Martine - A Memory Called Empire
Nov. 26th, 2019 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chocochipbiscuitSo, I finished reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine over a week ago but it’s taken me this long to sit down and write my feelings about it.
Synopsis: Ambassador Mahit Dzmare travels to the capital of the interstellar Teixcalaanli Empire, a place she’s longed to visit since she was a teenager on independent Lsel Station and falling in love with their poetry. She soon discovers that her predecessor has died, no one will admit it wasn’t accidental, and must find not only who murdered him, but why—while trying not to get murdered herself, and trying to maintain her small station’s independence from Teixcalaan’s ever-expanding empire.
The short version: It’s a really good book. Beautifully written political space opera with so many themes about the power of memory and colonialism and the seduction of falling in love with a culture that is devouring your own. Also includes canonical queer characters, poetry, and an ending that feels utterly satisfying for this first book but still leaves loose threads for the second book.
The longer version: oh my god this is going under a cut. Also, spoilers. And many times in which I go “ugh!!!!” and it’s not disgust, it’s just me incapable of expressing words in any way other than guttural noises and flailing!
There are just SO MANY THREADS I WANT TO FOLLOW UP ON AND DEVOUR WHOLE!!! AND TIDBITS OF WORLDBUILDING I JUST WANT TO EAT UP WITH A SPOON!!!!
Okay! First off! The author does a really, really good job of writing how Teixcalaanlitzim (a citizen of Teixcalaan) have this unthinking sense of superiority over all the so-called ‘barbarians’ such as Mahit, and by giving it through Mahit’s perspective—genuinely in love with their culture and poetry while also understanding that she would never be accepted—we get both the love and the beauty and admiration, but also the recognition of being ‘other’ or ‘less than,’ even by those who think they are paying Mahit a compliment when they comment on how ‘civilized’ (or Teixcalaan-like) she can be. Mahit, as someone who grew up on a space station, is frequently taken back by the sheer extravagant waste that the Teixcalaan Empire can engage in: children born by bodies, not artificial wombs! Fresh flowers on open tables! Water fountains! It gives such a strong sense of characters and setting and I just love all the little tidbits and implications of wider world-building that we get!
And it’s just!!!! UGH, I have feelings! So many feelings!
One of my biggest “UGH!!! FEELINGS!!!!” moments is when Mahit and Three Seagrass finally kiss (also I would like to point out canonical F/F relationship, though it does not end in happily ever after but hey at least they both live!) and this scene right afterwards:
GOD I JUST HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS AND AM STILL SCREAMING OVER THIS SCENE!!!!
Also, while there is no explicit declaration of ‘this character is bi, this character is gay, this one’s a lesbian,’ I personally see Mahit as a lesbian (big tall ‘barbarian’ with short hair!...also never mentions any sort of attraction other than strictly aesthetic towards men, except when someone else is hijacking her endocrine system), Yskandr as bi (....as close to canon as we’ll get, since we do get on-page mentions of his relationships with male and female characters, though he may well identify as pansexual), and have no particular headcanon for Three Seagrass. I’m leaning towards bisexual, but fully admit that I’m a biased bisexual myself. :P
Man, I feel like I can write a whole goddamn essay about how the book strikes this delicate balance between showing Mahit’s genuine love and appreciation for Teixcalaanli culture but also her pride in her Lsel Station heritage, her fear of having their cultural technology and memory-lines co-opted (or corrupted) by the Empire, and how we get some peeks at the generational rifts on Lsel Station between the older Station-citizens who remember a time before the Empire were a threat, and their frustration with seeing more young adults falling in love with Teixcalaanli literature and media, as well as the younger ones like Mahit who had never known a time where they didn’t have this gorgeous, glittering Empire with its many warships looming in the background.
On a more meta level, it is interesting for me to think about even though I was reading this book in English, the language on Lsel Station is...not actually English, as there are mentions in the book are about how the alphabet is slightly different (number of letters, consonant-heavy) and the Teixcalaanli language is logosyllabic, vowel-heavy, and again: distinctly not American English. Which I find really interesting (and a beautiful cheat) because it helps differentiate the far-future cultures and allows for more prose-level impressions of poetry and beautiful descriptions while also sparing the author from having to create actual volumes of poetry to go along with the exquisite recitations and references that the erudite poet-citizens use. So when Martine does choose to write out a few of the poems, it is easier to focus on writing a few beautiful poems (with the understanding that because it’s a translation for the reader’s benefit, it does not scan as it would in the original language) than to try and fill an entire book with word-for-word lines and references.
God!!! I still have so many inchoate, inarticulate feelings about the imago memory-lines and the ways that Lsel Station views memory and personhood vs the way the Teixcalaanli do, and about how there is so much civil unrest (that Mahit mostly doesn’t see, and has to remind herself that even the Empire exists beyond the palatial palace quarters) and how the gold and glitter of the Empire is still built upon blood (quite literally! Quite dramatically!) and the fact that I am half in-love with Nineteen Adze even though she is a Very Scary Lady and oh my godddd I am still not over Twelve Azalea’s death and thinking about his complicated friendship with Three Seagrass and ugh ugh ugh!!!!!
I am definitely reading the second book when it comes out, and will be revisiting this one at some point.
Synopsis: Ambassador Mahit Dzmare travels to the capital of the interstellar Teixcalaanli Empire, a place she’s longed to visit since she was a teenager on independent Lsel Station and falling in love with their poetry. She soon discovers that her predecessor has died, no one will admit it wasn’t accidental, and must find not only who murdered him, but why—while trying not to get murdered herself, and trying to maintain her small station’s independence from Teixcalaan’s ever-expanding empire.
