Author: Hailey Bilby

One of the things that our course epigraph reminds us when thinking about AI is that there are positives and negatives associated with it, both drastic, but additionally it has the potential to change. In Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy, humans are described in almost the same way, revealing stunning truths and connections between the novel’s premises and AI. These connections begin a conversation about the ambiguities associated with AI and how it will be used in the future. Additionally, there are things about the Oankali that raise red-flags when you think about them in terms of AI, and further add to the conversation. AI has the potential to harm people on a widespread scale just as it has the potential to help them on the same level. Will AI ruin the world, or will it make it exponentially better? That all depends on how we move forward with it. 

Before I dive into the pros and cons of AI and its relevance to Octavia Butler’s trilogy, it’s necessary to understand what AI is, how it’s made, and what it does. In Janelle Shane’s novel, You Look Like a Thing and I Love You, she describes AI as “a particular style of computer program called a machine learning algorithm.” (Shane, 8) Machine learning algorithm is pretty self-explanatory; the machine learns on its own through trial and error, and doesn’t just do whatever the programmer tells it to do. The machine learns new information only when it is “fed” new information, either by a programmer or consumer. In the context of machines learning new information and coming up with solutions, she writes “Sometimes these new solutions are ingenious, and sometimes they’re a problem.” (Shane, 22) This is the basis of my essay. In Butler’s novel, this idea can be applied to humans, who are established as intelligent but patriarchal, and described by Akin in Adulthood Rites as “a compelling, seductive, deadly contradiction.” (Butler, 16) If we think about AI in the same way as Butler characterizes the human race in her trilogy, and vice versa, there are strong topics of discussion. 

The course epigraph provided by Dr. McCoy is a quote from Butler’s first novel in the trilogy, Dawn. “‘You’re filled with so much life and death and potential for change,’ Nikanj continued. ‘I understand now why some people took so long to get over their fear of your kind.’” (Butler, 89) AI is similar, in a sense, because of its potential to go wildly either way; life, or death. Right now, it’s hard to think about AI with the potential to cause life or death, but it absolutely can and does cause harm on a huge scale. On the other hand, the opposite is true as well. AI absolutely can and does help people tremendously on a huge level, but how AI either helps or harms the population in the future has a chance to change, and that is something we should be very weary and concerned about, but also something we shouldn’t let condemn the use of AI completely. Let’s face it, AI isn’t going away anytime soon; it’s likely here for good. So, rather than trying to avoid it and ignore it, we can reallocate that energy into improving it and adjusting it to cause less harm and provide more aid. Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, authors of AI Snake Oil, present a similar idea in their text, supporting the idea that AI is here to stay. “When predictive AI is used by governments, however, individuals have no choice but to comply.” (Narayanan and Kapoor, 11) We already see this use of AI now, in facial recognition softwares used by law enforcement, the widespread infiltration of AI in the education system, and even AI in the form of 24/7 chat bots as opposed to real humans for customer support. The choice to use AI becomes less apparent everyday, and we are consequently pushed towards having to use AI because it’s been integrated into many aspects of our daily life. This is why understanding AI and its many forms, as well as how it’s used are important, especially right now. The efforts we put in now to correct bias and fix problematic issues with AI will guarantee that its future will not be harmful.

