Language Is a Placebo

Ben Marcus discussing his new novel, The Flame Alphabet.

Language is a poison in The Flame Alphabet. But the question the narrator faces, when he begins his work at the research lab, is whether this is true of all languages. He has to figure out if the script matters: are letters a visual poison, their very design something that causes illness to look at? Or is it the meaning: do certain ideas and feelings sicken us? His work is about trying to find some way — any way — to communicate that is not unbearable. If I had to connect this project to my work as a writer, I’d have to say my approach is the opposite. Everyday language, punished by dull and joyless deployments, is too often so nontoxic it makes no impact at all. Language is a placebo. It is medically vacant. For the most part, and for most people, language is used for basic interactions, and not to amaze, to delight, to entertain, to emotionally destroy, to upset, to confuse, to challenge, to reorient, to invent, to thrill. In different ways I would like my writing to do all of these things, and I’m not sure I see this as “experimentation.” I see it as writing. If language is poisonous in The Flame Alphabet, maybe in our world it is not poisonous enough. Or maybe it is not so easy to weaponize, and that’s part of what one tries to do with fiction. It’s difficult to arm a narrative with agents of derangement, something so vital it gets in our blood, like a drug. But I like trying.

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