Tessa Portuese
Some really good perspective-shifting stuff about primatology and human anatomy that makes you question the status quo is followed by a bizarrely disappointing conclusion. So much of the book is about questioning what we assume is natural about human sexuality due to cultural bias, but the end seems to take male infidelity of the modern day at face value without examining alternate causes (e.g. how societal male socialization limits men from forming platonic emotional bonds) and leaves prior discussion of natural female promiscuity out of a modern lens entirely. Flop ending to an otherwise very interesting read!
Impressive range of stories, some that feel like timeless parables and others like dramatic Black Mirror episodes (of which at least one was based on a story written by Chiang irl).
Side note: my husband and I listened to this on a road trip and due to its disproportionately long length and annoying voices, the Digians have become an ongoing joke between us.
I liked how gross this was but didn't vibe with the writing style. Sometimes the metaphors crossed over from poetic and creative to something that felt like a poor translation, and the multiple page sprints with no paragraph breaks were hard to keep focus on. Stylistically not for me even though I wanted to love it!
Listening to this audiobook while driving really feels like tempting fate...
Went through ups and downs in my opinion of this–at first I was fascinated and dazzled by its novelty, then I grew annoyed with the repetition of phrases, but then I circled back and appreciated it as a textural, atmospheric piece of writing.