The element of surveillance in both Butler’s trilogy and AI in real life have shocking resemblances. An article published by Brookings University and written by Darrel West titled “How AI can enable public surveillance” details the dangers of AI-led surveillance. “Technology enables authorities to track dissidents and government critics and identify their statements and locations.” (West). Because of the dictatorship qualities of China’s government, this type of use of AI becomes very dangerous for those who oppose the ideas and actions of leadership, and a violation of privacy and human rights. Although this is the worst case scenario, it is important to remember that with the advancements made in the AI department, the United States is a lot closer to this than we think. West states “Reports have surfaced about potential abuses in the U.S., including government contracts that may enable the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to monitor social media.” (West). It doesn’t seem very scary as is, but knowing how China has already executed these functions of AI to maintain power should startle us. One of the things that West emphasizes is the lack of a national privacy bill; “there are few legal safeguards to limit workplace computer or network surveillance.” (West). Individual freedom and human rights are things that should not be violated, period, and the United States (among other countries) is getting dangerously close to crossing that line. In Butler’s trilogy, notably in the first book of the series, Dawn, the level of surveillance on Chkahichdak is very comparable to these instances of AI violations. “Yes. The ship is alive and so is almost everything in it. The Oankali use living matter the way we used machinery…we’re being watched–just as we were all watched in our isolation room.” (Butler, 157). The humans on the ship were under complete surveillance at all times, whether by Oankali watching from the outside or the ship itself, alive and in constant connection with the Oankali. While the Oankali tried to make their approach kind, careful, and meticulous, there were obviously some issues with their tactics. Firstly, it is a violation of human rights to not allow privacy; it is important to note that while Lilith was in isolation without any human contact or interaction, she could not have done any harm to the Oankali, Jdahya could have very well let her sleep and be alone for a few moments to allow her more comfort. In the second two novels, Adulthood Rites and Imago, this type of surveillance does not let up on earth. It is rare for a community of humans to go undiscovered by the Oankali like the inbred group of humans trying to preserve themselves, yet their ability to do so shows that there are gaps in what can be surveillanced. This is true with AI surveillance in real life, too, but it is possible that if we continue the way we are going with AI and its bias and garbage, this sliver of hope could come to an end.

There are many pros and cons of AI, which I aim to explore in this section. Firstly, AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor describes a multitude of different kinds of AI, its functions and additionally how to tell what is AI and what’s not. Firstly, predictive AI is incredibly unreliable and also incredibly unethical. “Accurately predicting people’s social behavior is not a solvable technology problem, and determining people’s life chances on the basis of inherently faulty predictions will always be morally problematic.” (Narayanan & Kapoor, 15) On another note, predicting people’s social behavior is also very invasive and unnecessary. The misuse of AI and the uncontrollable bias can disproportionately harm minorities and other oppressed groups. In Butler’s trilogy, Nikanj unwillingly and subconsciously slips up and creates Human-Oankali constructs before they are ready for them to exist. This is an unintentional act, and the consequences are grave for construct children, who struggle in the latter half of the series to reach metamorphosis and adulthood. They are kidnapped by other raider humans, and if they are not essentially perfect in conducting themselves, they have to be sent to the ship and leave the beautiful earth, as well as their families and friends. Nikanj’s mistake, although not purposeful in the slightest, disproportionately affects the construct children. Bias in AI is not always intentional, either, but very harmful nonetheless. This idea is explored in Christensen, Manley, and Resendez’s article, “Medical Algorithms are Failing Communities of Color.” “Insurance companies misuse personal information such as race and income in risk-prediction algorithms to manipulate health care costs and raise premiums.” (Christensen et. al.) In the context of insurance companies in real life, this is where we see intentional bias used simply for the goal of making more money. This is something that we absolutely need to get on top of and either reform or eradicate before the damage it does to minority populations is devastating. Starting with the cons in this section is purposeful; they are incredibly substantial and have the potential to harm people on a widespread level that was not humanly possible before the invention of predictive AI and other forms of AI.

In the words of Narayanan and Kapoor, “It’s important to recognize that not all AI is problematic–far from it.” (Narayanan & Kapoor, 14) There are several pros to AI, as in some cases it makes everyone’s lives easier. Everyone is getting more comfortable and acquainted with forms of AI, such as users described in Danielle Abril’s article, “Meet the ‘super users’ who tap AI to get ahead at work.” She writes that AI tools “help them boost efficiency and confidence at work and reclaim hours of time.” (Abril) While it is great to have new, smart tools that guide and aid efforts in both education and the workplace, it is also important to remember that the overreliance on AI to do everything for you is dangerous. Keeping in mind that this is the “pros” section, it is necessary for me to expand on the but/and aspect. Sara Merken writes “New York lawyers sanctioned for using fake ChatGPT cases in legal brief,” an article that touches on the overreliance of lawyers on AI, so much that they cannot even recognize fake cases from the real ones. Lawyers are public defenders, and perhaps one of the most important jobs in maintaining a defense for civilians against people of power, yet even their use of AI is affecting how they perform their job in a negative way. Beatrice Nolan shares in her article, “AI plagiarism is spreading in US colleges. It’s left professors feeling confused and exhausted,” how the overreliance on AI in education is affecting students and faculty. She writes “Schools and universities initially tried to combat the flood of AI-generated plagiarism by banning the technology outright. Now, many are trying to incorporate technology into curriculums and encourage students to use it responsibly.” (Nolan) Coming from someone who has been in the education system as a student since the creation of ChatGPT and through it’s many developments and advancements, I can confidently say that what Nolan is sharing in her article is very true. As a freshman in college, the use of ChatGPT in almost every class was strictly not allowed. However, now that I am a junior, there have been many classes I’ve taken where ChatGPT use is not disallowed, but you must be very specific in documenting how it was used and what information you got from it. As time goes on and ChatGPT gets “better” and “better,” “the widespread use of AI is becoming harder to spot and even harder to police.” (Nolan).

