{"id":5296,"date":"2020-10-28T05:00:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5296"},"modified":"2020-10-19T15:02:43","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T22:02:43","slug":"mark-reads-the-stone-sky-chapter-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/10\/mark-reads-the-stone-sky-chapter-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Stone Sky’: Chapter 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the tenth chapter of The Stone Sky<\/i>, Nassun understands. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of death, body horror, sexual assault\/rape, slavery<\/b><\/p>\n

Holy shit. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Holy SHIT. I mean, I should have known from that opening that this chapter was going to completely devastate me, but oh my god. You know, throughout the book, the characters refer to Earth as Evil Earth. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a common phrase, too, a means of communicating anger or frustration. And from the perspective of some people, I understand why Earth is viewed as an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153evil\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing.<\/p>\n

And this chapter definitively flips everything on its head.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a surprise, nor is it shocking, as Jemisin long ago hinted at or outright said that Earth was furious for what was done to it. We also knew that Earth was sentient because of Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s POV chapters; Earth spoke to him!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said: All these pieces come together in a scene that is deeply uncomfortable, that is terrifying, that is emotional and intimate, and it hits so<\/i> damn hard. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because Jemisin rightly chose to compose this scene so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d see it through Nassun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes. Which character would be uniquely positioned to understand what Earth felt?<\/p>\n

The same one who had everything taken from her.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, let me back up, because I do want to talk about the vehimal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey to the core. Even in that, Jemisin links this to a deeper metaphor of exploitation and hubris. It would be easy to be impressed the vehimal, and indeed, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s designed in a way to impress. Of course, it was easy for me to remember how Hoa, all those years ago, realized that things could be built for comfort. Here, Nassun experiences Sylanagistine technology for the first time, which both intrigues her and frightens her. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bizarre experience for someone who has virtually nothing to compare it to. There is nothing like a vehimal on the Stillness… at least not anymore. So, as Nassun sinks into this experience, she is both full of wonder and anxious. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore that her anxiety is only made worse by Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior, and I correctly guessed that as he got closer to the core, the more intensely he felt Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s willpower on him. There is, of course, another angle:\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He bares his teeth suddenly, and thrusts his fingers into his hair. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Familiarity, but no, no\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 context! No meaning! Something about this journey is wrong. Something is wrong and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember what<\/i>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This echoes the warning that Steel gave: it was a mistake to bring Schaffa along on the journey. Because if Schaffa had kept his memories from his time before his contamination, he would have remembered that his corestone came<\/i> from the center of the Earth. I have like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 a million questions about that. Who the fuck harvested it? I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that the same people who exploited the Earth must be the same who managed to make these devices. Oh god, the socket from The Fifth Season<\/i>!!! Oh shit, of COURSE a Guardian would become corrupt near a place that was a direct conduit of sorts to the core. I FEEL LIKE I UNDERSTAND A WHOLE NEW THING HERE. (I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said this before, but this series has to be a TRIP to re-read.) I bet the Guardians were given these implants to curb their orogeny, but were always told to avoid any possible connection to Earth, since their corestones were LITERALLY from the core. (Can we also acknowledge how I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure this out despite that the answer is LITERALLY in the fucking name. Good bye. GOOD BYE.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, we have Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anxiety, which Nassun is empathetic to, making her anxiety worse as the vehimal crawls along the tunnel, descending into the Earth. All this became my<\/i> anxiety when Jemisin introduced the chasm: the massive hole that I assume was carved out by the Sylanagistine in order to reach the core. Knowing the endgame of this chapter, I now feel a different type of horror. Before, it was the unknown. As the vehimal approached the chasm and then tipped over the side, this was like if I boarded the MTA near my house and then forty minutes later, it turned into a roller coast that was just a drop and nothing else. THIS IS TERRIFYING. But knowing<\/i> that this was all constructed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat the original builders tore up the Earth and siphoned away the life of the core\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmakes this so much more upsetting. Nassun is pitching into a nightmare of many layers.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is the perfect time for Schaffa to say this:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have done this before,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says, but he sounds uncertain. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have survived it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This truly did not comfort me in the SLIGHTEST. Okay, sure, you survived. MOTHERFUCKER. HOW. HOW DID YOU SURVIVE<\/i>. (This is all the more ironic because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 fuck. Did<\/i> he survive it this time? And at what cost to himself?)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then they launch.<\/p>\n

