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When kids are being taught in school, they learn to read what is written on the page and interpret the words they see, but literature is often much more than this. Authors make conscious decisions to include information and messages not directly on the page, just because a reader cannot physically see something in the text does not mean that the message is not there. This concept is discussed in African Fractals, a text written by Ron Eglash. Chapter 9 of the text explores the idea of infinity and those who doubt the presence of “true infinity” because they cannot physically see it. The texts read throughout this course along with the concept of infinity represent the analysis and complex thought processes that are necessary to understand all that this course has taught me. 

When I first began my time at Geneseo I was under the impression that my reading and comprehension skills were up to par, and that high school had taught me what I needed to know in that area. As I began taking English courses, I found that to be a foolish thought. Every English course that I have taken at Geneseo has taught me something unique and has improved my ability to interpret texts and apply learned concepts, especially this course. I most recently learned that Percival Everett’s text The Water Cure is an extraordinarily complex read due to many things that are not stated directly on the pages. The story’s narrator and main character are unreliable, and any information shared directly from him to the reader is to be taken with a grain of salt. The text tells the story of a man who lost his daughter and may or may not have kidnapped a man who may or may not be guilty of the death of his daughter. The phrase “may or may not” is purposeful, for the duration of the story the reader is not informed if what they are reading is true or just imagination, and it is not clear if the narrator knows either.  

Earlier in the semester I wrote my seed shape essay on the effects of narrative on a piece of literature and what can happen when an author chooses to depict just one character’s point of view. That idea is truly relevant in relation to The Water Cure where the entire story is told from the perspective of one singular character who proves throughout the story to be unreliable and confused by his own thoughts. The narrator’s name in the novel is Ishmeal Kidder and much of the text was written from the first-person point of view with him as the narrator, except for the scenes in which he refers to himself in the third person. Ishmeal is a parent experiencing grief and his unique story could only be told through his point of view. The uncertainty of the situation allows for the expansion of the themes and messages told throughout the story. If this novel were told through the perspective of his wife Charolette the story would be astronomically different. The story would morph into a more commonly seen expression of grief from a parent who has just lost a child. The narrative choice made in this story is unlike anything I have ever read before and introduced a new obstacle that I was forced to overcome. But with the narrative choice made by Everett, the story transforms into a question of innocence, guilt, revenge, time, and a guilty conscience.  

Under these circumstances, it became evident while reading that many ideas and concepts could be found from what was being implied and reading between the lines. For example, a specific bird called the vermilion flycatcher is referenced many times throughout the story. Upon completing research, one can find that this bird is often used to represent lost loved ones, and their bright red color symbolizes an eternal flame of life within us all. This bird is a representation of his daughter at times, with lines stating “The sweet and bewildered flycatcher believes the ditch is a waterway and so it is. The little bird lets out a stuttering pit-pit-pitpitty-zee! No one answers” (Everett 79). Using this thought process, one could conclude that the narrator feels an intense sense of uselessness as his daughter needed saving, but he was nowhere to be found until it was too late. It is never explicitly stated anywhere in the text that this bird represents his daughter or represents anything specific, but the idea of it is explored in between the lines.  

The concept of interpretation being in between the lines coincides with a concept that has been brought up multiple times in this course. This concept is the idea of plain narration and the misbelief in former years that African American writers were not capable of producing literature that was above the form of plain narration. In class, we read Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on The State of Virginia in which a sentence explicitly states, “But never yet could I find that a black had uttered a thought above the level of plain narration” and proceeds to state other racist claims that Jefferson and others at the time believed to be true. This concept is something that I frequently thought about throughout the final weeks of the course, as it reminded me that there is indeed much more than what is on the page. The Water Cure and other works read in class demonstrated the complexity of writers and all the concepts that can be found while reading in between the lines. Complex ideas being found underneath the surface is something that is seen in African Fractals and the idea of infinity. The chapter opens with the statement “…Africans could not have ‘true’ fractal geometry because they lacked the advanced mathematical concept of infinity.” (Eglash 147). This statement came from a review, an outsider who had decided something was not possible because of their own association with the concept and what they can see on the surface. Approaching a new topic with a closed mind can prevent ideas from expanding and can limit the amount of content that you get from the source.  

