As I said in the blog post, “Who Can Help With This Burnout,” I either know what I’m doing or I can stumble along. I started this semester with a mix of the two; moving clumsily through the things I didn’t understand, in a means to understand them, and just going about, doing the things I know how to do. The upside to this is that I can see some personal growth as I learned and kept going. The downside is that it took a lot more work than I was expecting and I didn’t plan for the eventual exhaustion that stemmed from that. The lack of planning led me to the fear of failing because I felt too tired and confused to keep going. Continue reading “Stumbling Along”
Legacy/History–How Is It Kept Alive?
“Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me” (Hamilton, The World Was Wide Enough). As Alexander Hamilton says this it provokes the thought of “how do we create history?” In N.K. Jemisin’s work she addresses how history is kept alive and what it means for us to remember it. Continue reading “Legacy/History–How Is It Kept Alive?”
What Would Happen If We Lost The Moon?
In The Broken Earth Series there is no moon, and because of that the Earth is altered. As I’ve read this series, I’ve wondered what actually would happen if the Moon were to cease to exist. Continue reading “What Would Happen If We Lost The Moon?”
You Are Here…… Again
In the beginning of the semester I wrote a blog post about my prediction that Essun, Damaya, and Syenite were the same people. I was right, but that’s not what this post is about. After reading two books-worth about the character of Essun, I’ve begun to recognize that she doesn’t even know who she is anymore. She corrects people when they use the wrong name for her and yet questions if she is still Essun anymore. Instead of changing who she is again, she does what most of us tend to do in our real world and proceeds to change as a person without completely changing her identity. Continue reading “You Are Here…… Again”
The Love in “Blackness, Love, Justice”
In The Broken Earth Series, I feel a lot of love. It may not be obvious, or conventional, but I believe that Essun does feel love. In some cases it may be a relationship between a mother and her child where the love is shown by protecting them, even in the most tragic of ways. In others, Essun’s love may be with a lover: the father of her children, a handsome pirate, or her mentor and best friend. In any case, Essun is surrounded by people that love her and want to protect her, providing this series with depth and heart. Continue reading “The Love in “Blackness, Love, Justice””
The Research Behind Art
On Tuesday, November 20, my friend took me to Buffalo, New York to see the hit Broadway show Hamilton. I had been wanting to see this show for a long time; memorizing the lyrics, and reading about the writer, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s, process in creating the show. While geeking out after seeing Hamilton and reading as much as I could about it, I realized just how much time, effort, and research it must take artists like him to make some of the world’s most interesting art. Jemisin also uses her knowledge from other disciplines to create depth in her work. Continue reading “The Research Behind Art”
Who Can Help With This Burnout?
I’ve spent the last month trying to keep my life in order (e.g. homework, my own life problems, etc.) and failing. This is hard for me to admit because I’ve always been the person who knew what she was doing. If I didn’t, I was able to stumble along without anyone noticing. Now, here I am at the end of my first semester in college and I have no idea what I’m doing, how to get where I’m going, or even where that even is. I’m tired. I’m burned out. I’m almost done (for a little while.) And, here I am, trying to claw my way to end of this semester. Continue reading “Who Can Help With This Burnout?”
LIVE IN ART??????
A piece by Sabrina Bramwell, Delaney O’Shea, Joy Kim, Laura Montes, Brigid Goodman, and Molly Mattison.
What started off as a quiet and ordinary day turned into one of the most notorious natural disasters ever recorded in history. But, how exactly? Continue reading “LIVE IN ART??????”
Canning Food and Botulism
On Wednesday, October 3rd, I attended a Food Safety Talk podcast recording at the recommendation of Dr. McCoy. While I was there, the speakers answered a question about how long imperishable food can last and when we should be worried about it. This reminded me of Chapter 9 in N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season where Alabaster gets poisoned by badly canned food and I was curious as to how accurate Jemisin’s description of faulty canning practices could be. Turns out, she likely did some research.
Continue reading “Canning Food and Botulism”
From Four Rings to Six
In class on Monday, Dr. McCoy mentioned that Jemisin uses elements from other works in her story building. Something that came to my attention was how she worked the element of Mandarin’s rings in Marvel Comics into The Fifth Season as the rings that the Fulcrum uses to dictate a hierarchy. At the end of The Fifth Season, Syenite has six rings. Four of them, earned in the Fulcrum, are made of carnelian, white opal, gold, and onyx (Jemisin 61). Then Alabaster gave her two more made of jade and mother of pearl (Jemisin 414). As far as we’ve read there is no meaning behind each ring, so why does Jemisin specify what mineral/rock each ring is made of? Continue reading “From Four Rings to Six”