In the twelfth chapter of The Fifth Season<\/i>, I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to have to open all my reviews with a request for help because I need it. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of racism, slavery<\/b><\/p>\n
There will never be a day in which I am ready for this book. I feel wrung out. I just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 how? How am I supposed to anticipate what is happening? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M NEVER READY FOR ANYTHING!!!!<\/p>\n
So, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s start with Syenite, even though I want to SCREAM about the title of this chapter and what it might mean. (A toy? A toy<\/i>???) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so clear that Syenite was inspired by Alabaster, that she sees a value in the way that he pushed back on Asael before. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think she would have behaved as she did here without that experience. (Well, except for one part, which I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to later.) She challenges Asael on behavior that Asael takes for granted. If we view much of what happens here through various lenses\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsay, the experience of Black Americans in a post-chattel slavery world, or even within chattel slavery itself\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commentary here that aligns with that reality. Throughout Asael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interactions with the orogenes, there is a basic lack of respect, one that is entirely due to who they are. This is in spite of the fact that there is a material need here: without orogenes, Allia would collapse. Its port would become completely closed off due to coral, the comm would dry up, and people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entire livelihoods would be destroyed. Not to mention that there would be death in all this: death due to starvation, to poverty, to fighting amongst those who have so little while others hoard wealth and resources.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But this need is not one that elevates the orogenes; this entire world was built on their backs. It was saved<\/i> by them. And they are still, in terms of a social and financial and political hierarchy, right on the bottom. They aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t viewed as human; they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t viewed as worthy independent of their value to the state and to others; they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afforded even a basic sense of decency, because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re wrong<\/i> and they deserve to be serving others.<\/p>\n Sounds real familiar, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<\/p>\n And so yes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s satisfying to see Syenite push back, especially because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a victory she can achieve. On some level that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heartbreaking, right? She currently doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe she can save the system, but she can criticize her treatment now<\/i> and at least get some concessions. Respect. Generosity. A general acceptance that she knows what she is doing. (I say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153general\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because as we see later in the chapter, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still some instinctual bias against orogenes that is impossible to root out, and people are condescending to Syenite.) That her work is one of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153skilled expert who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been learning her craft since childhood.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Syenite wants the same deferment that non-orogenes get: that people defer to experts because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve working in their field for many, many years.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I did find it interesting, for the record, that even after tearing into Asael, this happens:<\/p>\n Syenite pauses, takes a deep breath. She must stay polite, and wield that politeness like a finely knapped glassknife. She must be cold and calm in her anger, lest a lack of self-control be dismissed as the mark of monstrosity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Even in this moment, her training\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe same training we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re watching Damaya go through\u00e2\u20ac\u201dstill pops back up. She remembers the place she was taught to occupy, the tone she is supposed to have. But she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give up this time. She continues to put pressure on Asael, and it leads to this INCREDIBLE exchange.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it understandable that we might be\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 uncomfortable?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Discomfort is understandable. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the rudeness that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Still, Syenite knows when she is wasting her time, and I loved that Jemisin had her be like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter, why am I walking her through this?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And then Asael utters that slur, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very<\/i> clear how Asael views orogenes, so why bother? Syenite isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to change her mind, so she might as well get what she wants.<\/p>\n She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite get that, of course, since Heresmith, the lieutenant governor, is the only one to show up, but at least it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something better than the situation the day before. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell how genuine Heresmith was being, but I almost don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it matters if Syenite was being treated better. (Syenite is slowly understanding Alabaster more and more, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she?) From there, though, Jemisin takes us to the harbor, so that Syenite can examine the job that she and Alabaster were hired for. Dread starts building in the pages pretty much as soon as they arrive there, given that Jemisin opens after the scene break with this:<\/p>\n The harbor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Because I knew that Syenite didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that the harbor was fucked up. She knew that going into this, and we knew some of it beforehand, too. No, I immediately knew that this meant that something unexpected was off<\/i>. That this job, one that Syenite was fairly certain was going to be relatively easy, would not be at all.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not coral,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Wh\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhat is it, then? I thought coral growth had blocked this harbor.<\/p>\n But more importantly, it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there<\/i>.