{"id":5265,"date":"2020-09-04T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5265"},"modified":"2020-08-24T06:43:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T13:43:57","slug":"mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-chapter-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/09\/mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-chapter-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Obelisk Gate’: Chapter 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifteenth chapter of The Obelisk Gate<\/i>, Nassun learns why her mother is the way she is. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of slavery, abuse, and the death of children<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Holy shit. IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER??? Every new development in this book thrills me and makes me excited for what is to come, and Steel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s introduction is absolutely responsible for that here.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First thought: What is Hoa talking about in that opening paragraph? I really want to know more about the history of the stone eaters, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all! What has their existence been like since Evil Earth made them? Is that what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s referring to?<\/p>\n

After this opening, Jemisin wastes literally no time dropping us into a tense and confusing nightmare. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect for us to be in the Antarctic Fulcrum so soon, but knowing what happened in the last Nassun chapter, I was immediately<\/i> worried. We knew that the three Guardians of Found Moon saw this Fulcrum as a potential threat, and it seemed damn obvious that they wanted to take it out. But why sit<\/i> with these orogenes and talk about the Season and their actions since it began? It seemed almost cruel! If their intent was to wipe this place out, why even entertain a conversation? I wonder, then, how much of what we see here is Schaffa going along with what Evil Earth wanted so that he could feel some<\/i> relief from the pain he was under. I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not misreading this: Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s silver (the sign Nassun recognizes as his master) is exceptionally<\/i> active throughout this chapter. Granted, I knew that some of the terror here was because these orogenes hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been visited by Guardians, and they all likely suspected they were going<\/i> to be killed if they couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prove their usefulness. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that what they were doing? Look at what they talked about: helping nearby comms. Fortifying the Fulcrum. Planning for the future. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Nassun can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand, though, that drives the tension. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get at first that all Fulcrum facilities must close during a Season. And not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153close\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the nice sense: purged<\/i>. Right?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing, then, that this kills two birds with one stone. Schaffa, who is trying to right by Nassun and the other orogenes, does not want the Fulcrum to know what he is doing; he certainly doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want anyone to find out about Found Moon. But Earth, through Schaffa, also wants vengeance. What better way to achieve some of that than through wiping out a Fulcrum facility?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m only now understanding the tragic irony of this line: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your pet seems uncomfortable with the idea of mass extermination for no reason.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d HELP. )<\/p>\n

So, after Serpentine lies about why there are no longer any Guardians, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that Schaffa wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to waste anymore time. The fight that unfolds is exceptionally violent and disturbing. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s… lord, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much. It is, first of all, a reminder of just how vicious the Guardians can be. And these are contaminated<\/i> Guardians, ones who are working out the whims of Evil Earth, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even more spectacularly awful. Hell, I even forgot that Guardians can shut down orogeny. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the affect this has on Nassun that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more interesting to me. While this is unfolding, one of the orogenes shatters Nassun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s torus, leading her to this:<\/p>\n

Her mother learned that trick here, in the Fulcrum, this is how people from the Fulcrum train young orogenes, everything Nassun has known of her mother is tainted by this place and has always been\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a deeply heartbreaking moment, and soon after this, Nassun is given the pieces of her mother to finally make some sense of her. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean she necessarily sympathizes with Essun. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that she is now in possession of a context she never had. Take her conversation with Ajae, for example. Ajae casually talks about having her hand broken, an act that was deeply traumatizing for Nassun, like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s normal<\/i> for this to happen. She connects the dots between what Ajae says to the legacy of what she has lived with:<\/p>\n

The Fulcrum is why her mother never loved her.<\/p>\n

Is why her father does not love her anymore.<\/p>\n

Is why her brother is dead.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not surprising to me that someone as observant and thoughtful as Nassun is able to realize how poisonous<\/i> this place is, how its politics and morals have been the real<\/i> contaminant in the world of the Stillness. She understands this, and she reacts with a counterforce that she sees is appropriate. As she later tells Schaffa when it is done, she knew that the Fulcrum was wrong and it made her mother wrong. During this, though, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an unspoken, silent conflict that unfolds between Umber and Schaffa, and I wonder if Earth was telling Schaffa to kill Nassun right at that moment. I say that because of what Nassun says to Earth at the end of the chapter while speaking to Umber, plus, Nassun is very<\/i> much aware that Schaffa \u00e2\u20ac\u0153has damaged himself in the eyes of his fellow Guardians by choosing not to kill her.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Yet even then, I believe Jemisin gives us the clues to figure out what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening here. Look at this scene:<\/p>\n

The silver has gone quiet in Umber, or as quiet as it ever gets in any of the Guardians, but the glimmering lines within Schaffa are still alive, active, tearing at him. He fights them, though, and is prepared to fight Umber, too, if necessary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The silver only appears when you fight the will of Evil Earth, so… what exactly is Schaffa resisting? Again, given what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see at the end, I think that Evil Earth had no real use for Nassun and wanted her dead!<\/p>\n

Speaking of use, though… holy shit. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. A STONE EATER VISITED NASSUN. Oh my god, of course<\/i> they would seek out someone else they could use as a pawn against Evil Earth, and who better than a child orogene who is far more talented than most orogenes? I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore that we spent the first book in this series watching Essun struggle to utilize an obelisk, and here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Nassun, with far less training, able to fall into the magic of an obelisk almost effortlessly. And thus, this stone eater, Steel, approaches Nassun, and he tempts her with a possibility: being an ally to his cause. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I did not understand what Steel meant the first time around, but I GET IT. I DO:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You<\/i> were wrong,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says, in his strange echoing voice. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The people of the Fulcrum, and the Guardians, are not to blame for the things they do. You wanted to know why your Guardian must suffer as he does. The answer is: He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Steel is placing blame where it belongs: right at the feet of Evil Earth. That<\/i> is the real source of this entire nightmare, and I should have realized that because look what he does after he says this! He quiets the silver in Schaffa, allowing him a respite from the constant pain in his body. Then he promises to teach her how to fight \u00e2\u20ac\u0153his tormentor, his master<\/i>, too. If you wish.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And for what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth, I do believe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really in exchange for anything, at least not in the terms Nassun thinks. Stone eaters see humans as pawns, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be to Steel. At least that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my take on this. He wants to end Evil Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reign, and he sees Nassun as a means to an end.<\/p>\n

But I also love the agency Jemisin grants Nassun in the end. Nassun is upfront with Umber and, by extension, with the master that controls Umber, Nida, and Schaffa. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fascinating to me, too, that this is framed as an issue of love and loyalty. Nassun repeatedly refers to love when thinking of Schaffa; she literally says that she will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153die, or kill, or remake the world,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for Schaffa, all because he loves her. So here we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a contaminated Guardian (and Evil Earth) assuring Nassun that he won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kill her.. because he will trust in Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love for her.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s huge<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. What does Evil Earth even know of love? Is the Earth thinking of their only child, the one that Nassun glimpses before she falls asleep? Is that something they truly understand?<\/p>\n

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