Reader’s thinking continues to change as they read through each book of a trilogy. The first book, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin gives readers the beginnings of this dystopian world. The first books in trilogies always make readers want more in order to get the full story, this also changes their thinking. When I wrote my Lithosphere Essay, I had only read the first book of the Fifth Season trilogy. During this, I had many unanswered questions that I knew I would find out as I read through the rest of the trilogy. Since the Lithosphere Essay was based on racialization in The Fifth Season, I wondered why orogenes were treated with disrespect and where this stigma came from. This also made me think that the author possibly wrote racialization into the book in order to bring awareness of problems that happen in the real world. As I continued through the books, I soon realized that things were much darker than I could have ever expected.
Since the Lithosphere Essay focused on the racialization of orogenes, it made me wonder why they were treated with discrimination. In the first book, there were numerous examples of orogenes being racialized which I constantly thought was unfair. Since orogenes showed their powers and what they are capable of, I also thought that they might have used their powers in the past to harm others. As I read the last book of the trilogy, The Stone Sky, my thoughts changed once I learned the real reason behind their stigma, “How did it begin? You must understand that fear is at the root of such things. Niespeople looked different, behaved differently, were different – but every group is different from others. Differences alone are never enough to cause problems. Syl Anagist’s assimilation of the world had been over for a century before I was ever made; all cities were Syl Anagist.” (Page 210). Orogenes are the descendants of the Niespeople, who were the first to hold their supernatural powers. Syl Anagist was the main civilization that had people without these powers. Since there was a difference between these two groups of people, the Sylanagistines were afraid of the power the Niespeople held. This is what started the fear that continues in the world of the first book, The Fifth Season. After learning that orogenes stigma came from fear, my thinking was completely changed. Orogenes did not use their power to harm people in an evil way, Sylanagistines were only afraid of what they could do. The Sylanagistines believed in bad faith towards the Niespeople, they did not trust that the Niespeople could use their power for good. This fear started the discrimination that will continue to rot this dystopian world.
The main topic of the Lithosphere Essay was racialization which made me wonder if N.K. Jemisin wanted to show readers how discrimination affects people. I thought since Jemisin is a black woman, she wanted to show readers that haven’t experienced racism the unfairness. As I read through The Stone Sky, there was an example that supported my thinking, “The Sylanagistines took their land. The Niess fought, but then responded like any living thing under threat – with diaspora, sending whatever was left of themselves flying forth to take root and perhaps survive where it could.” (Page 209). When the Sylanagistines tried to take over the Niespeople’s land, their powers were shown which is where their fear came from. The problem was that the Sylanagistines wanted to take their land in order to expand their civilization. In addition, this quote proves that the orogenes ancestors did not use their powers for no reason. The Niespeople were trying to protect themselves but were more powerful than the Sylanagistines. Anyone would have used what they had to protect their land and their people but the Niess were cursed with an extraordinary power. This history kept my thinking the same since it reminded me of indigenous people. Indigenous people were also taken from their land and then were forced to forget their language and culture. Their kind was soon forgotten which is what happened to the Niespeople because their colonizers tried to erase them from history. Another example from The Stone Sky that showed a similarity to indigenous people is, “They maintained some of their old ways, too – like splitting their tongues with salt acid, for reasons known only to them. And while they lost much of their distinctive look that came of isolation within their small land, many retained enough of it that to this day, ice white eyes and ashblow hair carry a certain stigma.” (Page 209). The Niespeople possessed certain traits that the citizens of Syl Anagist did not obtain. This made the Niespeople look different from others which caused them to face discrimination for not looking like the rest of civilization. The Sylanagistines wanted the Niespeople to be like everyone else although they tried to keep their culture, but soon the readers learned that it was all erased from history.
Since the Lithosphere Essay was based on what we learned in The Fifth Season, the readers did not know the true horrors against the orogenes ancestors. The readers got a taste of the horrors when we learned about the nodes. I believed that the orogenes must have done something wrong in the past but it turned out to be the Sylanagistines that were evil. An example of this which changed my thinking was, “They are still alive, I know at once. Though the sprawl motionless amid the thicket of vines (lying atop the vines, twisted among them, wrapped up in them, speared by them where the vines grow through flesh), it is impossible not to sess the delicate threads of silver darting between the cells of this one’s hand, or dancing along the hairs of that one’s back. Some of them we can see breathing, though the motion is so very slow.” (Page 262). The Sylanagistines used the Niess to power their civilization with their magic forcefully. The vines that contained the power were the bodies of the Niespeople and in order to take their magic, they needed to be alive. This is discovered by Hoa and made him want to take revenge since he was created to be similar to the Niess. This evil and tortious act is what caused the moon to be sent out of orbit and started the seasons. Learning this changed my thinking entirely since I believed an evil act was done by the orogenes ancestors. The people of the current world in this book also believed that the orogenes committed evil acts since that’s what their history told them. I never expected to learn something extremely horrific but it now makes sense of how the nodes were described in the first book. This act was done for the selfish reason to power the Syl Anagist’s city which they believed was for good reasons.
The reader’s thinking is constantly being changed when new information is revealed in each book of a trilogy. The first book, The Fifth Season, gave readers like myself things to think about when first learning about this dystopian world. When readers think while reading, it makes them want to read more to understand the full story. When a reader’s thinking changes, it matters since they are learning the answers to the questions they created. N.K. Jemisin continued to explain the mysteries as readers went through each book of the trilogy.