# Movie 'Arrival' question: what were the last words of General Shang's wife? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-arrival-question-what-were-the-last-words-of-general-shangs-wife/825909 "2018-12-10T19:44:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-arrival-question-what-were-the-last-words-of-general-shangs-wife/825909/21 "2018-12-17T19:32:26Z")
“None of this is actually happening. There is a man. At a typewriter. This is all his twisted imagination.” ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-arrival-question-what-were-the-last-words-of-general-shangs-wife/825909/22 "2018-12-17T22:56:53Z")
> [@wei\_ji](#): > > No, but we can make reasonable inferences about the reaction and a certain differing focus of interest between female vs. male movie goers – hence the terms “chick flick” and “guy flick.” Language develops for a reason beyond power relationships requiring a need for deconstruction and the instruction that to note differences is “weird.” I think that Arrival is sufficiently different than a shoot-em-up action movie (guy flick) or a period romantic drama (chick flick) that it’s pretty reductive to apply that sort of language to facets of this movie. But I get what you’re saying. Certainly movies about women’s relationships with each other are more likely to appeal to women, and movies about the military’s interactions with aliens are more likely to appeal to men. The thing that confused me was that you said “Clearly from some of the comments here, though, the “male” science fiction fan finds…” There were only a few posters who had commented at that point, and only one of them had a user name that implied a particular gender. So it seemed to me that you were drawing inferences from not much. ---
**Author:** ![wei\_ji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wei\_ji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wei_ji)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-arrival-question-what-were-the-last-words-of-general-shangs-wife/825909/23 "2019-03-12T18:14:19Z")
Chuckle. Fair enough. I have some of the habits expressed by Count Almasy in the movie version of the English Patient. He apologizes to a woman for some Mars/Venus communications misdemeanor by noting that his thinking habits come from his vocation as an archeologist, from “having to draw useable information from so little” (paraphrase). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-arrival-question-what-were-the-last-words-of-general-shangs-wife/825909/24 "2019-03-12T18:35:24Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > What? What is it dealing with? Determinism vs. Free Will is the biggest one. Smaller ideas: How do you communicate with a completely alien culture? Especially one that doesn’t think the same way we do? How do you handle knowing the future? How can that knowledge effect others around you? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-arrival-question-what-were-the-last-words-of-general-shangs-wife/825909/25 "2019-03-12T19:22:36Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > The point need not be taken too literally: she chooses to enter into a relationship even though chances are it will not work out, chooses to have kids even though anything could happen with them. Note that this explains why she cannot do anything to change anyone’s fate even though she can “see” the future. In defense of the movie, the premise is NOT that she can see into the future. The premise is that there isn’t a “future.” The heptapods are not psychics who can predict the future; their perceive and experience time in a different fashion, whereby it flows in both directions to her. Louise begins to experience time such that all experiences in what she would previously have called “the future” seem to her to be as real and experienced as those in “the past,” and vice versa. This isn’t a small, obscure point, it’s a central premise that is both explicitly stated and shown symbolically and in a number of clever little ways. > [@](#): > > I vaguely recall that in the original story she, along with all others who learn the magic language, feels like her entire life, from beginning to end, is scripted and she is merely going through the motions and reading lines, that free will is a complete illusion, enjoys nothing. No, it’s not. It’s wildly different way to experience life, but Ted Chiang doesn’t suggest it robs her of joy, and he doesn’t even really say it takes away free will. It is a different form of perception, one where your understanding of the universe is teleological. Louise questions not her free will, but what free will is. ---
**Author:** ![wei\_ji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wei\_ji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wei_ji)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-arrival-question-what-were-the-last-words-of-general-shangs-wife/825909/26 "2019-04-04T18:13:28Z")
Interesting explanation, RickJay. This is one of the best threads I’ve started; good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-arrival-question-what-were-the-last-words-of-general-shangs-wife/825909/27 "2019-04-04T19:48:51Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > No, it’s not. It’s wildly different way to experience life, but Ted Chiang doesn’t suggest it robs her of joy, and he doesn’t even really say it takes away free will. It is a different form of perception, one where your understanding of the universe is teleological. Louise questions not her free will, but what free will is. I just finished the story. Louise does not make a decision to get married and have a child in the story, she more accepts the future. She seems to realize what she is doing in the movie more. Plus, her daughter’s death in the movie is more tragic. This is one of the few movies I know better than the story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-arrival-question-what-were-the-last-words-of-general-shangs-wife/825909.md?page=1)