This class included many group assignments and discussions, something I would normally dread and complain about. Throughout the course, I realized that the group discussions provided the perfect opportunity to read into the texts in depth and decipher new meanings from things I had never seen before. Even though the class is made up of students with similar majors, if not the same, every student interpreted the texts differently. Discussing various concepts I have learned from other courses at Geneseo and hearing other students do the same allowed for everyone to dig deeper into the texts we read in class. This especially applied to The Water Cure as each page held metaphorical ideas and information that the reader could use for interpretation. At times I would come into class with a page full of questions from the assigned reading which often included lots of “I don’t know” and “what does this even mean.” Without fail my questions would be answered in class discussions and small group discussions, often I would find answers to questions that I did not even have.  

This semester was my first experience with taking a 300-level English course at Geneseo and has proved to be just as difficult as I imagined it be to. However it has taught me a new level of close reading and interpreting texts that I will continue to utilize during my time here at Geneseo. We often discussed in this course “looping back” and utilizing past texts and lessons to further advance the current one. This course and its teachings will be something that I “loop back” upon and utilize as I encounter complex texts.  

Over this semester and throughout the class, I have learned many things regarding African American literature and delved deeper into the main topics of the course. From one of the first things we analyzed “African Fractals” by Ron Eglash, many of the ideas discussed in the Ted Talk have proven to remain true throughout the rest of the course, similarly to how they related to the course works back in January. After reading The Water Cure by Percival Everett, it is evident that the theme of infinity discussed in African Fractals has remained true and was displayed in the novel. By evaluating my progression thus far, my understanding of the purpose of the course has broadened immensely and I believe I have grown as not only a student but a person in many ways. 

In diving back into my Seed Shape Essay from earlier in the semester, I discussed the meaning of the term “seed shape” which was used by Eglash in his Ted Talk. He defined the term as essentially, “A set whose number of elements whose sum was larger than infinity”(Eglash 0:42). He defines seed shapes because he wants to emphasize the idea of infinity and never-ending points and how this relates to African American culture. This idea of infinity has remained consistent throughout the entirety of the course and as we read our last book, The Water Cure, it is evident that the theme has remained consistent in several ways. The novel revolves around a man named Ishmael Kidder who is suffering with immense grief with the loss of his eleven-year-old daughter Jane. She was tragically raped and murdered, a horrific story that evidently changes Kidder and puts him in a state of anger, and sadness, and leaves him craving justice. Overall the course of the novel, one of the main terms we have used is “may or may not”. This phrase has come from the idea that Kidder may or may not have abducted the man whom he presumes to be responsible for the loss of his daughter and trapped him in his basement to torture him. Interestingly, Ishmael uses the words “forever” and “infinity” many times throughout the novel, relating to the theme of infinity in “African Fractals”. In the text, Kidder says, “We can count forever. That is infinity, so to speak. But we do not have names for most of the numbers in the world of infinity. This is one million: 1,000,000….We do not have infinite words. But we could”(25). This idea is very similar to the idea expressed by Eglash with African Fractals that seed shapes are a never-ending set of elements (Eglash 0:42). Although this idea expressed by Kidder may seem random, upon diving deeper into the text, it becomes more clear as to why he included this in the novel. Kidder’s daughter was murdered, which is a horror that he will live with forever and a pain he will never be able to forget. Grief is a seed shape that will forever be in his life, as it is something that has permanently changed his life. Because of this, Kidder “may or may not” want to inflict permanent pain on Art, the man he claims is responsible for the murder of his daughter. In the novel, Kidder says, “I wanted him to have the company of infinite incidence and refraction, unending repetition, the forever drip drip drip of his own image”(129). This was said by Kidder when describing a torture technique he used on Art. He decides to torture Art in this way because he wants Art to be forever unsettled in the same way that Kidder will be due to the trauma he has faced. In one of Kidder’s final monologues of the novel, he discusses how he released Art and why he made the choice to do so. In following the theme of infinity, he seems to release him with the knowledge that Art will forever be terrified of the possibility that he could come back to find him again. In deciding not to end his life, Kidder is almost more cruel by instilling a fear in him that will follow him forever. This idea is very similar to the idea of seed shapes since no matter how long they go, there will never be an end and infinity is the result of not only the repetition of the seed shape but Art’s fear. Kidder says, “If I found you once I will find you again, almost, almost peace, as I want the terror in your heart to remain pure, I want the terror to wake you in the morning and sleep with you at night … and remember, know that I have killed, will kill, and that is only part of what instills fear, that what chills your blood is that I can give life, that it is my gift to give…(252). Kidder shows that he wants the fear Art experiences to be infinite and almost become who he is. This idea relates to the overarching theme of infinity seen in “African Fractals”, the course as a whole, and The Water Cure.

