Literary Analysis Essay on "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang

Thesis

Exhalation is the title of a short story, a science fiction, which was authored by an American writer referred to as Ted Chiang. In this case, it is epistolary whereby it takes a particular form of journal entry by a scientist. The writer is one of the members of a race of human beings leaving in fictional world, and are air driven. They derive their lives from the lungs filled with air-filled in various filling stations across the land. Here, one's lungs can rotate for a long distance such that it is used by different types of beings interchangeably, as they acquire them in the filling stations where they leave the exhausted ones for refill and subsequent consumption by a different being. The air used in pressurizing the lungs are obtained from underground, located far away from the residence of the author. However, there comes a realization that the number of clocks appear to be simultaneously running at a faster pace and at the same time not appearing to be malfunctioning. In this case, the author seeks to identify the source of the problem through exploring the nature of human brains in relation to the problem at hand. He finds out that the seeming fast running of the clocks is because of the pressure equalization between the underground and above the ground. Here, the brains will malfunction instead. The brains function well when there is a pressure differential between the underground and above the ground (Ted. 19). The hypothesis is proved as a valid one. He then finalizes that although air equilibrium is unavoidable, civilization and the beauty of life are not hence a miracle. There are the topics which have been addressed in the short story, which are to be shared with the reader. They are as brought out subsequently.

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Fantasy

The short story "Exhalation," by Ted Chiang is full of fantastic events which might not be in existence in the real world. They are only possible in fictional texts like the short story at hand. One of the instances of fantasy in the short story is where the humans in the land where the author hails from obtaining life from the air in the lungs filled artificially in the filling stations. In this case, it is a process which is hard to imagine and apply practically I real life where the humans derive life from the natural lungs born with. The artificial lungs are also said to be rotating until they are mused by people in locations far apart. The fantasy nature of the situation can also be seen where the mechanism for detecting air deprivation in the lungs is not well established, leaving questions on what sustains life when they lack air and also when there is a transaction form the exchange of the lungs, hence resulting in the acquisition of a refilled lung (Ted. 17).

Additionally, there is the exhaustion of the topic on fantasy where the writer tries to find out the cause of a problem concerning the seeming fastened pace of the clocks. In this case, the writer dissects his brain to find out the source of the problem, if it is the brain that has a problem or other external component. In this case, it seems impossible where the writer dissects his brain and remains alive with the ability to study his brain. Questions arise on the possibility of the process. It seems impossible for the writer to have dissected his brain and still studies it to the later, in the run to dig up the cause of the current cause of the fast pacing clocks which at the same time have malfunctioned. Further, the way the writer has remained psychologically functional after performing own brain surgery to put down the happenings also seem quite fantastic, unable to hold waters in the real world and existing only hypothetically. There are also mechanical human beings with the ability to transact the day to day activities like biological humans, a fantasy (Chiang, Ted. 16).

Scientific discovery and applications

There are also instances of the application of scientific methodologies in the solution of human problems in the land fictional land where the writer hailed from. The writer was a scientist and managed to pursue scientific research in establishing the main cause of the seeming fastened pace of the clocks, yet they had no particular malfunctioning faults established. After dissecting his brain to establish the cause of the discrepancy, he managed to discover that the brains operate n the basis of the movement of the air through the leaves of gold (Ted. 13). Further, he establishes that human brains are the ones which were computed at a slower rate mainly because of the decreasing pressure differential between the underground source of air and the air above the ground. It was a scientific breakthrough which led to the understanding of the root cause of the problem.

Besides, there was a scientific application whereby there was a mechanism used in refilling the mechanical lungs in the filling stations when they had been deprived of the breathing air (Ted. 11). It was the one which enabled the continuation of life since they could then acquire new and air-filled lungs for continued support of their existence as they were the source of life.

Life

In the short story entitled "Exhalation," by Ted Chiang, the topic touching on life and existence in different environments is expounded. In this case, throughout the story, the story revolves around the life existence of the mechanical beings who are air driven. In this case, there is an explanation of how such air is driven people to derive their life, which is from the lung filled periodically at the filling stations. Besides, the writer tries to bring out how the beings live together while interchangeably using air lungs not known to them the distances of the location of beings who might have used them before (Ted. 7).

Additionally, after the writer establishes on the cause of the seeming fastened pace of the clocks, he starts wondering and imagining on how life in other worlds could be. He wonders if the beings in them also had the fate of their existences determined by the pressure equalization between the underground sources and the air above the ground. However, at a final state, he establishes that the equilibria of air between the underground and above the ground premises were inevitable in other universes, which thus dictated the fate of the lives in them. Hopefully, he concludes that although such air equilibria were bound to cause problems to the existences of people in the universe, there was the beauty of life as well as a civilization which celebrating as a miracle (Ted. 15).

Work Cited

Chiang, Ted. Exhalation. , 2019. Print.