, vough.â Conflict comes to Jijingi when his tribe is faced with a decision of which neighboring tribe is most closely related to their own. In an attempt to settle the conflict Jijingi uses written literacy and âvoughâ truth, but his elder corrects him by asking, âHave you studied paper so much that youâve forgotten what it is to be Tiv?â Jijingi concludes that his elder knows best, and agrees to side with âmimiâ truth.
In comparison, the main character of the latter is a nameless father of daughter Nicole, who comes from the generation just before a new technology called Remem revolutionizes communication. Remem is used to record, log, and recall âat will- every experience an individual has applied it to. Nicoleâs father writes of his concern with this shift effecting Nicoleâs psychology. He argues that stressful events from the past, are easier to reconcile, because memories fade. Put another way, forgive and forget. However, the Remem technology complicates this natural process by providing us with permanent, vivid access to those memories through searchable video recordings.
Chiang focuses on a memory of his own that âspurred him to be a better father.â As he uncovers more of the truth, using Remem, he is shocked at his behavior. His fallible memory positioned him as the victim, in truth he was the offender. This revelation improved his relationship with Nicole, and gave him a more accurate understanding of his own reality.
Both characters improve their understanding of truth through their experiences with literacy and communication. Furthermore, the contrast of the two stories offers insight into the spectrum of what truth means to individuals and cultures at different phases in literacy. Jijingi increased his awareness of written literacy and what was precisely true, while understanding that his culture sided with what was morally right. Nicoleâs father increased his understanding of digital literacy and what was precise in reality, as opposed to how he remembered things to be true.
This speaks to our own understanding of human behavior and communication. The literacy we practice not only shapes the way we interact with others, but the way we think we interact with others. Becoming a more literate individual can bring our behavior more closely alligned with true reality.
Ted Chiangâs â The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feelingâ is a combination between the benefits beyond technology as well as the effects of it. The narrator introduces the new software called âRememâ which relates or similar to what we use recentlyâwith a name called âCamerasâ. They have the same intentions because they both allow us to go back to them and see events as it is happening in the moment. This could be beneficial to us because it would help us go back via times to see different events that happened to us in the past. In the other hand, this is effectively harmful to our memory because we no longer live in the moment and everything we do is jotted down or taken by these technologies we use, such as âCameras, phones or laptopsâ. And the reason why I included jotting down is because âwritingâ is also a form of technology; because it is created by us as well. Which was the main idea behind this fiction storyâ which is divided into two perspectives:
1- The story about the journalist and his daughter and how helpful it was for him to travel from time to time; since it helped him to go back and realize why his daughter kept a distance from him and blamed him for the loss of her mother.
2- The oral-Asian people making first contact with European. As discussed in the class âoralâ means people who canât write. The story indicates âThis art of the Europeans must be similar: those who were skilled in interpreting the marks could hear a story even if they hadnât been there when it was told.â In order to demonstrate the beauty and art of writing and how it allows us to remember things that occurred in the past or even happened to us.
Overall, This story explored our becoming with digitally by including the transaction from an oral to a literature culture. And from a personal perspective, the device âRememâ is more likely to be harmful than beneficial because as I studied in my psychology class last semester that the less use of the memory, effects it to remember things and we no longer use our memories like older generations didâ where they had to remember dates, events as well as phone numbers and directions.
Ted Chiang
First I would like to talk about the correlation and clarity I received from this reading. The statement âHistory repeats itself is coming through to me as I proceeded on in this reading. Chiang has several different examples of how present day technologies has employed the same topics and concerns from its early mention, then ties back into his own real life examples on it affected his own life. His examples of digital, oral and literate culture are vividly clear in his stories.
With one example Chiang talks about the Tiv People, he shows all the steps in the process of moving through the eras with technology and language, incorporating its negative and positive impacts. From oral to literate and finally digital He uses a historian guideline to show how this happens with the Tiv People and the disrespect that folllowed. First the Tiv people had narrators that told stories to the villager: oral stage. After the Europeans came to their tribes these stories were recorded on paper for future use: literate stage. Chiang compared personal disappointment in this shift with his experience with his daughter he feels as if typing had taking away the precious skill of writing and learning to spell. He now feels the blame for allowing the shift to make him so hard on his daughter.