In relating this idea of forever back to the course, Kidder was also shown to use the word “forever” when going into a monologue about permanence, a theme we have discussed. Kidder said, “ But of course no change is permanent, and so permanence is never complete. And so we are forever what we are, changes or not…(170). I found this statement to be interesting and one that I did not necessarily agree with completely. I disagree with the phrase “We are forever what we are”. I disproved that idea simply by taking this course. When I started the class, I came into it completely blind as to what we would be learning. I felt we would be reading novels I had seen many times before then from my previous years of schooling. I truly was not prepared for the way mindset would open up the way it has. This class has helped me learn how to dig deeper into things, analyze texts while considering every side, and think more philosophically about texts I may once have seen as black and white. Even with novels such as Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild, a story that seemed so obviously like a slave narrative, I was able to consider other points and realize why Butler had not aimed for the story to be interpreted that way. Throughout the entirety of the course, I have learned so much about myself not only as a student but as a person. I came into the course as a more shy type of student. I rarely would raise my hand in classes, unless trying to bring up my participation grade, and felt what I had to say wasn’t important enough to share. This course has helped me to become more confident in my thoughts, include myself in group and class discussions, and share my thoughts with the class when I previously would not have done so. It is for those reasons that I somewhat disagree with Kidder. I think that people can change and growth is possible, although that idea is incredibly situational. I agreed with Kidder, when he said “Permanence is never complete”. I also believe that change is never done. In group discussions, we agreed that the novel felt as though it was not complete which is why we found it an interesting novel to wrap up a course with. After analyzing these thoughts further, we came to a consensus that this may have been an intentional choice to get us thinking about infinity and forever. Much like how the novel did not feel complete, this class should not feel complete. We should take the ideas of the course with us throughout our lives as we continue to learn, grow, and change as individuals. I believe the idea of infinity was around me the entire time I was in the class, and it took reading The Water Cure for me to fully understand the weight of the idea of infinity.

Throughout the entirety of this course, there has been a recurring seed shape of infinity and what that truly means. From the beginning of the class when talking about African Fractals and recurion these themes have shown to be continuous in the rest of the semester. The idea of forever can be interpreted in many different ways including a more scientific perspective that fractals never end, the permanent fear that Art will feel, the forever pain that Kidder will feel, the infinite importance of this course, and the lessons that we will take with us. After completing this class, I can confidently say that I have vastly grown and realized the importance of forever learning and taking forth the knowledge acquired within the semester.

Throughout the course of this class we have focused heavily on the concept of “looping back” which can be unpacked to be defined by the concept of “nesting”. Where in which we have not focused purely on one story or concept at a time, we have nested previous topics and mindsets in every module of this course to create a common thread throughout all of our topics. Specifically, if we look at our last reading; The Water Cure by Percival Everett we can identify many cases of this nesting idea sprinkled throughout the reading by the author himself, and simultaneously we have nested our previous thoughts and readings into our understanding of The Water Cure. This process of nesting allowed for a larger and more intricate consciousness to the stories we read and the ideas we produced by freeing them to be recurring instead of imprisoned in a single module and timestamp in our semester. By consistently relating things back to previous thoughts there was less opportunity for forgetting certain earlier ideas that proved helpful in reading and understanding later stories and envisions. 

In African Fractals Ron Eglash talks about recursion, and embedded in that, iterations, and embedded in that, the idea of nesting. In the book Eglash says that nesting “makes use of loops within loops” (Eglash 110) this immediately sparked a thought in me because I remembered a very popular phrasing we use in this class; “looping back”. We use this term when we want to remember previous thoughts or readings in order to better understand a current discussion or story. In the beginning of this class I tended to disregard this idea, I would hear it being said as something I should do but I did not see the importance in doing so. I thought that I knew as much as I needed to currently and that I did not need to return to stories I had already read or concepts I had already been taught, quite an overconfident thought to have. Yet, as the semester pursued, I found myself valuing taking the time to return back to previous works and familiarizing myself with relevant topics that could help me with current works. I do not think I would have retained or even understood later works like The Water Cure without returning to earlier classwork and allowing myself the time to fully be prepared in comprehending a work as complex as it. 