The parallels between the human-Oankali dynamic in Octavia Butler’s trilogy reveal many both hard and deep truths about the potential for harm and aid when it comes to elements of AI. Humans in Butler’s novel are described as having a lethal contradiction: intelligent and self-destructive, and AI holds the same contradictions. It is capable of enhancing lives globally, but it also has the potential to infringe on human rights and cause harm on the same scale, depending on how developers and consumers use it, shape it, and move forward with it. As we explore the limits and borders of AI technology, Butler’s trilogy and concepts remind us that like humanity in her novels, the future of AI technology does not just rely on whether it exists or not- but on our interactions with it. In order to ensure a future where AI does not disproportionately harm communities and human beings, we need to approach it with responsibility and a commitment to ending harm and bias and also equity. I believe that the future of AI can be miraculous if we take the steps necessary now to ensure there are no gaps or mistakes in it’s development.

Octavia Butler’s Dawn introduces a new world that is both terrifying and different from the world that we know. Additionally, her novel introduces Oankali, an alien-like species that saved what was left of humanity from starvation after a nuclear war. Throughout the book we get to know more and more about Oankali and what their intentions with the human race are. So what do we know at the end of Dawn, the first book in Butler’s Lilith’s Brood Trilogy? All humans are bonded to their ooloi, an Oankali with no gender, but the ability to manipulate genes. The full effects of this are not fully known yet, I don’t think. However, it is very strange that human couples are, for a lack of a better term, repulsed by each other after they have been bonded with their ooloi. One of the things that concerns me the most in this narrative is the issue of consent, especially when it comes to intercourse-like interactions involving humans, but somehow also involving Oankali.

I want to start at some of the first signs of sexual tones that I noticed in the text, and that starts in Part II, Chapter 8 of Dawn. Lilith meets her first human, Paul Titus. Nikanj says “Maybe you’ll want to stay here awhile” (Butler, 94) when Lilith asks if they will need the train to get back, implying that she may want to sleep with him. I thought this was weird, because although it’s framed as though it’s up to her, it also sounds like the Oankali set up this meeting for something that Lilith didn’t want. Out of the entire conversation between Paul and Lilith, when Paul says “They don’t teach for free! They didn’t save us out of kindness! It’s all trade with them” (Butler, 102)  it caught my attention immediately. Here’s a human who’s been awake for years, knows far more than Lilith, and is definitely trying to send her some kind of warning. At this point in the text, the alarm bells are ringing, but the Oankali, so far, seem to be acting in good faith. I’ll save my words; the rest of Lilith’s encounter with Paul Titus is not pleasant.

In the jump from Part II to Part III, two years have passed. It is apparent from context clues that Lilith has been having some kind of intercourse with Nikanj and Nikanj’s Oankali mates. Although there are several, notably “Do you think it would help if he saw a demonstration?” (Butler, 177) from Nikanj to Lilith during a conversation about the ooloi’s sex organs. Although this is weird, it is seemingly consensual. However, the concern lies at the end of chapter six when Nikanj simulates (again, for lack of a better term) sex between Joseph and Lilith without the two of them even having sex. In chapter eight, when they finally awaken at least 40 people, and all the ooloi claim their people, Nikanj invites Lilith and Joseph to intercourse, again. “I left you no choice the first time” (Butler, 213) is what Nikanj says to Joseph, before offering him the choice. “He understood now. ‘No!’ he said sharply. ‘Not again.’” (Butler, 213) Joseph clearly states he is uninterested in sex with Nikanj, and that he is only interested in sex with Lilith, and Lilith alone. Nikanj continues to seduce a chemical reaction from his body for “consent,” and has sex with him anyways!

