Essays on Being Different

Ted Chiang’s novel, Tales of Our Lives, is about human interaction with aliens that have conquered Earth, and Dr. Banks is hired to figure out how they interact. Dr. Louise Banks narrates the story in the past tense, and it also features Gary Donnelly, a scientist working with the military…

The disparities between viewpoints that male and female authors add to literature are often palpable. The characters they build as a result of these variations are also noteworthy. Even when reflecting on common characteristics of characters in a novel, their points of view are often diametrically opposed. Consider the depiction…