In the thirteenth chapter of The Obelisk Gate<\/i>, Essun reckons with a mysterious history and her part in it. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For body horror, gore, and references to slavery<\/b><\/p>\n
I am really loving how much of The Broken Earth<\/i> is about reckoning with the past. Part of that contributes to a plot that feels<\/i> like a mystery, something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve referred to and wrote about before, but I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t qualify this book or the previous as<\/i> a mystery. I see this all as the characters dealing with a world they inherited and the choices they make as they discover what it really is. Who seeks to destroy it all? Who seeks to uplift it? Who cares about maintaining the status quo, and who is harmed<\/i> by that status quo?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And at the center of Essun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story in The Obelisk Gate<\/i> is a relic, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the few that is referenced in the title to this chapter. She now lives in a place that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a leftover from a time long past. Deadcivs are everywhere in the Stillness, but I adore how much this book is concerned with figuring out why<\/i> they ever existed in the first place.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll talk about the more literal relics later, I wanted to start with a more figurative relic that Essun contends with: the training provided to her by the Fulcrum. This chapter opens with one of the first lessons we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen Essun give the orogene children of Castrima. It was fascinating to me that she had to adapt her teaching because of the circumstances. I honestly expected her to just replicate the teaching she received in the Fulcrum, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no luxury here. These kids need to be trained fast<\/i>. And thus, Essun relies on a different relic: the harmful, painful, and at times cruel training she gave her own daughter out of desperation and fear. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heartbreaking to read this because Jemisin has already shown us the ramifications of that training through Nassun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s point of view. We know she desperately wanted a certain kind of love from her mother, but she never got it. Here, from Essun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s point of view, we get to see her contend with what she did:<\/p>\n Once, as you trained Nassun, you told yourself that it did not matter if she hated you by the end of it; she would know your love by her own survival. That never felt right, though, did it? You were gentler with Uche for that reason. And you always meant to apologize to Nassun, later, when she was old enough to understand… Ah, there are so many regrets in you that they spin, heavy as compressed iron, at your core.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And I appreciated so much that this was unpacked on the page. Essun demonstrates an awareness that has come about from time and absence<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only now, as Nassun is far, far away from her (and I should note that Essun doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know if Nassun is alive anymore), that Essun is coming to accept this part of her. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a relic of her previous life.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But so is Alabaster in a way, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he? At the start of this chapter, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re reminded again that Essun has moved from one life to another, from one name to another, each time forced to reinvent herself. Damaya. Syenite. Essun. Allia. Meov. Tirimo. Castrima. Alabaster was a vital presence in Essun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life, but only for a while. Now that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reappeared a decade after Antimony took him into the Earth, he is a relic of a life she once had. One of the most heartbreaking things about this chapter is the painful way in which Alabaster and Essun reckon with that absence. They have always had an odd, non-traditional relationship, but I would never claim that it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t based in love. I think they absolutely<\/i> love one another, and I was fascinated by Essun saying she became hardened<\/i> without Alabaster. Oh gods, what would she have been like if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d had another kid with Alabaster in her life? With Innon? Would she have raised Nassun differently? Sometimes, the relics we must cope with are the conditions of the world we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re born into.<\/p>\n There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also the literal relics, too, and I was so thrilled by Alabaster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continued talk of the Obelisk Gate, the Guardians, and the history that was kept from everyone<\/i>. Because it was<\/i> kept, deliberately so! A great deal of their conversation addressed the fact that orogenes taught by the Fulcrum were taught to only deal with their immediate surroundings:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Fulcrum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s methods are a kind of conditioning meant to steer you toward energy redistribution and away from magic. The torus isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even necessary\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyou can gather ambient energy in any number of ways. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how they teach you to direct your awareness down<\/i> to perform orogeny, never up. Nothing above you matters. Only your immediate surroundings, never father.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He shakes his head to the degree that he can. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing, when you think about it. Everyone in the Stillness is like this. Never mind what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the oceans, never mind what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the sky; never look at your own horizon and wonder what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beyond it. