Reflection is Hard. Putting out Honest Writing is Harder.

I actually really enjoy reflection. In fact, I am constantly reflecting on my personal life – whether that is either a symptom of my extremely high anxiety or because I am seeking to grow from my past thoughts and experiences is up for debate. I do find it more difficult to reflect on coursework while I am in the class. Which is the reason why I think getting started on this reflection paper has been so hard for me. I usually like some time and distance from whatever I reflect upon. For example, just this morning I was thinking about certain events in my childhood that lead to the often conflicting relationship I have with one of my siblings because I had visited with them over the past weekend. I drew some new paths of understanding and came to some conclusions, which was great, but I took me several years before I could realize the connections between the events and our present-day relationship. Then when it comes to thinking about this class, the connections are less clear and the conclusions are less apparent. It has taken me several weeks to sift through the work that I have done for this class to actually decide on a path or note or topic that I wanted to reflect on further. After I had reread my midterm essay a third or fourth time, I had realized that I had a topic that I wanted to expand upon more – and I had a little bit later in a blog post. I saw that I had gotten carried away with the idea of justice in the Broken Earth series. Continue reading “Reflection is Hard. Putting out Honest Writing is Harder.”

Time is Running Out

As I finish writing this final blog post, with less than an hour to go, I can’t help but think about how time was visibly and literally running out for the people of the Stillness in The Stone Sky. The air was becoming thinker with ash, the acid rains would probably begin soon, everything was dying around them. Even the artics were beginning to show the signs of the season. Continue reading “Time is Running Out”

Blackness, Justice, and Love

Throughout the semester we were to think about how the title of the course connects with the course content. “Blackness” was easy. Most of the characters were black, but their blackness did not define them. This was a nice change, I think from traditional postcolonial literature that I usually encountered and studied during my time in undergrad. I mean this in the sense that the characters were so multidimensional that having dark skin was just an adjective and not a character defining trait. Continue reading “Blackness, Justice, and Love”

Wildlife in the Stillness

I love animals. I constantly give into my dog’s wishes for constant attention (one of the major reasons why I procrastinate everything to do with any kind of work), I accidentally fall into watching videos about animals, and I volunteer at a couple different rescues and shelters. Some of my favorite animal videos to watch are the ones about dogs or cats getting picked up off the street and having an amazing transformation into adorable house-worthy pets. Continue reading “Wildlife in the Stillness”

The Power of Children

Over this past summer, I lived my childhood dream of seeing the sequel to The Incredibles. It took FOURTEEN YEARS but it finally happened. From the original movie, Edna Mode and Jack Jack Jack were my two favorite characters because of their quirkiness and quintessential roles they played in the film. Edna was the older, seemingly crazy character that obviously knew more than she was letting on and Jack Jack was the youngest character, full of potential and coming into his own. Continue reading “The Power of Children”

Making Waves

As I was reading The Fifth Season, I thought about the sea and why Syenite had expressed disinterest in going near or in the water. I had originally thought that there was no moon so why would there be anything to fear, other than otherworldly sea creatures that is. I also had thought that since there was no moon, there were no waves or currents in the water. So I was especially confused once Alabaster and Syenite went to Meov and it was a community that thrived off of ransacking the Stillness’s ships. Then I did some research on the moon and how it affects our Earth. Continue reading “Making Waves”

Building Blogs off of What I Find on the Internet

One day I was trolling the internet looking for inspiration for a blog post when I came across Jemisin’s own blog. The particular post that I had read discussed why Jemisin chose to split Essun’s story into three seemingly different stories. Basically, Essun needed to jump the “empathy gap”, as Jemisin describes, and including stories from her childhood and young adulthood made the book overall more interesting. Continue reading “Building Blogs off of What I Find on the Internet”

My Friend Sent Me a Snapchat of His 9th Grade Earth Science Reference Table

Over the weekend, my friend was apparently going through his old room at his parent’s house and he found his old 9th grade Earth Science reference table and decided to snapchat me a picture of it. He was in amazement that either he or his parents would keep such a thing as everyone knows that 9th grade is one to never be spoken of again, once it has passed. I lamented to him that I really could have actually used some of the reference table for this class I’m taking this semester. He then questioned how an English class would “ever need to know sciencey things, especially geological science things.” And I told him about our class. He then offered to send me more pictures of select pages from the reference table, but at that point, I had already gotten my own copy from The Internet (see link below for your own copy too!) Continue reading “My Friend Sent Me a Snapchat of His 9th Grade Earth Science Reference Table”

Fulcrum. Torus. Crucible. What the actual rust?

Throughout Jemisin’s Broken Earth series we learn how imperial orogenes learn to harness their orogenetic abilities at the Fulcrum. Damaya, amongst other orogene children, learn how to control their torus while practicing their art of orogeny in the Crucible. Although all of this sounds run of the mill, I wanted to look into what each of these terms meant, both in a literal and symbolic sense.

 

The definition of a fulcrum is as follows: a pivot point around which a lever turns, or something that plays a central role in or is in the center of a situation or activity. An example given by dictionary.com is “A pivot point around which a lever turns is an example of a fulcrum.” This got me thinking about the purpose that the Fulcrum serves in the novels. It is mentioned that there are three fulcrum’s on the Stillness: one at either pole and one within the city of Yumenes. While Orogene children are outside of the Fulcrum they are considered lethal and deserving of death by the general population. We read time and time again of the stories of young orogene children being murdered for their gift. Damaya is one of the “lucky” ones that got reported to the authorities of orogenes, known as Guardians, and taken to the Fulcrum in Yumenes. When the children get to the Fulcrum and receive their training, this is a pivotal point in their existence, as observed by the greater population. By donning their all-black uniforms, the public views them as a source of help, not harm (although they generally do not treat the orogenes any better).

Continue reading “Fulcrum. Torus. Crucible. What the actual rust?”