#embassytown — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #embassytown, aggregated by home.social.
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CW: long thread 5/
Of the #ChinaMiéville books I’ve read, #Embassytown comes closest to showing how fantasy writers can keep it weird. (It’s technically sci-fi, and I am sure #PerdidoStreetStation would serve as a better example, but I haven’t read it yet!) The novel is set in the titular outpost on the planet Arieka, on the remotest edge of space. Humans living in Embassytown (and anthropomorphic ‘exots’) have learned to coexist with the indigenous Ariekei (aka “Hosts”). These fellas get a lot of visual descriptions, but still end up being tricky for the mind to imagine (at least if you’re me), but artists have tried:
https://outtherebooks.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/what-do-the-hosts-ariekei-from-embassytown-look-like/
Their appearance is uncanny, sure. What makes them truly weird is Language. Spoken with two mouths, Language is communication and cognition; entirely objective, with some caveats. Any creature who lacks the anatomy needed to speak Language are perceived as unintelligent (humans liaise with Ariekei through Ambassadors, genetically-modified identical twins). More importantly, the Ariekei struggle to understand symbolism and abstraction. Similes can only exist in Language if the thing they compare themselves to is literally true. For instance: some Embassytowners have been asked to become figures of speech by repeating a ritual, like swimming with fishes once a week. If they don’t keep up the task, then the simile falls out of Language.
Ariekei understand Language only when it is spoken with intention. And because they perceive intention objectively, it is nearly impossible to lie in Language. You can replicate Language with a computer, but there is no mind in the machine to talk to, so the Ariekei don’t understand a word.
Just as humans have transformed nearly every inch of land on Earth, the Ariekei are the universe’s only experts in “biorigging.” Embassytown’s Ambassadors teach the Ariekei how to lie, and in exchange, they get access to organic architecture, power sources, weapons, breathing apparatus, etc..
They have technology, the Ariekei. They have agriculture. They have culture, in their Festivals of Lies. But no ordinary human mind can meet theirs, and we can’t even begin to read their intentions from body language, because that’s a human abstraction. Imagine though we might, that feeling of not-belonging – the weird – permeates most of the novel. It is decidedly uneerie, however, because (without spoiling too much of the novel’s middle parts) – we recognise their agency, and we know when said agency is deprived.
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Alle literarischen Wege führen mich immer wieder zu China Miéville.
EMBASSYTOWN ist ein fiktionales Fest - wortgewaltig dicht, intensiv, kunstvoll.
Es geht um Sprache; um Sprache, die Wesen, Kreaturen miteinander verbindet.
Es geht um Sprachmacht; Wahrheit und Lüge zu unterscheiden, zu selektieren, zu vereinen.
Es geht um Sucht; um Abhängigkeit nach Ausdruck von Sprache, bis hin zur Obsession.
#ChinaMievielle #Embassytown #ScienceFiction -
Alle literarischen Wege führen mich immer wieder zu China Miéville.
EMBASSYTOWN ist ein fiktionales Fest - wortgewaltig dicht, intensiv, kunstvoll.
Es geht um Sprache; um Sprache, die Wesen, Kreaturen miteinander verbindet.
Es geht um Sprachmacht; Wahrheit und Lüge zu unterscheiden, zu selektieren, zu vereinen.
Es geht um Sucht; um Abhängigkeit nach Ausdruck von Sprache, bis hin zur Obsession.
#ChinaMievielle #Embassytown #ScienceFiction -
Alle literarischen Wege führen mich immer wieder zu China Miéville.
EMBASSYTOWN ist ein fiktionales Fest - wortgewaltig dicht, intensiv, kunstvoll.
Es geht um Sprache; um Sprache, die Wesen, Kreaturen miteinander verbindet.
Es geht um Sprachmacht; Wahrheit und Lüge zu unterscheiden, zu selektieren, zu vereinen.
Es geht um Sucht; um Abhängigkeit nach Ausdruck von Sprache, bis hin zur Obsession.
#ChinaMievielle #Embassytown #ScienceFiction -
Alle literarischen Wege führen mich immer wieder zu China Miéville.
EMBASSYTOWN ist ein fiktionales Fest - wortgewaltig dicht, intensiv, kunstvoll.
Es geht um Sprache; um Sprache, die Wesen, Kreaturen miteinander verbindet.
Es geht um Sprachmacht; Wahrheit und Lüge zu unterscheiden, zu selektieren, zu vereinen.
Es geht um Sucht; um Abhängigkeit nach Ausdruck von Sprache, bis hin zur Obsession.
#ChinaMievielle #Embassytown #ScienceFiction -
Alle literarischen Wege führen mich immer wieder zu China Miéville.
EMBASSYTOWN ist ein fiktionales Fest - wortgewaltig dicht, intensiv, kunstvoll.
Es geht um Sprache; um Sprache, die Wesen, Kreaturen miteinander verbindet.
Es geht um Sprachmacht; Wahrheit und Lüge zu unterscheiden, zu selektieren, zu vereinen.
Es geht um Sucht; um Abhängigkeit nach Ausdruck von Sprache, bis hin zur Obsession.