God, the sequence is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 beautiful. Scary. Bizarre. And it contains another of my favorite passages in the whole series, which comes from Schaffa as the unbearable pain mounts in him with each passing moment:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Leadership families of Yumenes believed that orogenes once ruled the world,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That their duty was to keep your kind from ever regaining that much power. That you would be monstrous rulers of the world, doing back to ordinary folk what had been done to you, if you ever got the chance. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think they were right about any of it\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand yet.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He gestures, as she stands there illuminated by the fire of the earth. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Look<\/i> at you, little one. If you are the monster they imagined you to be\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 you are also glorious.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What a fucking MOMENT. Nassun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 look, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that I ever doubted her love for him. I understood it was complicated and affected by so many various factors. But y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 she loves him. Because he understands her, deeply and truly and unconditionally. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wanted this whole time?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is also why the next sequence of events is so brutal and devastating. Nassun does not link the silver to Earth until the vehimal is plunging toward the core. Her epiphany is fucking horrifying, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and Jemisin does such a fantastic job grounding us in her fear, reminding us that she is both immensely powerful and<\/i> a young girl who is essentially watching her father figure suffer in front of her. She can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even excise the corestone or cut off the silver from it, and then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 oh lord.<\/p>\n

And here, within the sanctum of its heart, the Evil Earth notices her back.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

hi HELP. This whole exchange was just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 one of the wildest things in this whole fucking series. The faces. THE FUCKING FACES. Oh my god, the warnings earlier in the book about burial:<\/p>\n

Obligation,<\/i> the Earth returns, in wavelets of heat and crushing pressure. Nassun bares her teeth, struggling against the weight of its contempt. What was stolen, or lent, must be recompensed.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jemisin uses three very particular words in this section: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153recompensed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d then \u00e2\u20ac\u0153raped,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and then \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reparation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe for a second that she used any of these lightly, and in the reality she has constructed here, they each feel apt and necessary. This is what happened to Earth when people harnessed magic and greedily wanted even more. As the text notes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that those who made the obelisks never thought Earth was aware or sentient or alive, and they just saw another resource to be plundered and drained. It is an act of violation, a gross destruction of consent, and an act so vile and violent that only reparations can truly begin to repair what has been done. It is through this, too, that Jemisin writes Nassun as the empathetic child, the one desperate to understand the world around her because she<\/i> wants to be understood, too. At least that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one reading I really enjoy of this text, and also: perhaps I am projecting because I RELATE TO THAT NARRATIVE A WHOLE LOT. But even if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way off base from the intent, Nassun still sees a parallel struggle within her own life and what is unfolding on the Stillness in the present time:\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And oh. Does Nassun not understand this? Her hands tighten in Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shirt, trembling as her hatred wavers. Can she not empathize?<\/p>\n

For the world has taken so much from her. She had a brother once. And a father, and a mother whom she also understands but wishes she did not. And a home, and dreams. The people of the Stillness have long since robbed her of childhood and any hope of a real future, and because of this she is so angry that she cannot think beyond THIS MUST STOP and I WILL STOP IT\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u201dso does she not resonate with the Evil Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrath, herself?<\/p>\n

She does.<\/p>\n

Earth eat her, she does.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a moment that diminishes the very idea that Earth is… well, evil. Can you say this entity is evil when something so horrible has been done to it for such an absurdly long length of time? Earth was exploited and drained; their child was flung away. (Which makes me think that the Moon is also a sentient being, too.) So even though Schaffa may be hurt beyond healing, and even though Nassun may never consider herself an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ally\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to Earth, she comes to the same conclusion, to the same end:\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This has to stop. I will stop it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She closes her eyes and the lashes stick together, wet. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I promise.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

She does not know to whom she makes this promise. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter, really.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You know what? I think Nassun is going to accomplish this goal. I think that even if Essun makes it to Corepoint, even if she initially tries to stop her daughter, her daughter will convince her to let it all burn. I FEEL THIS. DEEP IN MY SOUL. I also know it is risky as hell to put a prediction out like this because I have been so very wrong about this series before. Not all the time, but a LOT of the time.<\/p>\n

Oh, I am also excited because the next chapter is in Syl Anagist GIVE IT TO ME.<\/p>\n

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