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent centuries making fun of the astromests for their crackpot theories, but what we really found incredible was that they ever bothered to look up<\/i> to formulate them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On a literal level, this is an incredible commentary on the worldbuilding within the Stillness. Here, Alabaster has distilled a cultural behavior down to its simplest parts, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like this is the first time we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen this! I recall that line from the previous book (I believe it was in an interlude?) that asked why no one looked up. I also see how you could read this as a metaphor for what happens in our own world, particularly as an American. We are absolutely raised with an innate selfishness, a sort of pull-yourselves-up-by-the-bootstraps mentality that eschews community and global thinking to hyper-focus our gaze (and our empathy) to only what is immediately around us. I mean.. this might be uncomfortable, but I think that sort of thinking is why my country is in such a horrific mess when it comes to this damn pandemic. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think shaming folks for bad decisions works in a greater sense to shift behavior, and I also don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore the massive<\/i> structural problems with our governments that contributed to it. But I also think we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore that American individualism and exceptionalism played a part in this! You could also apply this to political movements, to political apathy<\/i>, too, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like… wow. I literally could write multiple essays just on this one passage alone. IF ONLY I HAD THE TIME.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point where I get to celebrate getting something mostly<\/i> right: the things inserted into Guardians contaminate them with Evil Earth. So I assume they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re from<\/i> the Earth, right? Logically, they had to once be a means of making humans… like… what? Agents of Evil Earth? Did someone corrupt these devices in order to create the Guardians we now have in the world? Oh god, all of Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chapters make so much more SENSE. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s constantly been fighting off the Earth inside of him since he was saved. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happened to Guardian Timay, too. And what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all this talk of Warrant? Is that actually where they go during a Season in order to survive it? We know for certain that Guardians have a long lifespan because of those implants. UGH I NEED TO KNOW MORE. Where did the Guardians actually come from? What was their original purpose? Why did they come to work for the Fulcrum? (I realize now how much I assumed during The Fifth Season<\/i> that they were always<\/i> part of the Fulcrum.)<\/p>\n But lets move on to a literal relic, the one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually the largest one of all: the geode community of Castrima. You know that thing where I am certain I know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ready to write a whole analysis of a character, and then something in the end completely destroys that theory? Yeah, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s me and Tonkee. Because I was ready to write about a specific dynamic: Tonkee, as a still, believes that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s smarter than all the orogenes around her, except for Essun. Actually, she might believe that, too. Point being: as a still, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a uncomfortable tension here because I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure how much of this was Tonkee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainty and how much of it was her upholding the existing anti-orogene beliefs of the Stillness.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And then that Thing happens, and now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure Tonkee is a still at all<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Before we talk about The Thing, I wanted to delve into the complicated politics and reality of the control room. First of all: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s confirmed outright that no one truly knows what the fuck most of it is for. (I suspect Alabaster knows more than he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ever going to admit out loud, but such is the way of Alabaster, right?) Oh, the people who have<\/i> been in the control have figured out certain controls, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through process of elimination and observation. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something deeply funny to me about them using specific controls and just… seeing what happens. Like, one of those mechanisms could have been, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Implode the whole place instantly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s press EVERYTHING. And I also believe that if anyone could decipher more of it, it would be Tonkee.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yet her obsession over the control room created another problem: She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not contributing to the comm. And that<\/i> is a big issue. At this point, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153portable water-testing device\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to Morat, the Innovator caste spokeswoman, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just not how things fly in Castrima! This is a comm of usefulness, where each person contributes to the survival of all<\/i>, and Tonkee seems unwilling to even entertain the idea of helping anyone else. I suppose it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible in her own logic that working within the control room could help Castrima, but I mostly suspect that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s into it for intellectual curiosity. Almost entirely<\/i> for that, I should say. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a brilliant contrast here, too, that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pick up on until I was writing this review, and it shows us a counter behavior. As the group heads up to the control room, Ykka reveals her backstory as a means of understanding the original inhabitants of Castrima, who must have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153respected hard work and adapting under pressure.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She brings this up and then draws a line between that and her own comm, who discovered she was an orogene at age 15 when she used her abilities to put out a massive forest fire. And when the comm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leaders argued about what to do with Ykka for three days, she assumed it was because they were either going to kill her or send her off to the Fulcrum.