#ChinaMievielle #Embassytown #ScienceFiction -
CW: Long thread 8/
If you’ve read literally any sci-fi story published in recent memory, you’ve seen #incluing at work. Here’s the opening paragraph to #ChinaMieville's #Embassytown:
> The children of the embassy all saw the boat land. Their teachers and shiftparents had had them painting it for days. One wall of the room had been given over to their ideas. It’s been centuries since any voidcraft vented fire, as they imagined this one doing, but it’s a tradition to represent them with such trails.
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CW: Long thread 8/
If you’ve read literally any sci-fi story published in recent memory, you’ve seen #incluing at work. Here’s the opening paragraph to #ChinaMieville's #Embassytown:
> The children of the embassy all saw the boat land. Their teachers and shiftparents had had them painting it for days. One wall of the room had been given over to their ideas. It’s been centuries since any voidcraft vented fire, as they imagined this one doing, but it’s a tradition to represent them with such trails.
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CW: Long thread 8/
If you’ve read literally any sci-fi story published in recent memory, you’ve seen #incluing at work. Here’s the opening paragraph to #ChinaMieville's #Embassytown:
> The children of the embassy all saw the boat land. Their teachers and shiftparents had had them painting it for days. One wall of the room had been given over to their ideas. It’s been centuries since any voidcraft vented fire, as they imagined this one doing, but it’s a tradition to represent them with such trails.
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CW: Long thread 8/
If you’ve read literally any sci-fi story published in recent memory, you’ve seen #incluing at work. Here’s the opening paragraph to #ChinaMieville's #Embassytown:
> The children of the embassy all saw the boat land. Their teachers and shiftparents had had them painting it for days. One wall of the room had been given over to their ideas. It’s been centuries since any voidcraft vented fire, as they imagined this one doing, but it’s a tradition to represent them with such trails.
-
CW: Long thread 8/
If you’ve read literally any sci-fi story published in recent memory, you’ve seen #incluing at work. Here’s the opening paragraph to #ChinaMieville's #Embassytown:
> The children of the embassy all saw the boat land. Their teachers and shiftparents had had them painting it for days. One wall of the room had been given over to their ideas. It’s been centuries since any voidcraft vented fire, as they imagined this one doing, but it’s a tradition to represent them with such trails.
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10 Sci-Fi Books That Could Be The Next “Arrival”
Dear Hollywood, I've got your next sci-fi features. Just make me an executive producer, please.
https://www.themarysue.com/10-sci-fi-books-that-could-be-the-next-arrival/ -
10 Sci-Fi Books That Could Be The Next “Arrival”
Dear Hollywood, I've got your next sci-fi features. Just make me an executive producer, please.
https://www.themarysue.com/10-sci-fi-books-that-could-be-the-next-arrival/ -
10 Sci-Fi Books That Could Be The Next “Arrival”
Dear Hollywood, I've got your next sci-fi features. Just make me an executive producer, please.
https://www.themarysue.com/10-sci-fi-books-that-could-be-the-next-arrival/ -
10 Sci-Fi Books That Could Be The Next “Arrival”
Dear Hollywood, I've got your next sci-fi features. Just make me an executive producer, please.
https://www.themarysue.com/10-sci-fi-books-that-could-be-the-next-arrival/ -
I just finished reading
#Embassytown by #ChinaMiéville – and what an intellectually wild ride it was! When much of the #sciencefiction one sees nowadays has "aliens" that are just humans with pointy ears, it's refreshing to see someone's idea of a truly alien species, and the challenges of communicating with and understanding them. Here's a spot-on review of the book by none other than the late, great Ursula Le Guin
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/08/embassytown-china-mieville-review -
I just finished reading
#Embassytown by #ChinaMiéville – and what an intellectually wild ride it was! When much of the #sciencefiction one sees nowadays has "aliens" that are just humans with pointy ears, it's refreshing to see someone's idea of a truly alien species, and the challenges of communicating with and understanding them. Here's a spot-on review of the book by none other than the late, great Ursula Le Guin
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/08/embassytown-china-mieville-review -
I just finished reading
#Embassytown by #ChinaMiéville – and what an intellectually wild ride it was! When much of the #sciencefiction one sees nowadays has "aliens" that are just humans with pointy ears, it's refreshing to see someone's idea of a truly alien species, and the challenges of communicating with and understanding them. Here's a spot-on review of the book by none other than the late, great Ursula Le Guin
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/08/embassytown-china-mieville-review -
I just finished reading
#Embassytown by #ChinaMiéville – and what an intellectually wild ride it was! When much of the #sciencefiction one sees nowadays has "aliens" that are just humans with pointy ears, it's refreshing to see someone's idea of a truly alien species, and the challenges of communicating with and understanding them. Here's a spot-on review of the book by none other than the late, great Ursula Le Guin
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/08/embassytown-china-mieville-review -
I just finished reading
#Embassytown by #ChinaMiéville – and what an intellectually wild ride it was! When much of the #sciencefiction one sees nowadays has "aliens" that are just humans with pointy ears, it's refreshing to see someone's idea of a truly alien species, and the challenges of communicating with and understanding them. Here's a spot-on review of the book by none other than the late, great Ursula Le Guin
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/08/embassytown-china-mieville-review -
I hope China Mieville appreciated the irony of himself and his rhyming-slang-based pen name writing a story about a society whose members are psychologically incapable of playing word games #embassytown
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I'm, like, the girl who ate what was given to her #embassytown