The Water Cure not only was aided by my use of nesting, but it also contained many features within itself that were examples of nesting used by the author. Percival Everett did not conform to a simple form of storytelling, where one story is told in a linear view, he instead utilized the idea of nesting to create a deeper story and meaning for his audience. To this I am referring to the embedded riddles, drawings and poems that Everett nested within his story and loops back to multiple times within the story. One of the more prominent loops Everett makes is the continuing drawing that takes place throughout the passage, he has nested in this in-progress drawing of what looks to be a cat all throughout the story which supports his storytelling by allowing the readers to cling to a common thread tying the story together. The Water Cure is a very confusing read and I think this nesting of the drawing helps the reader in their journey to understand Everett’s storytelling a bit more. Another use of nesting in The Water Cure is the riddle Everett embeds earlier on in the story talking about having to bring chocolates, a monster, and a child over a river but not being able to leave certain ones alone with each other, he states this on page 27, then later on page 223 he loops back to this and says “Answer to puzzle: Kill the monster” (Everett 223). This feature of nesting aided Everett in showcasing how unstable and irrational the father is in this story, when we first are presented with the riddle we rack our brains trying to figure out the real solution, but then as the story progresses and more is revealed about the father’s life and actions we get the looped back answer that he had which is to “kill the monster” instead of rationally working through the problem as we did 196 pages prior. 

Not only has the nesting Everett put into the story aided me on my journey of reading The Water Cure, but my personal usage of it allowed me some semblance of ease while working through it. By having the foundation of all our previous readings and practices of understanding them I was able to successfully loop through the ins and outs of this course in an effort to aid myself in reading The Water Cure. It helped that we had constantly been reminded to “loop back” all semester because it made me feel better about needing extra help in comprehending some of our more complicated works. We talked in our first few weeks about the importance of slowing down, our notes specifically stating “thinkers who slow down*, however, might find other explanations” this was a very important nested idea that I found myself falling back onto. Whenever I hit a block in reading or felt frustrated that it was not coming easily, I slowed down and allowed myself the understanding that needing to take a step back and another look is not a negative thing, instead it shows that I have the yearning and effort to fully take in what we are reading instead of skimming through it and hoping for the best. Another example from our notes that I found myself relating The Water Cure back to was our reading of James Snead’s “On Repetition in Black Culture”, in our notes it is written that we may understand this reading more than we originally presumed we would, which is exactly how I felt about The Water Cure. At first glance I was quite honestly scared of this text, I thought it to be too difficult for me to fully understand and that I was going to struggle more than the rest of my classmates. In feeling this I remembered the aforementioned point in our notes and I decided instead of giving up I was going to go into it with a different mindset and not immediately count myself out at the get-go.

All-in-all I think the idea of nesting is one of our most important concepts we have touched on this semester. It allowed for so much more conversation and connections than there would have been without knowing of this idea and being encouraged to utilize it. Especially with The Water Cure it paid off to be able to revert back to previous classes and conversations in order to tackle a seemingly daunting piece of work. Personally, I found nesting very helpful to me in my process of navigating this course, and even the others I am in. I can definitely see myself remembering and “looping back” to this idea in my future classes and life endeavors. Now that I have been exposed to this idea as a concrete thing, I recognize it happening so much in my day-to-day life, just like a nesting doll, everything contains other things within itself. 

In my seed shape essay, Can Real Life be Plotted on A Seed Shape Diagram? I discuss how stories are often mapped out using a plot diagram. A plot diagram is a seed shape in which your exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution can be plotted onto a horizontal line that rises into a triangle then falls back into a horizontal line. This seed shape is a type of fractal, which is a geometric term that refers to a shape that is “characterized by the repetition of similar patterns at ever-diminishing scales.” (Eglash 4). In other words, a fractal is a shape that repeats itself infinitely. In my seed shape essay, I wrote about how this fractal, or plot diagram, is often used by authors to create their stories. Authors can use the plot diagram to brainstorm their story’s beginning, middle, and end. Up until now, I have only read stories that followed this repetitive structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Back in February, I wrote my feelings about the plot diagram. “I felt comforted by the seed shape. I knew what to expect, and roughly when to expect it.” (Malley). It was not until I read The Water Cure by Percival Everett for my ENGL 337 course, African American Literature, that I experienced what it is like to read a novel that does not follow this comforting and predictable pattern of events. 

