In addition to Nahuatl, Teixcalaanli is also inspired by Byzantine Greek. I had no idea that such contests were a centerpiece of Byzantine political life during the Middle Byzantine Period (approximately 900-1204 CE), and were used in much the same way to prove an orator’s intelligence and cultural competence, and also to make political arguments. In gatherings with poetry contests, the protagonist Mahit tries to display her cultural prowess by her ability to make nuanced references to literary tropes, mainly from poetry. This is also reminiscent of Japanese, especially classical Japanese. In the novel, the language of Teixcalaanli is based on the MesoAmerican language Nahuatl-being a logosyllabic tongue written in glyphs that permit poetic artistry and playful wordplay. Also the way Japanese has so many politeness registers based on social and cultural context. In fact, a translator friend, whom I admire tremendously, mentioned that he felt the novel captured something of what it would be like to attend a court gathering at the Heian court, with poetry contests and people dazzling each other with their nuanced understanding of art and literature.

Not surprising given her background, there is enormous attention given to world-building in the story-especially to culture and language. Martine has a PhD in Byzantine history, with a focus on Armenia, and she worked as a city planner before becoming a novelist. I am re-reading Arkady Martine’s wonderful debut novel, A Memory Called Empire. and Greek) Stationer is basically Space Armenian.

A memory called empire movie