There was an idea I had way back when we had our conversation with Dr. Giorgis. I thought out my perception of Earth as “Mother Earth” and why I thought of our planet that way. This idea lead me to rediscover a piece of my childhood that I had left behind.
My interest in Greek Mythology manifested when I was 9 years old. I had found this huge book in my elementary school library called D’aulaires Book of Greek Myths and pledged to read all of it. It spun tales of Gods and heroes triumphing or outsmarting evil. And in it is a beautiful artistic rendering of Mother Earth, or Gaea as she is named. Before revisiting the book my thoughts about Gaea were fairly standard; an all giving, fertile, gentle being. However, the truth is actually much closer to the Sanze people’s idea about Father Earth. I forgot how she convinced her children, the Titans, to kill their father, the sky Uranus. And in turn she then convinced the sons of Cronus, the Titan that took over, to kill him and then take power.
She is a very manipulative character that always seeks to serve her agenda. The most interesting part of that story upon this reread is that the reason Gaea convinces the Titans to Kill their father in the first place, is because Uranus cast his and Gaea’s other six sons, which he considered ugly, into Tartarus. That immediately reminded me of how Father Earth is supposed to be angry cause humans cast away HIS one and only son.
It makes me wonder if Jemison drew from Greek Mythology when she was building the world of The Broken Earth.
If you wanna check out the book here’s a link I found to it online!!
https://www.slideshare.net/JefferyLong4/daulaires-book-of-greek-myths-60388534