Percival Everett does not appear to have used a plot diagram when mapping out his story The Water Cure. The Water Cure is a novel about a man named Ishmael Kidder whose eleven year old daughter Lane was abducted, raped, and murdered. Kidder, as a form of revenge or perhaps as a way to cope, then kidnaps and tortures a man (who may or may not be his daughter’s assailant) in his basement. The story is written from Kidder’s point of view, and does not follow your typical story outline. Kidder tells his story through what can only be described as ramblings and tangents, which are separated on the page by three asterisks, and jump back and forth chronologically. 

The story begins with the yiddish proverb, as cited by Percival Everett, “The truth rests with God and a little bit with me.” (Everett 9) This is a bold start to the novel, and already hints to readers that we will not be given the full truth in this story. Everett’s narrator Ishmael Kidder will be keeping secrets from us. His last name alone, Kidder, is enough for us to assume he is an unreliable narrator, since Oxford Languages defines the word “kidder” as “a person who deceives others in a playful way.” This uncertainty is unsettling to me. How will I be able to determine the truth? Will I be fooled?

Kidder attempts to fool us readers throughout his narration. One example is that Kidder very directly states that he will not eat restaurant food. “I’ll eat in restaurants, but I won’t eat their food. I prefer to take my own.” (Everett 50). However, nearly two hundred pages later, Kidder casually recalls a time where he was in a diner. In his retelling, he recalls ordering and then eating the diner’s chili. “Thank you. I’ll have the chili.” (Everett 243) and “I ate my chili with beans.” (Everett 244). This scene contradicts Kidder’s previous statement that he will not eat restaurant food. This caused me to go back and find proof that Kidder stated previously that he does not eat in restaurants, because he had me second guessing myself. He tricked me. His lie shows that he is: 1.) unreliable and 2.) trying to fool us readers and make us second guess ourselves. 

Kidder’s unreliable narration is not only full of lies, but is also very confusing. Kidder will start thoughts and not finish them until much later, when the thought has already slipped his reader’s mind. For example, on page 26 of the pdf of The Water Cure, Kidder presents us with a puzzle. “A man is standing on the bank of a wide river. With him are a monster, a child, and a bag of chocolates. He must get all three to the other side, but his boat is so small that he can take only one across at a time. He could not ever leave the monster with the child for it would eat her, and he could not leave the child with the chocolates for she would eat them. The monster hates chocolates and would never touch them. How does the man get all three across?” (Everett 26). This puzzle is then not mentioned again until nearly 200 pages later, when Kidder says “Answer to puzzle: Kill the monster.” (Everett 223). The answer was unprompted and had no reason to be revealed 197 pages after the puzzle was first introduced, yet here we are. Everett is not afraid to catch his readers off guard and to be unpredictable in his writing. His unpredictability could not be planned out on a plot diagram. His unpredictability is uncomfortable. I can not see his next move before it happens.

Kidder does not speak in a foreseeable manner. Sometimes Everett, as Kidder, chooses to spell words incorrectly. “Me wlife pryor to leavening Charm’s Lot is lift zen snoopshits of vetter thymes, her miles when I whood me eat here at the dour, her shrilly runing thorough the whouse, hurt farce seam-eared with dirth from the god’s den…”. (Everett 223). This same sentence is written (and spelled correctly) on the previous page: “My life before leaving Charlotte is left to me in wrinkled snapshots of good times: her smile when I would meet her at the door, her silly running through the house with her arms unmoving by her sides, her face smeared with dirt from the garden…” (Everett 222). What is the point of repeating the same sentence, but with the words misspelled? What is the point of this iteration?  Of the incoherence? Is there even a point to this at all? Is he just trying to trick me? 

In Ron Eglash’s book, African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design Eglash defines iteration. “In iteration, there is only one transformation process, but each time the process creates an output, it uses this result as the input for the next iteration, as we’ve seen in generating fractals.” (Eglash 110). Reading The Water Cure created a transformative process within myself. As I mentioned above, I used to only read books that followed the predictable pattern of the plot diagram. Examples of which are romance books. In romance books, I can almost always see what comes next before it happens, unlike The Water Cure. I can almost always figure out who the main love interest will be just from the first few chapters. I also know that the main protagonist will get together with their love interest in the story. After getting together, there will be some sort of conflict. Maybe they will have a fight, or maybe the world will try to keep them apart. Then the story goes one of two ways: either they overcome their conflict and stay together, or they split up. When reading those types of books, I know what to expect for the most part, and roughly when to expect it. Percival Everett’s The Water Cure is so unpredictable that it often made me uncomfortable with the unknown. As mentioned above, Kidder speaks in tangents, and they come on randomly. They jump from past to present, and sometimes they do not make sense. Other times they are clear as day and even include detailed dialogue and description, like his scenes with his agent Sally. “‘Hello, Ishmael!’ She is cheery, always cheery, but never quite happy, and she will be even less happy with me shortly.” (Everett 49). Other times, the words are spelled incorrectly, like in my example above, or he is using math equations to represent the kidnapping of a possibly innocent man. “Man X is identical with Man Y. Man X = Man Y.” (Everett 51). While reading this text and trying to decipher the deeper meaning behind Kidder’s ramblings, I felt like I was being tricked, purposefully confused, and lied to. How can Man X = Man Y? Man X and Man Y are two separate individuals. Because of this, reading the novel was at times an unnerving experience for me. 