Just as technology today has its pros and con, the same sings true for our ancestors that experienced the side effects of the literate stage. While having a record of things whether written or digital can resolve issues, it can be problematic also. As seen in the story about âREMEMâ. In this story Chiang compares how moving from the literate to digital stage has just those ambiguous traits. He believed if technology is used for it intended purpose and people are versed on the abilities of the technology it can be a useful tool. However the habits and traits of people are hard to change.
Ted Chiang âThe Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feelingâ is about the impact of advanced technology in society, and how it leads to miscommunication, lack of communication, and replacing our human computer (the brain) with artificial intellect. An important idea that I was able to agree on was the idea of a society that is becoming so dependent on technology and its advancements that people forget how to properly spell and write sentences without the help of technology automatically correcting it. As mentioned in one of the stories, the journalist/father and his teenage daughter lacked to converse and connect with him properly. I believe that her mother leaving caused her to become antisocial and more focused on technology which impacted her relationship with her father. Him being old fashioned and appreciating reading and writing the âold school wayâ prevented him from understanding his teenage daughter (who was part of a more advanced generation) and prevented him from properly bonding with her. In this story that father wanted the daughter to converse and communicate the old fashioned way in order to preserve intelligence and keep the brain woking. However the second story was about a man named Moseby who tried to introduce modern technology to the Shangev clan (the Tiv people). The Shangev clan used spoken words as a their mode of communication. Moseby introduced another method besides speaking by presenting the story of Adam and Eve to Jijinji using a piece of paper. Jijinji was intrigued to discover other methods besides speaking to tell a story and that it was written and preserved. Moseby taught him the value of writing and how it can be used as a source of communicate that can be preserved, passed down, and used to gather and spread ideas and thoughts. Both of these stories explained both Literate and Digital forms of technology; one mostly focusing on the con while the other focused on the pro.
Ted Chiangs: The Truth of fact, the truth of feelingâ makes us actually realize the world that we live in today. Ted Chiang has two narratives that he goes on to talk about. The first narrative being told by a much older man. An older journalist that explains to us his issues and problems with this new technology that has been created called âRememâ. This type of advanced tech can recreate a whole scene that has also already occurred. Remem is mainly created to allow people to access their âlifelogsâ. The journalist does not want to blame himself for his daughter (Nicole) mom not being in the picture. Therefore, by the journalist uses Remem to review his lifelog so that he can see where exactly he has messed up. He then only tends to realize that he is at fault for what he has done. The second narrative mostly explains the correlation as differences between orality and literacy. It can explain to one how technology might not define who you are. Everyoneâs mind is fully capable of remembering specific scenarios. We donât need technology to go back in time to see where we messed up. I mean theoretically it is a good invention and can be effective in its own way. But technology doesnât have to define who we are. We are just so prone to having technology around us in every way imaginable. We start to depend on technology. With all the stories and articles that we are reading for class we are able to have our own comparison to whatâs going on, based on our personal experience. Which I find is something everyone should do ,just so that we can get a better idea of what is happening around us as we speak .
Ted Chiang has listed three cultures that have changed and developed into our language; the first is the oral culture where people communicate through speaking to each other and that is how people get information or even how the pass stories to each other. We then swifts to literate culture where people write things down and that is more consistent since it is written and so the words on the paper is the same as when it is read in 100 years later if kept right. The last culture that Ted has mentioned is the swift from literate to the digital culture where the stories are told in an individual’s perceptions. When people shifted to the culture to culture people were still using the previous cultures cores, but it is just the difference of usage and added to our quality of life by improving our way of communicating with each other as these cultures are being introduced to us. For example, from the swift of the oral to the literate people were still speaking to each other but the change was that we can now keep records of things we have written down and it can be read whenever people want. However, as the cultures swifts, Ted states that there are things that we lose as the swifts happens. For example, when one speaks to others you will hear the tone while in literate you can read the words, but very rarely can you tell exactly how the writer’s tone means and can be interpreted in many other ways.
Ted Chiang’s Science fictional short essay â, The truth of fact, the truth of feelingâ highlights how the invention of new technology creates a more digital literate culture. Chiang illustrates his points by interweaving a story about the Liv people of West Africa who has transitioned from an oral to literate culture and the similarity of our cultures future technologies and itâs transitioning from a literate to digital culture.