This is where the problem of consent gets sticky, and was pretty debatable in class. To this point we have been led to believe that the Oankali know humans very well. They saved them 250 years ago, and supposedly know everything about them, culture, biological, historical, etc,. I think they should know enough about them to understand the concept of verbal consent. They should understand the taboo of intercourse or intimacy on the level that Nikanj is practicing without firstly achieving verbal consent. Of course, we all have desires, and we can see that Joseph is not completely opposed to the idea on a physical level. However, as Professor McCoy noted, it is our right to refuse those desires, and I believe that in this case, Nikanj is sexually assaulting Joseph. So, maybe the Oankali miss the bits on verbal consent in human culture. Odd, but possible. However, the Oankali saw what happened with Lilith and Paul Titus, and how she reacted to the potential-rape when she came to afterwards. So, we also talked about how the Oankali are traders, they trade genes. To my understanding, from reading only the first book in the trilogy, they are hoping to make human-oankali babies. Is there not a way to do this in a way that is consensual? If they can put humans to sleep and keep them from aging and dying whenever they want, why not use that to their advantage, so they are not (essentially) sexually assaulting humans? I think it’s because they don’t know what they’re doing is sexual assault for humans. To them, what they feel from their human bodies is the only communication necessary. If the Oankali understood them better, would they still arouse them without verbal consent?  Although this interaction between Lilith, Nikanj, and Joseph was very uncomfortable and terrifying in the big picture, it wasn’t until each of the new awakened humans was matched with their ooloi that I started to see this violation of human rights on a wide-scale. It felt like each time I turned the page, something more terrifying was uncovered about the Oankali’s true intentions. Finally, at the end of the book, after Joseph is killed by angry humans, Nikanj reveals that it has made Lilith pregnant with Joseph’s baby, but also Nikanj’s baby. So, Dawn ends with the revelation of Lilith’s human-Oankali hybrid baby, and also that Lilith won’t be going to earth with all of the people we just met. She’s back to square one, and pregnant with a baby she does not want to have. I know that Octavia Butler is known for setting traps for her authors, so I really am trying to stay open-minded and curious about how this issue of consent is going to unravel throughout the next two books.

Like a majority of people, and especially as an English major, I find the increasing use of AI technology to be scary and impractical. However, over the past three weeks I have been learning about the different things that AI has impacted positively, or things in our everyday lives that we didn’t know were AI but evidently were AI all along. There are a few things that are promising in the future of AI: education, medicine, and crime. These are broad terms on purpose, since there are a variety of things that AI does to help each of them function already.

AI has a promising future for education. Already we have things like spell-check and grammarly, which are helping students fine-tune and check their papers daily, but what could the future have in store for education? The Office of Online Programs at University of Illinois writes in their article, “AI in Schools: Pros and Cons,” that AI provides teachers with unlimited access to many resources, “Just a few examples are Canva Magic Write… Curipod… Eduaide… and Quizzizz.” (AI in Schools: Pros and Cons.) These applications that are considered AI are helpful on many levels for educators- they are able to plan more effective and interactive lessons efficiently due to the use of these kinds of AI. In addition, the Office of Online Programs also writes that the use of AI can make lessons more inclusive. “Tools that offer text-to-speech, visual recognition, speech recognition, and more can help teachers adapt resources so that all students have an equal learning opportunity.” (AI in Schools: Pros and Cons) This is especially true in cases where there are students with special needs, as accommodation is made much easier by making material much more accessible for them. While I agree that these are wonderful pros enabled by AI, it is important to note that these tools are best used for polishing and refining, and I do not think that allowing AI to write entire lesson plans would be beneficial until the technology is much more advanced.

