電影《異星入境》的上映讓姜峯楠（Ted Chiang）這位極為低調的科幻小說作家頓時成為家喻戶曉的人物，無論是小說原著或者改編電影都獲得極佳的評價。在《妳一生的預言》與《異星入境》兩部作品中最受人矚目的主題便是來自異星的七腳族（haptapod）的「二次元語言」，一種有別於線性思維的視覺語言，小說與電影都精彩呈現了這個主題，並且將各自媒材的特點發揮到淋漓盡致，前者是思辨性的，後者則是具體化的。儘管原著與改編看似以矛盾、對立的方式探索相同的「語言」問題，但兩者都深刻描繪語言中的「視覺思維」。
本文將分兩個部分討論原著小說與改編電影的差異之處，其一是兩者在「自由意志」上的看法不同，追根究底，這差異可說是目的論與因果論的區別。其二則是兩者分別用哪種方式探索語言中的視覺思維。儘管小說與改編電影兩者存在差異，本文主張，與其竭力找出一個可以整合原著與改編兩者的理論模型，不如肯定兩者間兼容的矛盾。

The film Arrival propelled the sci-fi writer Ted Chiang to international fame. Both Chiang’s novel and its filmic adaptation receive positive reviews. The common theme in the original story and its adaptation is haptapod’s two-dimensional language, a system of written signs that is non-linear and visual. The novel takes advantages of the traits of written words to develop this theme while the film exploits the distinctive characteristics of visual images. Whereas thenovel is contradictory to the film in terms of their medium specificity, both explore the visual thinking that is intrinsic to language.
This paper is composed of two parts, both of which discuss the difference between the original novel and the filmic adaptation. On the one hand, the novel and its adaptation are different in terms of “the concept of free will,” which can be understood as the difference between teleology and causality. On the other hand, the novel takes a different approach to the visual thinking from that of the filmic adaptation. This paper proposes that the seeming paradox of the novel and the film be compatible if we take an affirmative attitude towards the paradox.