{"id":5245,"date":"2020-08-07T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5245"},"modified":"2020-07-27T12:33:30","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T19:33:30","slug":"mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-chapter-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/08\/mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-chapter-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Obelisk Gate’: Chapter 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third chapter of The Obelisk Gate<\/i>, I would like to fight everything. And everyone. Forever. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of abuse (specifically child abuse), consent<\/b><\/p>\n

Look, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just repeat what I said in the notes I took when reading this for the first time: The literal act of seeing Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name activated my fight or flight response. I had a VISCERAL reaction to this because I HATE this character with EVERY CELL IN MY BODY. And Jemisin does a masterful thing here: she pulls us into his mind, but doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pull punches.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I love a good sympathetic villain, I do. But within the context of this series and<\/i> within the context of the real world, people like Schaffa are too often excused for what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case here at ALL, and I loved how many little damning moments there were along the way. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just<\/i> that. Chapter three has forced me to re-think the Guardians. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know about them, and yet I still operated under some assumptions. One being that they are stills, but I think this chapter suggests that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re like… almost<\/i> orogenes? Part orogene? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about that. First, though: Schaffa survived. I KNEW IT. I knew that without seeing his dead body that his story couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite be over. And yet, despite predicting this, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I was prepared for a SINGLE thing that Jemisin did to me, starting with this:<\/p>\n

Schaffa knows what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coming the instant he feels the obelisk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pulse. He is old, old, Syenite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Guardian. So old. He knows what stone eaters do to powerful orogenes whenever they get the chance, and he knows why it is crucial to keep orogenes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 eyes on the ground and not the sky.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HI, WHAT THE FUCK???? WHAT???? He knew all this the whole time??? Of course, there was no way for us<\/i> to know without dropping into his point of view, like we do for this chapter. It makes sense to me that he (and perhaps all Guardians who are overseeing powerful orogenes) would manipulate them into never looking up rather than tell them about it. Yet for Schaffa, this is just duty to the Fulcrum. Certainly, that plays a part in how he acts, and even in this chapter, we can still see it crop up repeatedly. But Schaffa is motivated by love. His<\/i> version of love, of course, a love that is obsessive and dedicated and loyal and toxic. He cannot see outside of the experience he is in, and he definitely does not view his love for Syenite as a form of violence. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s despite the fact that we saw in Damaya\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chapters that she associated his love with<\/i> violence. It was always there!<\/p>\n

Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love for this woman doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop him from thinking shit like this:<\/p>\n

…the Guardian who has just killed Syenite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s feral lover…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So no amount of love can get this toxicity out of his mind. He might love this one orogene, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t negate the hatred and negative bias he has for other<\/i> orogenes. He is a Guardian, after all. Right?<\/p>\n

Except what does that actually<\/i> mean?<\/p>\n

Because as Schaffa nearly drowns to death in the wake of Syen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s destruction of everything<\/i> off the coast of Meov, something happens. The text calls back to Damaya\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Tonkee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discovery inside the Main building. Remember, that Guardian asked Damaya if it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spoke\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to her, and I believe that this is the same voice that Schaffa hears as he is dying. And in order for that voice to happen, a Guardian needs to be vulnerable. Able to be seduced. By whom? Fuck if I know! But as the text says:\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He wants to live. This is the first and worst sin, for one of his kind.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seemed such a strange thing to say. Why would a Guardian prefer death<\/i>? And then, moments later, the answer comes: because this state leaves them open. The voice is in Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head as he drowns, offering him life in exchange for… well, something. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. By the time I got to the end of chapter three, I still didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the cost was!!! But holy shit, THIS WHOLE PART:<\/p>\n

