As noted by Dan O'Hara, "The density of Ping's prose style is its most immediate and most intriguing aspect; it seems condensed or undiluted.
Like César's compressed sculptures of crushed cars, all the constituent elements are squashed into an uncomfortable proximity [...] In Ping, all the spaces between, the gaps, have been forced out; no air flows around the words.
Interpretations have ranged from Jesus Christ in the tomb to a person in a hospital bed post-surgery to "the first act of creation".
[4] The story is basic and repetitive, allowing a range of possibilities, but the standard interpretation is that "Ping" covers the last moments of a person's life.
He was then diagnosed with double cataracts in 1966 and a number of people in his life either died or became ill. O'Hara hypothesized that the pings were the sounds of an electrocardiograph machine.