The use of AI in medicine is not a new thing; it’s used to diagnose patients, make drugs, and transcribe medical documents, among other things. I took a deep dive into the National Library of Medicine and came across “Artificial Intelligence: How is it Changing Medical Sciences and Its Future?” Basu et al. writes “The most recent application of AI in global healthcare is the prediction of emerging hotspots using contact tracing, and flight traveler data to fight off the novel coronavirus pandemic.” (Basu et al.) Although the article was published in 2020, before the public release of ChatGPT and the widespread use of generative AI, it still generates a sense of hope for the future. We all suffered through COVID-19, and I’ll admit that knowing we have the technology to track hotspots and the spread of a disease also provides a sense of relief. Outbreak risk software and applications similar ensure that each pandemic is handled more effectively and efficiently than the last. One of the concerns with AI, especially in medicine, is the concern that folks will lose their jobs to AI applications. The article states this as a myth, and writes “the fact is that physicians who understand the role of AI in healthcare will likely have an advantage in their career.” (Basu et al.) They go on to show a Radiologist job advertisement, where one of the requirements for the job is “must be … excited about a future where radiologists are supported by world-class AI and machine learning.” (Basu et al.) One of my biggest concerns for AI is the possible loss of jobs for real humans, so if it is true that this is a myth, I am hopeful that in the future AI will continue to transform medicine and make jobs easier for the people who do them.

One last aspect of AI that we discussed briefly in class was facial recognition, specifically its use in law enforcement. After we covered the risk of bias being transferred into AI, I wanted to know what was being done to overcome this obstacle and make the use of AI facial recognition accurate and efficient. Paolo Vilbon published an article last year, “A.I. And Its Impact on Facial Recognition Software” and wrote “One of the issues identified with artificial intelligence and facial detection is that AI face recognition tools ‘rely on machine learning algorithms that are trained with labeled data.’” (Paolo) Unfortunately Paolo’s article didn’t have any information on the progress being made on facial recognition software, but I think that a fix to the bias problem could be in our near future. If the issue with biased facial recognition software is because the AI is trained with biased data, then training AI with unbiased data would solve the problem. Obviously it is not as easy as it sounds, many countries were built on slavery and even in America racism and discrimination are still an issue today. If there was a way to filter out biased data from the unbiased data, that could be fundamental in transforming facial recognition software.

I would be lying if I said I was willing to accept that AI is the future, but regardless of whether any of us accept it or not: it’s a fact. As time goes on the issues and obstacles that prevent AI from being successful and accurate will come closer and closer to being overcome. I look forward to a day where all AI is trained with unbiased data, as far in the future as it may be. As a student, the promising future of education with AI tools is hard to not be inspired and excited for, especially when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, with the future of AI in medical science, we can help diagnose and treat patients more efficiently than ever. I can only hope that programmers and coders are doing their part to ensure the end of biased AI systems, which would transform the way AI can be used in many instances, not just education, medicine, and crime.

The elements of stratification, racism, and oppression at every level are vital parts of N.K. Jemisin’s trilogy, The Broken Earth. Throughout the novel, Jemisin works strategically to racialize characters and institutions, and this effort goes hand in hand with creating a parallel between her novel series and real life. An essential part of my Lithosphere Essay was the Fulcrum and how young Orogenes are raised to think about themselves. Most are taken from their birth homes immediately, and raised alongside other orogenes with Guardians leading them and ensuring they do no harm. They are taught to believe they’re dangerous, not human, terrible things and they are fully aware most people want them dead. Rather than knowing this is a flaw of the stills, they believe they are at fault for the way people hate them in the Stillness. While I still believe that is an essential part of the process of racialization in the novel, after reading the whole trilogy I realize that Syl Anagist has a lot to do with the way the world turned out at the end of the series.

The Fulcrum is in place to keep Orogenes oppressed, however, it was not the original institution. In fact, The Fulcrum came from an even bigger institution of oppression- Syl Anagist. In this civilization, rather than Orogenes, Tuners are the target of the systemic hatred we see in the first two books. They seem to face an even more harsh lifestyle than the one we read about before. One example is when Houwha, a tuner, goes on a field-trip outside of his usual living quarters with the rest of his tuner friends. Then they get a chance to see Kelenli’s home, in comparison to their own. “Nothing is hard and nothing is bare and I have never thought before that the chamber I live in is a prison cell, but now for the first time I do.” (Jemisin, 202.) Houwha has Kelenli to thank for his realization that he’s having in this chapter, for it is her resistance that is allowing her to share this information with the other tuners. Without this sneaky revolt that takes place during the Syl Anagist chapters, the Tuners might have never learned that information on their own- and that’s how Syl Anagist wanted it.