We all do what we have to do<\/i>, comes the seducer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s whisper, and this is the same reasoning Schaffa has used on himself too many times, over the centuries. Justifying too many atrocities. One does what one must, for duty. For life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even fucking notice that until right now: OVER THE CENTURIES. How fucking old<\/i> is Schaffa? Like, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore that and<\/i> what the final quote says. Who the fuck are the Guardians? Who do they serve? Who is this power that can heal a person at will, and what is the price they have to pay? I did love that Jemisin puts this reminder here: this apparently \u00e2\u20ac\u0153malevolent\u00e2\u20ac\u009d force that is exploiting Schaffa uses the same faulty logic that he does.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel so great anymore, does it, Schaffa?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a transformation here, and as I noted down below, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a motif we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen across the series so far. People change, and they become something else because of the world around them. Here, because of the price Schaffa paid, he appears to have lost most of who he was, aside from instinctual reactions and knowledge. I was intrigued by what Jemisin said remained:<\/p>\n

What remains is a man with a habit of smiling, a warped paternal instinct, and a rage that is not wholly his own driving everything he does from this point on.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Schaffa smiled because it disarmed others. At least that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my take on that part. It was his superficial \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kindness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that got Damaya to come with him, remember? She felt seen<\/i> by him. When orogenes are so deeply hated and despised that it is acceptable to murder them, how do they react when someone purports to be kind to them? So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no surprise that from this, Schaffa developed a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153warped paternal instinct.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But… whose<\/i> rage now drives him? My gut reaction is… Father Earth? Maybe? A stone eater? I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So Schaffa survives, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now… different. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s forgotten much of his training, but only in a specific context, one I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t nail down until the end of the chapter. It seems like his hatred of orogenes has been excised from his brain? No, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not quite right. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like the part of him that was raised to code all orogenes as terrible and needing subjugation simply doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t activate all the time. He still uses the slur to describe them, and there are moments where his training kicks in. For example, when Schaffa meets Eitz, the young boy who has realized he is an Orogene, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this exchange:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People kill orogenes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the boy says softly. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When they find them. Unless they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re with a Guardian.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do they?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It seems uncivilized of them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the briefest flash, Schaffa reveals both a radical thought and<\/i> recovers a part of himself. Because Schaffa does<\/i> want to find child orogenes and save them, right? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kinda his thing, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely what we saw when he discovered Damaya. At the same time: YES. YES, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A DEEPLY UNCIVILIZED BEHAVIOR.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some hope here. Schaffa is being compelled to act because of this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153anger\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in him, and whatever force that is, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pushing him in a new direction. Somewhat, I should say. Because there are<\/i> moments when his normal training takes over, you know? I see his movements in the latter part of the chapter as evidence of that. It feels so natural for him to bond Eitz to him, a process which somehow felt even creepier than it did before. What is actually taking place when a Guardian touches a person? I feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a violation of consent there, especially since orogenes become very<\/i> amenable to doing whatever their Guardian wants. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Schaffa wants this time, though:<\/p>\n

Gather them, train them, make them the weapons they are meant to be<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153anger\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says to Schaffa. This is not work to be done with the Fulcrum, is it? Even though Eitz and Schaffa head south from Metter, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re bound for Yumenes. So… what the fuck is happening here?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the explanation for Schaffa killing the ENTIRE household? It could be that this was instinctual, too. Once he knew that Eitz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inadequate to the task,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he just wiped out her. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dead seconds later. I also wonder if the jolts of energy and memory fueled his actions. What if he stole all those lives to make himself better? What if it was a punishment because he realized none of these people would protect Eitz?<\/p>\n

Yet even that protection comes with a cost. Jemisin reminds us again that Schaffa is particularly good at manipulation:<\/p>\n

He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s old for such words to have the power on him that they do. They work, Schaffa suspects, because Eitz has spent the past few months living in terror of his family. It is nothing to play on such a lonely, weary state of mind. It isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even a lie.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What the fuck is Schaffa doing? Is he really going to collect orogenes and train them all himself? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the end goal here? WHY AM I STILL SO UNPREPARED FOR THIS BOOK???<\/p>\n

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