Though reading this story was often uncomfortable, I was able to open up my mind and allow myself to read a book unlike anything I have ever read before. I have started to push and challenge myself to be uncomfortable, and to be okay with that feeling. Maybe it is okay to not know what to expect. Maybe it is okay if things are not repetitive or predictable like fractals. I am even starting to learn that maybe it is okay to read something that makes me uncomfortable, because in doing so I am allowing myself to experience something new, and different. 

Taking this course has exposed me to new and different things, and has brought on this new iteration of myself. As I get ready to graduate this month, I will continue to take with me the lessons I have learned in this class: It is okay to be confused at first and uncomfortable with the idea of trying something new, but you must not let these things stop you. Unlike Kidder’s belief that Man X=Man Y, I know that Man X and Man Y are not the same. I know that I am unique, and not the same as anyone else. Even though I took this course with twenty four other SUNY Geneseo students, I know that my takeaways and journey with this course is special. Man X does not equal Man Y. Like in iterations, I will take these lessons and input them, so that I can output a new and improved version of myself. My new iteration will be a version of me who is not afraid to try something different, and who will work to feel comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Throughout my time in the English 111 course, I have grown as a student and writer, as well as deepened my understanding of course concepts and The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. This trilogy is a science fiction trio that encompasses themes of racialization, seismic events, and geological thinking, intertwined with fantasy elements. Previously to this course, I had never encountered all of these concepts and elements together, but I have grown as a student and reader through a deeper dive into these three novels. I believe my thinking has not necessarily changed or shifted from my original Lithosphere essay, since I still have many commonalities now at the end of this course. I do believe that I have slowed down my thinking process in order to create deeper thoughts and ideas regarding the texts. I had to expand my thinking on the characters and the relationships they formed across the entire trilogy. 

While referring back to my Lithosphere essay, I highlighted the main themes throughout the first novel of the trilogy, The Fifth Season. N.K. Jemisin conveys messages regarding the deeply rooted racism within the United States, through the use of her characters. In the Stillness, where the trilogy takes place, there are a few different groups of people who inhabit the area. The two main groups are orogenes, who possess special, unique powers that can control and manipulate seismic events, and then stills, who do not possess any power whatsoever. Since orogenes are different from the stills, “this group is feared and disrespected by the powerless people of the Stillness, making orogenes the minority group that is oppressed and discriminated against”, as stated in my Lithosphere essay (Lithosphere Essay – Duerheimer). This discrimination and maltreatment towards orogenes is the basis of all three novels within the trilogy and even has roots within the orogene community.

I believe that my thinking has significantly deepened my understanding of the different levels of being an orogene within the Fulcrum. The Fulcrum is the training ground for orogenes and is run through a systematic hierarchy where orogenes can gain rings based off of their control and usage of their seismic manipulating powers. As stated in my Lithosphere essay, “orogenes begin their training process as “grits” or have one-ring and eventually can reach the level of ten-rings”, where ten-ring orogenes are worshiped and are treated as superior (Lithosphere Essay – Duerheimer). Many one-ring orogenes are treated as the bottom of the totem pole and often are ridiculed for their status by higher-ringed orogenes. Higher-ring orogenes are viewed as “better” and get many more privileges than one-ring orogenes or “grits” that are just starting out. For example, Damaya a “grit” training in the Fulcrum states, “their ringed fingers flick and flash as they gesture freely, of turn the pages of books they don’t have to read, or brush back a lover’s curling hair from one ear” (The Fifth Season, page 196). Damaya is amazed and in awe of the higher ranked orogenes and how they can hangout with other people freely and not read the books required to her. 