A parallel between present-Stillness and the past-Syl Anagist are the node maintainers and the briar patch. In The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate, a vital component of these novels are the node maintainers. Nodes are defined as “The network of Imperially maintained stations placed throughout the Stillness in order to reduce or quell seismic events. Due to the relative rarity of Fulcrum-trained orogenes, nodes are primarily clustered in the Equatorials.” (Jemisin, 410) This official definition, however, leaves out the living, prisoner orogene part of the nodes. In each node, there is a 4-10 ringer orogene who is only able to quell earthquakes, nothing else. This is slavery and a terrible practice, but what is shocking is that it didn’t start in the Stillness. 

It started before the Stillness, and before the Shattering (the event that resulted in the Stillness.) In Syl Anagist, we learn about the Niess, the original users of magic, and how they were conquered and treated by those of Syl Anagist. “So when Niess magic proved more efficient than Sylanagistine, even though the Niess did not use it as a weapon… This is what Kelenli told us.” (Jemisin, 210) Here, what Syl Anagist did to the Niess is hard even for Houwha to recount. The discriminatory behavior and oppression of this group of people resulted in the creation of tuners, which Houwha describes as “the carefully engineered and denatured remnants of the Niess, have sessapinae far more complex than those of ordinary people.” (Jemisin, 211) Sound familiar? Orogenes! Jemisin’s display of history repeating itself through this flashback strengthens the core of her trilogy, which is showing the parallels between the treatment of orogenes/tuners to the treatment of underrepresented communities in real life, specifically the black community. 

During Essun’s lifetime in The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate, orogenes at this point are one of the few things keeping stills alive. They quell shakes and minimize damage done to comms, yet when an orogene is found, most comm members want to kill them rather than send them to the Fulcrum where they can be trained for their benefit. This treatment of orogenes is normalized due to the fact that Tuners in Syl Anagist were considered not human. “This was what made them not the same kind of human as everyone else. Eventually: not as human as everyone else. Finally: not human at all.” (Jemisin, 210) This dehumanization of Tuners translates to the time represented in The Fifth Season, where Orogenes do not believe they are human, period. There is not a single thought in their brain that says maybe I am human, because of the years and years of oppression and forcing Orogenes to grow up in the Fulcrum. There is a parallel here to real life in regards to slavery in America before 1865. Slaves were treated inhumanely and suffered oppression, injustice, and torture at the systemic level and everything under it. This was normalized at the time, as white people claimed themselves to be “elite,” similarly to how the people of Syl Anagist claimed to be “elite” as opposed to the Niess. 

We can see similar after effects of these instances of slavery and injustice on both sides. In the case of the Broken Earth Trilogy, the end of the series does not bring equality and peace to the Stillness. Orogenes will have to fight to be seen as human, (if they don’t choose to annihilate all the stills with the absence of Guardians…) and there will always be stubborn, ignorant people to call them slurs and remind them of a time when it was okay to do so. Even to this day in 2024, minorities still experience racism, oppression, and injustice in their everyday life. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy really puts into perspective what it was and still is like for these groups of people who have been enslaved or exploited in the past.

Oppression, racism, and violence are vital issues that we struggle with today in our world, but are also vital issues found in the Stillness, a world built by N.K. Jemisin in her novel The Fifth Season. In her text, the stratified society living in a future dystopian world closely mirrors our own society in which oppression and racism exist at the institutional, structural, and individual levels. Jemisin strategically racializes characters and institutions in her world in order to create this parallel between reality and her book, and she does so inconspicuously. Our course epigraph defines race as “a structural relationship for the articulation and management of human differences,” and the epigraph connects it to “a repeating tendency, of the gravest import, to demarcate human beings through differences among humans that are selectively essentialized as absolute and fundamental, in order to distribute positions and powers differentially to human groups.” Essentially it means that race is a way of sorting humans based on their differences. The process of racializing can be complex, especially when you’re attempting to world-build and discard all preconceived notions of race that we think of in context to real life. My goal is to break down elements of the text and explain in-depth how Jemisin uses different methods to racialize people in The Fifth Season.

