Chiang Reading

While reading “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” I was fascinated by how the past, present, and future are portrayed as happening at the same time and are all interconnected. A story that stood out to me was the story about the weaver who stole gold from his older self. The young weaver (Ajib) stole from his older self because he thought that he deserved the money to spend while young rather than just his older self who was saving the money. Later in the story, he discusses the money with his wife, and they decide he will save up the money to pay back would be taken from him" (Chiang, 33). Ajib is aware that his younger self will come again to steal the gold that he has saved up.

         This presents the idea of the past, present, and future as interconnected but also presents a lime loop of sorts. Ajib knows that his younger self will come through the gate because that is what he did in the past. Therefore, there must be another Ajib living in the past that will jump through time to affect Ajib’s present. This leads to the conclusion that history repeats itself in the story of Ajib. Another piece of the puzzle that relates to this is that this isn’t the first time this cycle has occurred. The older version of Ajib included at the beginning of the story was living in a small house with his wife with the gold stored away in the box. Likely, this is because the older Ajib realized that his younger self (the main Ajib we meet) will come and steal the gold. Therefore, the older version of Ajib is always aware that the younger version of himself will come through the gate, steal the money, and then repeat the cycle all over again.

         This is a fascinating inclusion to analyze because the younger Ajib is trying to change the future by stealing the money from himself. He sees this action as changing the course of his life; however, he does not realize that he is simply falling into the pattern that has already developed. He isn’t changing the future; he is following what was already set to happen. Admittedly, this concept is still confusing to me. It seems that Ajib’s life is rotating with versions of himself at different chronological points operating simultaneously and affecting each other but doing so in a repeating fashion.



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