The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling

Ted Chiang's best short story yet. A powerful cross-cultural examination of many facets of the human condition. The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling is actually made up of two concurrent stories. The first occurs in the near-future where a journalist is questioning the effects of an additional technology to the “lifelogs” that most people wear - instead of just recording moments from your life, Remem allows individuals to search and automatically locate specific moments from their lengthy video volumes. At first discussing its effects on wider society, his usage of Remem causes the article to be entangled with his personal life, especially his relationship with his daughter. In an almost opposite manner, Jijingi is a young Tiv man with close personal ties who begins learning how to write when European missionaries arrive in his village. As he grows he comes to understand the differences between written details and oral tales, and which is better for his people.

Chiang explores a vast range of themes, smartly using them to unify the two disparate tales as he alternates perspective. The clearest idea being explored is the truth of our memories; as humans we attempt to chop, change and highlight a certain range of moments from our past, sometimes without realising it. Whether they are truthful or not, we are drawn to the notion of storytelling and therefore our personal history tends to fit a narrative structure, making me realise how incredibly vain we can be (even with good intentions). Extrapolating from this, Chiang explores what makes a good story - is it the consistency of the words, intonation of a speaker or a combination of both? And perhaps most importantly, what happens when we sacrifice or prioritise the truth?

The use of different time periods and settings accentuates the fact that these are universal aspects of the human condition. Chiang describes common childhood situation, relationship disputes (especially between married couples, and parents and children), corporations and religious institutions, all the while respecting the African culture depicted. These do not just act as examples for the psychological discussion he puts forward on searchable lifelogging, but are actively explored through the believable characters he has written.

Overall, it is hard to pick between this and Liking What You See: A Documentary as my favourites from Chiang's works. Both explore a collective social issue due highlighted through a new technology in smart and nuanced ways, and with great writing of perspectives to boot. However, I still have three stories left in the Exhalation collection, so this brace may be added to!