One major way that Jemisin utilizes racialization in her first book of the Broken Earth Trilogy is through showing racism at the structural level. An important element of the Stillness to note is the Sanzed Equatorial Affiliation. In the novel we find out that Sanze has been around long before the events in the first book, and only after taking over other comms in the Stillness through tactful violence did they acquire the significant power that is talked about in The Fifth Season. In fact, Erlsset, the emperor of the Equatorials during the second decade of the Season of Teeth, was quoted saying “Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us, no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default. Tell them there is a standard for acceptance; that standard is simply perfection. Kill those who scoff at these contradictions, and tell the rest that the dead deserved annihilation for their weakness and doubt. Then they’ll break themselves trying for what they’ll never achieve.” (Jemisin, 76) While this is quite clearly textbook racism, these are also the foundations of which the Fulcrum was created and is run in the text. Jemisin effectively establishes Orogenes as the oppressed peoples, and then foreshadows the way in which they are exploited systemically by the Equatorials on an institutional level in the Fulcrum, which was founded very soon after Erlsset said this at a party. The young Orogenes grow up being told those exact words, and the effects are lasting.

Another way that Orogenes are racialized to be structurally oppressed involves the Guardians. As soon as a young Orogene gets their Guardian, the Guardian breaks their hand and establishes the hierarchy of power between the two. However, the way they brainwash the poor Orogenes goes much deeper than that. We get an in-depth look at the interactions between Orogenes and Guardians during Damaya and Schaffa’s trip to the Fulcrum in chapter six. Immediately after Schaffa breaks Damaya’s hand, he tells her he loves her. “‘Never doubt that I do, little one. Poor creature locked in a barn, so afraid of herself that she hardly dares speak. And yet there is the fire of wit in you along with the fire of the earth, and I cannot help but admire both, however evil the latter might be.’ He shakes his head and sighs. ‘I hate doing this to you. I hate that it’s necessary. But please understand: I have hurt you so that you will hurt no one else.’” (Jemisin, 99) Schaffa is essentially rewiring Damaya’s brain to believe that is what love is, preying on the fact that she has never known what real love is like; not from her parents or anyone from her comm. 

Let’s fast forward to Syenite and Alabaster. When we see the older version of Damaya and Alabaster interact, we can see the effects that their upbringing in the Fulcrum has had on them. Alabaster has ten-rings, he’s older, he’s “wiser,” and yet he is always referring to Orogenes (specifically himself and Syenite…) as animals in multiple instances. “Ferals—the ones from outside—often don’t know, or care. But when an Orogene is born from parents who weren’t, from a family line that’s never shown the curse before, that’s how they think of you. A wild mutt to my domesticated purebred.” (Jemisin, 72) In addition, he says “‘Either the Fulcrum owns us, or we have to hide and be hunted down like dogs if we’re ever discovered.’” (Jemisin, 123) This process of dehumanization is crucial to re-establishing and supporting the oppressive society in which the Orogenes live. It is ingrained into their minds from such a young age that even well into adulthood they fully believe that they are inhuman, monstrous animals. Not only is this taught to them in the Fulcrum, but the stonelore that they read in school in the comms is also full of anti-Orogene text. For example, Alabaster tells Syenite in chapter eight, “They kill us because they’ve got stonelore telling them at every turn that we’re born evil—some kind of agents of Father Earth, monsters that barely qualify as human.” (Jemisin, 124.) 

While I could go on for days about racialization in this book, there is a unique relationship between racialization, science, and myth within this text. The science aspect is one that is quite obvious; Orogeny itself, the power to manipulate the earth and start shakes is described in-depth. Jemisin defines Orogeny as “The ability to manipulate thermal, kinetic, and related forms of energy to address seismic events.” (Jemisin, 462) Many of the characters in the novel are named after rocks or geological substances as well, such as Alabaster, Syenite, Antimony, Corundum, and Feldspar. I can admit that I am not sure what will come of this revelation, but hope to be able to come back and revise when I find out and (or) finish the Trilogy. Myths play a very powerful part in The Fifth Season. We know about stone eaters- the mysterious statue-like people that live forever and eat stone. However, that is about it. We don’t know their intentions or anything else about them other than their abilities and appearance. Well… we also know what their favorite meal is. This element of not knowing in relation to stone eaters is a crucial aspect of the book. Tied in together with the aspects of racism and oppression showcased in the first book of the trilogy, there is no other choice for a sane reader other than to keep going. In my opinion, Jemisin did an excellent job with revealing just enough information to keep me grounded in the plot, but leaving out just enough to leave me (and hopefully you, too) wanting more.