The Ariekei in China Mieville's Embassytown are a strange species of alien with a strange language. Words are not just words to the Ariekei Hosts but a reflection of reality. As it is described in the book, the Hosts need "a speaker, with intent, with a mind behind the words" for anything spoken in their Language to mean anything at all (p. 55). What is fascinating about this is the fact that Hosts are incapable of lying, because their Language must be an accurate reflection of reality.
The most interesting thing about the Hosts' language, though, is given by Avice when watching the festival of lies. After Scile calls the Language miraculous, Avice says she "feels repulsed" (p. 129) by it, but it is clear from what follows that her repulsion is less to do with the Hosts' inability to lie than her own ties to the truth and what language and Language represent. For instance, she talks about how the story she is telling is "a true story" and that while the Hosts "cared about everything" and not just Language, but that she is focusing on Language because it is what is most important to them (p. 129).
This shows that what bothers Avice, and what might bother readers, is not that Ariekei Language is perfect and that Ariekei are incapable of lying. Rather, what bothers her is the implication for non-Language language. When she compares her own language, and her own self, to the Ariekei, she has no choice but to think of herself as inferior. This shows from her doubt, which she tries to cast away, about the truth of her story and what she focuses on. Of course, for readers of the novel, who know it to not be a true story, the same question must occur.
While the Ariekei are alien, they are not so alien that they are disturbing to me personally. Although they have a strange language, and their motivations may be hard to understand, enough of them is human that they can be related to. The fact that they hold the lying festival, for instance, and the way they are described enjoying it by becoming "intoxicated, literally lie-drunk" (p. 84), as well as the humorous image of them looking up when LeRoy says the "bird" is "flying away" (p. 84) helps to make them sympathetic, and understandable.
Works Cited
Mieville, China. Embassytown. Random House, 2011.