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153At the end of it, I found out the townsfolk had been arguing about how to get me trained<\/i>. Without letting the Fulcrum on, see.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is a stunning reveal, and it matters to the conversation at hand. Ykka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comm wanted to know how they could work together<\/i> to survive, and here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tonkee, off doing her own thing without a care to Castrima at large. A genuine worry? Tonkee is gonna do something in the control room that wipes everyone out.<\/p>\n So yeah, I was really surprised (pleasantly so!) that while everyone was pissed at Tonkee for being selfish and not considering the comm at large, they also clearly<\/i> wanted to listen to her, especially Ykka. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t immediately kick her out, and both Ykka and Essun constantly ask her questions about what she discovered. Now, do I understand what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discovered? OH NO, NOT AT ALL LMAOOOOOO. I mean… potential obelisks? Is this where obelisks can be made<\/i>? I assumed that was what the sockets were for? Like, they grew in those? But maybe not. Maybe they were created in places like Castrima and then taken to… places with sockets? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what ANYTHING else is. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the metallic shards are, though… shit. Maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what creates Guardians? LOOK I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW. it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only \u00e2\u20ac\u0153metallic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen in the series that interacts with a human body. So maybe? I mean… \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mark of their enemy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? We know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Evil Earth, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that logo again, the same one that Essun saw near the socket in the Main building.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (And what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s burndown? How did Essun know to say that?)<\/p>\n I suppose that I, like Essun, should have seen what was coming. Because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Ykka is wrong: Tonkee would absolutely explore the control room and risk destroying everything for her own sake, and that is in direct<\/i> contradiction to Ykka. Like, in every way. She literally says she would rather never<\/i> know another thing about Castrima\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s control than risk destroying it, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the polar opposite take that Tonkee has. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get (well, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another thing I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get, but hold on for that): Why did she grab one of the iron bits?<\/i> She did that purposefully<\/i> before trying to escape the control room. Did she know what it was for? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that her hypothesis was wrong because she ends up being completely surprised by what that shard does. Look, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of mortifying stuff in these books. Like… I still haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recovered from the boilbug attack. I HAVEN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T, I REFUSE TO. And this was just… holy shit. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s horrifying<\/i>. That thing burrowed under her skin and started crawling up her arm while inside of Tonkee<\/i>. Can we take a moment, though, and laugh at Hjarka, though?<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can bite it out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hjarka looks up at you. Her sharpened teeth are small razors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n THIS WAS JUST SO FUNNY TO ME. Especially because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so serious<\/i>. She really meant it!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quote or rehash everything of the bloody, body-horror-esque nightmare that unfolds here because it is a LOT, but I have to highlight this part because… what the fuck<\/i> does it mean???<\/p>\n You weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expecting that, here amid the gelid bobble of her cells. Tonkee isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t turning into stone like Alabaster, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never sessed magic in any other living creature. Yet here, here<\/i> in Tonkee, there is something that gleams steadily, silverish and threadlike, coming up through her feet\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfrom where? doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand ending at the iron shard.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So… does the shard feed<\/i> on a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s magic? Hell, does this magic mean that Tonkee is an orogene? Or potentially could<\/i> have been one? I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW. I feel much more certain that the iron shard itself reveals that it has something to do with Earth by saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ah; hello, little enemy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to Essun. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop thinking about the implants for Guardians. IS THAT WHAT THIS IS?<\/p>\n Also, I can now add \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Essun perfectly slicing Tonkee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arm off and the iron shard wriggling out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to my list of things I will not recover from in this series. Cool. Cool cool cool.<\/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 thirteenth chapter of The Obelisk Gate, Essun reckons with a mysterious history and her part in 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":[569,574],"tags":[571,413],"class_list":["post-5263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-broken-earth","category-the-obelisk-gate","tag-mark-reads-the-broken-earth","tag-nk-jemisin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263","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=5263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIt enters her body.<\/p>\n\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":"