{"id":5215,"date":"2020-06-17T05:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5215"},"modified":"2020-06-10T11:37:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T18:37:58","slug":"mark-reads-the-fifth-season-chapter-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/06\/mark-reads-the-fifth-season-chapter-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Fifth Season’: Chapter 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourth chapter of The Fifth Season<\/i>, I STILL WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T READY. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For compulsory sexuality\/sex, references to slavery<\/b><\/p>\n

Holy shit, another<\/i> new POV character? YES. Y E S. Oh, that chapter title. THAT CHAPTER TITLE. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fascinating to me that instead of jumping back to Damaya\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich is what I expected\u00e2\u20ac\u201dJemisin jumps to what seems to be a whole new character, but one based in the Fulcrum, which is where Damaya was headed after Schaffa picked her up. I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the timelines here; I think everything is happening simultaneously, and my guess is that at some point, these three characters will converge for reasons?<\/p>\n

For now, though, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just going along for the ride rather than trying to figure out the big picture. I have a lot more of this book to go through, so! Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s focus on Syenite, who is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cut and polished,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a reference to how Jemisin will reveal work in the Fulcrum. This is a community made up almost entirely of orogenes, and yet that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily mean that matters are better<\/i> for these people. No, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a hierarchical system, one organized by how many rings an orogene has. Here, Jemisin crafts a metaphor about upward mobility, but one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always tainted by one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s status as an orogene. It was so damn intriguing to me that Syenite craved more rings, not because it necessarily granted her freedom, but freedoms<\/i>. Privacy, for example, is something she craves, as those with four rings or less are not allowed their own place. There is no real escape from the Fulcrum, even if orogenes have ten rings, like the unnamed ten-ringer we meet in this chapter. But there are concessions:\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Five-ringers and above are no longer required to have a partner or Guardian when traveling outside the Fulcrum.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Feldspar sips from her cup of safe, oblivious to Syenite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shock. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153At that point we are judged stable enough in our mastery of orogeny to be granted a modicum of autonomy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unsaid in this (and a passage I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m about to quote) is the Other, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the orogenes are. It does not matter how much good they do, it does not matter how they act in favor of the Stillness. What matters is what they were born as, and to those who are not orogene, this power is a stain. And thus, you get shit like this:<\/p>\n

Fulcrum orogenes\u00e2\u20ac\u201dImperial orogenes, blackjackets, the ones you probably shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kill, whatever people want to call them\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmust always be polite and professional. Fulcrum orogenes must project confidence and expertise whenever they are in public. Fulcrum orogenes must never show anger because it makes the stills nervous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HI, AGAIN, THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY WILD THING TO READ IN 2020. I think you can interpret this as a means of commenting on respectability politics, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also about what behaviors orogenes must inhabit to avoid being harmed or destroyed. They have to present themselves in a perfect manner to make sure the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stills\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (WHAT A TERM) don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lash out at them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a powerful means of demonstrating this power system. Even though the orogenes possess literal<\/i> powers that are stronger than the stills, they have no isntitutional<\/i> power. Their privileges\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat modicum of automony\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis only granted to them if they prove themselves able to keep others<\/i> safe.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re permanent outsiders, and in this system, the only way to find temporary joys and reliefs is to claw your way up the ring system. Which is where Syenite is, desperate to get a fifth ring so she can have her own apartment, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t refuse Feldspar when she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given a new assignment.<\/p>\n

She has to have a child with the unnamed ten-ringer.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Again: pulling no punches here. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a matter-of-fact way that Jemisin writes about this act, both in the description and in how Syen finds a way to compartmentalize what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing. Well, compartmentalize as best as she can; the final lines of the chapter make it clear just how physically and emotionally taxing this has been. The whole arrangement speaks to SO MANY things, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested in seeing what other things folks picked up on. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an element of compulsory sexuality here, since this act is forced upon these two people without any regard to their own sexual identities; all that matters is procreation. Which is then deeply tied to another real-world nightmare: the concept of blood purity. Actually, I wonder if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also Jemisin playing with something you see (uncritically) in a lot of fantasy books, too. UGH I LOVE THAT WE CAN DISSECT THIS IN MULTIPLE WAYS. Cuz there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also this line:<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s somewhat flattering to think that despite her feral status, they actually want something of her infused into their breeding lines. Then she wonders why a part of her is trying to find value in degradation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The feral thing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 holy shit. I see potential there for something huge. Even within the orogenes, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another hierarchy, and it is based on blood purity and breeding. As pointed out earlier, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a thorny issue that orogenes can come from non-orogene people, and thus, Syen is viewed as lesser-than because she wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bred. But Jemisin takes the worldview here and, after giving us the context to understand it, reminds us that a person is the conduit through which it flows. This might be how the world works, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean the world isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deeply, deeply harmful. Syen is doing what she can to survive, and for a moment, she entertains a value that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t truly exist. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to do, though, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? Haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t many of us sought personal value in a deeply violent framework, convincing ourselves that maybe attention or visibility is a good thing, even if in the short-term or long-term, it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prove to be? I FEEL LIKE I COULD WRITE AN ENTIRE ESSAY ON JUST THIS SENTENCE ALONE. And it relates so deeply to this part:<\/p>\n

With her experience and boost to her reputation, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be that much closer to her fifth ring. That means her own apartment; no more roommates. Better missions, longer leave, more say in her own life. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth it. Earthfire yes,<\/i> it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth it.<\/p>\n

This system degrades her. She is trying to find a modicum of autonomy in it.<\/p>\n

A question: Why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we know the ten-ringer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name? That\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is that an important thing?<\/p>\n

NOTES<\/b><\/p>\n