I did not think about this idea much while reading previously and writing my first essay. Taking your feedback from my first essay to reflect on real world places where this concept may be present, I deepened my understanding of the novel through the connection of the high school and college settings. Damaya’s feelings about higher-ringed orogenes reminds me of how freshmen feel walking through the halls of a high school, or around a college campus. Many freshmen look up to upperclassmen, like juniors and seniors, and are also in awe and amazed by how many friends they have and how they can go about their days freely. I believe that N.K. Jemisin may have used the dynamics of a high school setting and a college setting to create the atmosphere within the Fulcrum in her three novels. Applying your feedback in this way opened up my thinking and allowed me to comprehend and deeper absorb Jemisin’s motives behind her trilogy. This helped me grow as a reader and consumer of literature because I took feedback from my own interpretations and dove deeper into the messages hidden within the texts.

Additionally, I have slowed down my thinking and reflected on different characters throughout the trilogy. From my first essay, the Lithosphere essay, I had only read one of the novels, The Fifth Season, and had no other stories to base my thinking on. Now, I have read all three novels within the trilogy, The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky. Through this, I was able to look at how characters have changed or evolved across the trilogy, and how my opinion on them has potentially shifted. More specifically, initially, I was unsure about how I felt about Essun. In the first novel, she came across as extremely closed off and quiet, due to all of the deaths and tragedies she faced. Jemisin wrote, “these people killed Uche. Their hate, their fear, their unprovoked violence. They. (He.) Killed your son. (Jija killed your son.)” (The Fifth Season 58-59). Essun was distraught and felt lost because her husband, Jija, killed her son, Uche, solely on the fact that he is an orogene and possesses powers. Jija then took her daughter, Nassun, and ran away. She was left with no one and this led to her being detached and isolated. 

Throughout The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky, it became clear that Essun is a much more complex character than I thought she was in the beginning. I was always confused by her intentions and why she was traveling so far to find her husband and daughter. During chapter 13 of The Obelisk Gate, Essun begins to train students in Castrima on how to use their patterns. She used the same techniques to train her daughter and this sparked an idea for me. I fully began to understand that Essun’s main goal is to reunite with her daughter and she would do anything for the people she loves. I discovered her caring and compassionate side through her helping out the students within Castrima. She wants all orogenes to not be ashamed of their powers, but learn how to use them in the correct way and with good faith, including Nassun, her daughter. And I began to love Essun even more for the fact that she sees so much of herself within her daughter. Her main goal is for Nassun to use her orogeny for good and I was enlightened with this idea through the final scene at the corepoint. Essun is trying to help Nassun decide what to do and even risks her own life to help her out. In order to make all of these discoveries and connections, I had to think deeper about the true meaning behind the novel. I was able to do so through cross checking across all three novels within the trilogy. I had to think about the events that took place in each book, and make connections to how the characters actions and feelings have progressed over time and even changed. I also interpreted your feedback and that allowed myself to think deeper about Jemisin’s allusion to high school and college settings through the setup of the Fulcrum within the trilogy. Cross checking and applying your feedback enabled me to, as Professor McCoy would say, “slow down and keep thinkING”, about the deeper meaning behind literary texts (Professor McCoy).

As the semester is winding down, The Core Essay allows us time to reflect on past thoughts and look within ourselves to see what has changed. English 111 is centered around N.K. Jemisin’s “The Broken Earth Trilogy.” Throughout the three novels, Jemisin writes about orogenes, people who have the power to control seismic events. Orogenes constantly face oppression and prejudice from the non-orogenes that inhabit ‘The Stillness’ with them. In my Lithosphere essay written earlier this semester, I looked at themes of power, oppression, and prejudice from within the trilogy and detailed how they mirror the real world. While I still agree with a large majority of the moves I made within my Lithosphere Essay, my thoughts have expanded and grown deeper.

 In my Lithosphere Essay, I detail the discrimination orogenes face because of their powers. “Non-orogenes fear orogenes and view them as monster-like creatures. Non-orogenes are taught to view orogenes as threats to society and feel as though they have the right to hurt them if that is what is deemed necessary to protect others from orogenes powers.” (Lepsch, 2024)A key word of that sentence is “taught”. Often, prejudice is learned from those who surround us. Much of the hate orogenes face, likely stems from a taught hatred and no actual reason in particular. Here we see Jemisin mirroring real-world discrimination with characters from her book.

