Chiang


        In his piece “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” Ted Chiang presents a compelling narrative about the role that time plays in a person's life. One aspect of this story that stood out to me most prominently occurs during Chiang’s explanation of the Gate of Years. Here, as Bashaarat explains the process, he writes, “Afterward, you could step back through the Gate of Years and return to the present day”(17). This concept stood out to me, as it made me question what the present day really is, when it is so easy to transport yourself to another time. If one can take actions in the future that impact their lives before that moment, then the concept of the present becomes practically erased. In our modern society, it is the present that determines the future. When this notion becomes reversed, it takes the meaning out of the moment, thus erasing the sense of time.

This notion persists throughout the remainder of the story. Towards the end of the story, the narrator writes, “I had been marveling at the coincidence that we met in Baghdad just in time for me to make my journey here, use the Gate, and travel back. But now I wonder if it is perhaps not a coincidence at all. Is my arrival here today the reason that you will move to Baghdad twenty years from now”(50-1). While the presence of the present still remains in question, this passage made me recall our discussions in class so far this semester. More specifically, I thought about the idea that our present may be someone else's past, or vice versa. This way of thinking, as put forth by Chiang, makes the reader question what is real to them. Rather than having a definite reality, being able to gain knowledge of the future before it has happened in the present allows the person to contemplate the actions that lead to that moment, even if they are not aware of it yet. As Chiang emphasizes in the final lines of the piece, nothing about the past can be changed, but when a person is able to see into their future, they are then given the power to harness their past, before it has even occurred. 


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