[ViktorRay]

Ted Chiang is brilliant.

His novella “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” altered the course of my life. It changed the way I looked back at certain pivotal moments in my life and taught me to think about those pivotal moments differently than how I was thinking about them. Similar to what happens to one of the characters in the story who ends up changing their perception of a key moment in their life.

I won’t go into detail because I don’t want to spoil the story but I highly recommend it. Actually I recommend all his stories to be honest.

[mohamedkoubaa]

Seconded. That was one of the best stories I ever read

[FelipeCortez]

don't you mean "The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling"? I think that matches your description more, but I could be wrong

[ViktorRay]

“The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling” is also a good story.

But I really was referring to “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom”.

I hope what I am about to write below in the rest of my comment here isn’t too much of a spoiler. It might be. I encourage anyone reading this thread to read that short story before reading the rest of my comment here.

But with (hopefully minimal) spoilers,

the character Dana in “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” realizes something at the very end of the story about a certain event that had happened earlier in Dana’s life. The story made me realize the same thing about certain events in my life.

Of course the events in my life are very different from what happened with Dana in the short story. But the realization Dana has is applicable to many things in people’s lives. Especially events related to emotions of regret and guilt.

[aspenmayer]

Not OP, but they probably mean the novella that they mentioned, which is also new to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety_Is_the_Dizziness_of_Fr...

[FelipeCortez]

Both stories are in the compilation Exhalation, but OP’s description matches what I remember from the story I mentioned more than the one you linked

[aspenmayer]

I can’t say for sure, I’m just taking them at their word. Given what OP omitted due to possible spoilers, it’s hard for me to second guess either of you.

It seems fair to say that you might be right about the conclusion that you’re drawing from what OP said, and OP could be honestly mistaken about which story they were referring to, but it seemed charitable to assume that they know better than I do.

I don’t mean to assume that you were wrong, either, as it’s entirely likely that you’re right, or at least that it’s reasonable for you to assume that the story you mentioned fits your interpretation of what OP referred to better than the one they mentioned. You’re the authority on what you believe and understand about what you read from OP’s comment, and I can’t disagree with another’s opinion about what something seems like to them.

Given what OP omitted and stated, I don’t disagree with your assessment, as I haven’t read the story OP mentioned, and it’s been a while since I read the one you referred to, if I remember correctly.

To be honest, my first thought was that you were both referring to the same story, and that the title differences were due to one or the other of you reading the story in a different language.

My point in commenting was to perhaps add context in hopes that it would bring clarity to the discussion, as it seemed that you were bringing into question whether or not the story OP mentioned existed at all as such, and I myself wasn’t sure that you and OP were referring to two different independent stories rather than the same story with different titles in different languages.

This comment has probably gone on Tlön-g enough, and is leaning more Borges than anticipated. I apologize for perhaps coming across more definitively than intended in my original comment.

[ViktorRay]

Hey just wanted to respond and let you know you were right. I really was referring to “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom”.