<\/p>\n The rock beneath the raised layers of silt and sand, that is: She can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel it. She should be able to, if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pushing up the seafloor like this. She can feel the weight of the water atop it, and the rock deformed by its weight and pressure underneath, and the strata around it, but not the actual obstruction itself. There might as well be a big empty hole on the bottom of the harbor\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 around which the entire harbor floor has shaped itself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Cool. Cool. Just a basic physical impossibility here. No big deal.<\/p>\n EXCEPT YES, THIS IS A HUGE DEAL. I loved the conversation that ensued after this realization, not just because it helped me understand the situation, but because Jemisin uses it to dig in to local politics, bias, and comm life. Which is brilliant! How local governments make decisions reflects on the worldbuilding. Was a quick fix needed out of laziness or desperation? Or was it both? I also can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore the unspoken implications of Heresmith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s revelation of the cost of hiring agents from the Fulcrum. Because if these jobs are so expensive\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 who exactly is getting that money? Something tells me that the majority of it doesn’t<\/i> go to the orogenes. We know from Syenite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s early chapters that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a lot of money, given that she has roommates, so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 oh lord. It probably mostly<\/i> goes to the people running the Fulcrum and to the system that keeps it going. THIS IS ALL SO DEEPLY UNCOMFORTABLE. Right???<\/p>\n But the money matters to this situation, so that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why the conversation is important. It informs the eventual decision that is made. The Fulcrum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s costs are so high that it takes decades to pay them off if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a small comm. Geomest studies are also expensive\u00e2\u20ac\u201dperhaps costing the same amount, it looks like\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand complicate matters. And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the failing harbor itself, which is pushing business to other harbors along the cost. So waiting to conduct a study? Might be pointless if the comm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s business dries up. Clear out the coral? Well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just come back, and then the comm will have to endure an additional cost on top of the exorbitant fees.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And then Syenite offers up a suggestion that is so much more sypathetic than anything these people would ever do for her or her kind. She is willing to get in trouble if she leaves the job without doing it, allowing the comm to get their fees back. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a striking choice, especially after Asael implies that Syenite is cheating them, because she shows more humanity than these people say she is capable of. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never see that, though. Maybe Heresmith, who does, by the end of this, seem actually<\/i> appreciative of Syenite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offer. But even she knows they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t delay a solution, so she asks Syenite to clear out the harbor.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I was nervous already. Truly. And I figured something fucked up was about to happen; Jemisin is nothing if not a very<\/i> intentional writer, which I learned while reading The Inheritance Trilogy<\/i>. I also (wrongly) assumed that when she fell into the same disorienting experience as she had the night before that Alabaster was doing his parallel scaling thing.<\/p>\n Something like what she felt last night when Alabaster comandeered her orogeny. But this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Alabaster<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Oh. Oh, okay, so I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prepared for this, and I knew right then that this was going to be a million times worse than what I could have imagined. I assume now that for a brief moment, Syenite shared powers with the being inside, right? I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting ahead of myself, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what that was, yes?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s literally the only here I might actually be able to understand. God, all of page 313 is an exercise in tension, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done so incredibly well. I love that Jemisin gives all these visceral details of what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening around<\/i> the object that has been lifted out of the harbor floor, but she hides the object itself until the last possible moment:<\/p>\n She turns.<\/p>\n There, rising slowly from the water and shedding the remnants of its earthen shell as it begins to hum and turn, is an obelisk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even pretend I knew this might<\/i> happen.<\/p>\n WHAT ARE THE FUCKING OBELISKS. What are they??? Why is everyone just cool with them floating in the sky? Why is there one BURIED BENEATH A HARBOR.<\/p>\n But something\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong with it\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n YEAH, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ME. I DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN THINK THIS WAS A POSSIBILITY. I AM WRONG. EVERYTHING IS WRONG. THERE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S AN OBELISK MOVING ON ITS OWN AND RISING OUT OF A HARBOR. ALL. WRONG.<\/p>\n A person. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s someone in<\/i> the thing, stuck like a bug in amber, limbs splayed and still, hair a frozen spray. She can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make out the face, not quite, but in her imagination the eyes are wide, the mouth open. Screaming.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still falling after Jemisin shoved me off this cliff. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even KNOW. What do I say? How is this possible?<\/p>\n She accepts that what is trapped at its heart, what has somehow broken<\/i> this massive, magnificent, arcane thing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is a stone eater.<\/p>\n And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n My first thought: Is that what Hoa is? I know a lot of us are operating under the assumption that the being from the geode thing in the prologue is Hoa, and he ate stones\/gems, right? So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 maybe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just grasping because I have NO FUCKING IDEA what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually going on here?<\/p>\n I need help.<\/p>\n NOTES<\/b><\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – You can now pre-order my second YA novel, Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a> In the twelfth chapter of The Fifth Season, I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to have to open all my reviews with a request for help because I need it. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569,570],"tags":[571,413],"class_list":["post-5229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-broken-earth","category-the-fifth-season","tag-mark-reads-the-broken-earth","tag-nk-jemisin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n– Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.
\n<\/strong>– If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"