Category: McCoy 101/431 Jemisin Fall 2018

When Schaffa tells Damaya the story of Misalem, the evil orogene who tried to destroy Yumenes, he makes it clear that Misalem is the antagonist and that Damaya does not get to envision herself in the role of the hero Shemshena. I never thought to question the validity of Schaffa’s telling of events until Alabaster later reveals that Misalem was actually trying to avenge his family who was taken from him. This act of historical revisionism by the Guardians made me think of the novel The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead which I read in Dr. Cooper’s class last semester. In Whitehead’s novel, history is being revised as it happens to fit the narrative most beneficial to those telling the story, similar to the Guardian’s version of events on Misalem.

Continue reading “The Story of Misalem and Historical Revisionism”

Throughout the past few weeks, I have been finding it extremely difficult to find inspiration for a blog post. I have many thoughts that come to mind when reading, but have also been struggling to create coherent, well-thought out connections that makes sense that are worthy, in my mind, of a blog post. However, after Professor McCoy gave us some (much appreciated and apparently needed) time to reflect on the blog posts of the class, I have been reminded that I do not need to have all of my thoughts completely mapped out and explained in perfect, coherent sense, ending in a permanent conclusion. I am feeling a new sense of encouragement after reading everyone’s posts, and for that I thank all of you who have crafted these beautiful, perfectly imperfect posts. They have prompted me to return to thinkING, and remembering that this does not always mean having a clear beginning, middle and end in what I’m saying, and that I just need to say something.

So, without further blubbering, I’m going to use the idea that Lizzie presented regarding self-hatred that becomes evident in Syenite throughout the progression of her journey, in order to grapple with an underlying idea that has been presented throughout the novel in a few ways: Religion.

Continue reading “Fallen Angels”

A couple of weeks ago I found myself pondering Essun’s decision to kill Corundum, and what that meant in terms of a mother’s love. I wrote that “Her decision to kill her son is out of love for Corundum, who she knows is better off dead than having his mind and body enslaved for his whole life. While most see maternal instinct as caring for and showering children with affection, Essun’s maternal instinct in this dire situation leads her to do the right thing for her son.” I thought that a mother’s love did not necessarily have to be about affection, but that maternal instinct can manifest itself in other forms. Dr. McCoy commented on my post with a reference to my addressing Toni Morrison’s work, in which she mentioned that “you will find a great deal of her [Morrison’s] fiction questions that narrow definition of love as overt performances of affection. As your anticipating of naysayers indicates, there’s a lot of cultural investment in that definition. I wonder what you’ll find in Jemisin.” As we have begun The Obelisk Gate, I have begun to find many places in which Essun’s actions reveal how parental love is not always about displaying affection. Continue reading “Parental Love and the Different Ways it Can Manifest”

During class discussion on Friday, I noticed that I put all of the characters introduced in The Fifth Season into purely human racial groups based on my own sub-conscience assessment of earthly characteristics. While this did not appear to me as a big problem at first, I later realized that by doing that I was taking away from the uniqueness that Jemisin was trying to display in assigning character traits that were abnormal for the ordinary human, but relatable enough that they could be imagined. By thinking of the characters simply in terms of black and white, I completely ignored their other traits that Jemisin specifically placed to explain their abilities. Continue reading “Noticing My Implicit Race Default”

At most colleges, and luckily at Geneseo, a variety of classes are offered, spanning many disciplinaries and topics that any student can take. However, most of the times if the classes don’t fall under the same discipline we separate them and don’t think of them as being related to one another in any way.  On the first day of class, Dr. MCcoy posed the question, “why should people who care about rocks care about social justice?” I still don’t think I have a good answer to this question, however, I have begun to think more about this question and really try and see the bigger picture.

Continue reading “Subconscious Metaphors in the English Language”

An idea that has been lying at the forefront of my brain for the last few years is how can we separate genuinely good art, whether it be literature or film, from a problematic artist. Continue reading “Separating Good Art From Problematic Artists”

During our small group discussion around N.K. Jemisin’s characters, Andrew pointed out how intriguing the stone eaters’ range of mobility is. Although the stone eaters struggle to go down a couple steps, they are also able to move through the earth in mere instances. As Jemisin’s writing does not leave any room for simple coincidence to act as rationale, the constantly overlooked mysteries behind the origin and functions of the stone eaters leave too many puzzles for me to not make my own theories. In order to better understand the stone eaters, I’ve started to speculate a little in the biology of the stone eaters or, as I’ve coined it, petrovorology. Continue reading “Petrovorology”

A couple classes ago when Professor McCoy made mention of Jemisin’s interest in Marvel Comics and the influence that this interest might have had in the creation of the Ring system within the Fulcrum—as a Marvel fan—I couldn’t help but do my research. My discoveries about Marvel’s installment of the ten-ring system only fueled my growing need to better understand the world that Jemisin has created, considering the intentional decisions she makes. So to get things going let’s start with some Marvel History! Continue reading “Marvel and Jemisin: The 10 Rings”

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”