The short version: It’s a really good book. Beautifully written political space opera with so many themes about the power of memory and colonialism and the seduction of falling in love with a culture that is devouring your own. Also includes canonical queer characters, poetry, and an ending that feels utterly satisfying for this first book but still leaves loose threads for the second book.
The longer version: oh my god this is going under a cut. Also, spoilers. And many times in which I go “ugh!!!!” and it’s not disgust, it’s just me incapable of expressing words in any way other than guttural noises and flailing!
There are just SO MANY THREADS I WANT TO FOLLOW UP ON AND DEVOUR WHOLE!!! AND TIDBITS OF WORLDBUILDING I JUST WANT TO EAT UP WITH A SPOON!!!!
Okay! First off! The author does a really, really good job of writing how Teixcalaanlitzim (a citizen of Teixcalaan) have this unthinking sense of superiority over all the so-called ‘barbarians’ such as Mahit, and by giving it through Mahit’s perspective—genuinely in love with their culture and poetry while also understanding that she would never be accepted—we get both the love and the beauty and admiration, but also the recognition of being ‘other’ or ‘less than,’ even by those who think they are paying Mahit a compliment when they comment on how ‘civilized’ (or Teixcalaan-like) she can be. Mahit, as someone who grew up on a space station, is frequently taken back by the sheer extravagant waste that the Teixcalaan Empire can engage in: children born by bodies, not artificial wombs! Fresh flowers on open tables! Water fountains! It gives such a strong sense of characters and setting and I just love all the little tidbits and implications of wider world-building that we get!
And it’s just!!!! UGH, I have feelings! So many feelings!
One of my biggest “UGH!!! FEELINGS!!!!” moments is when Mahit and Three Seagrass finally kiss (also I would like to point out canonical F/F relationship, though it does not end in happily ever after but hey at least they both live!) and this scene right afterwards:
“Petal was always right about me,” she said. Mahit tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear and let her talk. I do like aliens. Barbarians. Anything new, anything different. But I also—if I’d met you at court, Mahit, if you were one of us, I’d have wanted to do that just the same.”
What she was saying was exquisite, a balm and a comfort, and horrible at the same time: If you were one of us, I would want you just the same, and Mahit wanted simultaneously to climb back inside her mouth and shove her out of her lap. She wasn’t Teixcalaanli, she was...she hardly knew anymore, except tha she wasn’t Teixcalaanli and wouldn’t be no matter how many lovely asekretim climbed into her arms, tearstained, wanting to be held.”
GOD I JUST HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS AND AM STILL SCREAMING OVER THIS SCENE!!!!
Also, while there is no explicit declaration of ‘this character is bi, this character is gay, this one’s a lesbian,’ I personally see Mahit as a lesbian (big tall ‘barbarian’ with short hair!...also never mentions any sort of attraction other than strictly aesthetic towards men, except when someone else is hijacking her endocrine system), Yskandr as bi (....as close to canon as we’ll get, since we do get on-page mentions of his relationships with male and female characters, though he may well identify as pansexual), and have no particular headcanon for Three Seagrass. I’m leaning towards bisexual, but fully admit that I’m a biased bisexual myself. :P
Man, I feel like I can write a whole goddamn essay about how the book strikes this delicate balance between showing Mahit’s genuine love and appreciation for Teixcalaanli culture but also her pride in her Lsel Station heritage, her fear of having their cultural technology and memory-lines co-opted (or corrupted) by the Empire, and how we get some peeks at the generational rifts on Lsel Station between the older Station-citizens who remember a time before the Empire were a threat, and their frustration with seeing more young adults falling in love with Teixcalaanli literature and media, as well as the younger ones like Mahit who had never known a time where they didn’t have this gorgeous, glittering Empire with its many warships looming in the background.
On a more meta level, it is interesting for me to think about even though I was reading this book in English, the language on Lsel Station is...not actually English, as there are mentions in the book are about how the alphabet is slightly different (number of letters, consonant-heavy) and the Teixcalaanli language is logosyllabic, vowel-heavy, and again: distinctly not American English. Which I find really interesting (and a beautiful cheat) because it helps differentiate the far-future cultures and allows for more prose-level impressions of poetry and beautiful descriptions while also sparing the author from having to create actual volumes of poetry to go along with the exquisite recitations and references that the erudite poet-citizens use. So when Martine does choose to write out a few of the poems, it is easier to focus on writing a few beautiful poems (with the understanding that because it’s a translation for the reader’s benefit, it does not scan as it would in the original language) than to try and fill an entire book with word-for-word lines and references.
God!!! I still have so many inchoate, inarticulate feelings about the imago memory-lines and the ways that Lsel Station views memory and personhood vs the way the Teixcalaanli do, and about how there is so much civil unrest (that Mahit mostly doesn’t see, and has to remind herself that even the Empire exists beyond the palatial palace quarters) and how the gold and glitter of the Empire is still built upon blood (quite literally! Quite dramatically!) and the fact that I am half in-love with Nineteen Adze even though she is a Very Scary Lady and oh my godddd I am still not over Twelve Azalea’s death and thinking about his complicated friendship with Three Seagrass and ugh ugh ugh!!!!!
I am definitely reading the second book when it comes out, and will be revisiting this one at some point.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 07:45 am (UTC)I might stick it on my TBR list rather than reading it right away, because I've been shying away from books with a lot of conflict recently, but it's definitely going on the list.
Thanks for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:11 am (UTC)