  As my Lithosphere Essay progresses, I provide specific examples of orogenes being racialized. The main example I provide sets the stage for the entire plot of the first novel, The Fifth Season. Jija, a non-orogene kills his son Uche after finding out he is an orogene. We see the anger provoked by Essun, Uche’s orogene mother, when she says, “These people killed Uche. Their hate, their fear, their unprovoked violence. They (He.) Killed your son. (Jija killed your son.)” (58). In my Lithosphere Essay, I focused on explaining the words “hate” and “fear” used in that quote and how it expressed non-orogene’s prejudice towards orogenes. As the semester has progressed, my thinking goes beyond this. After Essun realizes her son is dead, her rage causes her to split the valley floor. Here we see the impact after Essun is pushed to her breaking point. While in the real world, one would not be able to split the valley floor when they are upset, Jemisin mirrors drastic measures those who are oppressed will often take to feel heard when they feel as if they cannot push through the hate any longer. The seismic events occurring throughout each of the three novels represent small instances that build up to a large breaking point.

The next point I made in my Lithosphere Essay was about not only is there non-orogene discrimination, but there are also inequalities amongst orogenes themselves. At the time, I dived into “newbie” orogenes being referred to as “grits” and the symbolism this has as grit refers to sand-sized grains and small pebbles. Flash forward, my thinking has progressed about inequalities amongst orogenes themselves. In the last book of the trilogy, The Stone Sky, Essun destroys Castrima. Ykka, the orogene who ran Castrima, was upset with Essun for doing so. Tonkee says, “She’s a little pissed about you destroying the geode.” (21) Essun seems surprised about this and Hjarka laughs and says, “You actually thought we were all up here topside, the whole rusting comm traveling north in the ash and cold, for fun?’ She strides away, shaking her head. Ykka’s not the only one pissed about it.” (21) Even though Ykka and Essun are on the same team, both fighting for equality for orogenes, in this case, they find themselves having opposing opinions. In a blog post I found titled, “Toxic Self-Marginalization: How our unconscious addiction to being underdogs harms our work,” there is a section about “a fighting mode that’s difficult to turn off.” Author Vu discusses that when persistently working to fight against unjust systems, it can be difficult to know when to stop and who the target should be. The author continues to say, “It’s like soldiers and warriors having a difficult time coping when they are no longer on the battlefield. They may lash out at the people who care about them. In our sector, it means sometimes we attack others who are on our side.”  I found this to be profound and see this idea portrayed in Jemisin’s work. Ykka and the other members of Castrima are used to fighting against non-orogenes. In the quote provided above, they are now turning against Essun, a member of their team, because they are used to a constant fight. We see this in the real world when marginalized groups who are used to working together suddenly turn against their own. 

 As I reached the end of my Lithosphere Essay, I discussed my belief of why orogenes are constantly racialized for their powers. I write, “By non-orogenes treating orogenes as less than human, they are able to remain in power. Therefore, while I do believe non-orogenes were taught to fear orogenes for their powers, the ultimate reason they continue to view them as less than is to keep their society and power structures in order. If non-orogenes ideals of orogenes shifted, power dynamics and hierarchies would change, sending people into a time of disorder.” This ultimately connects to the real world where systemic racism has been built into our society. Racism is so deeply embedded that “To change that hierarchy or power structure, small changes would not be effective. Instead, the entire system itself would need to be rebuilt.” (Lepsch, 2024)I still find myself in agreeance with this move. 

 In the time since writing my Lithosphere Essay and finishing The Broken Earth Trilogy, I have one newfound take on the books in particular. While Jemisin mirrors the division and inequities we see in the real world, we can also look to the novels as a symbol of strength for rallying together throughout insurmountable challenges. Throughout the novels, we consistently see groups of people coming together in order to survive. For example, in The Fifth Season, Essun, Hoa, and Tonkee travel together in hopes of finding Nassun. The three of them were stronger together than they were apart, each bringing different knowledge and skills. Another place where we see people unite is in Castrima. Castrima acts as a place of refuge for orogenes and allows protection from the environmental impacts of the season. Throughout the trilogy, the orogenes who inhabit Castrima work together to combat the tumultuous challenges that come their way. Therefore, while Jemisin does write the three novels in hopes of making progress towards a more just society, I think the texts work to show the power of numbers and the importance of resilience through tragedy. The human spirit is stronger than we think and Jemisin demonstrates this strength by pushing her characters to their limit, forcing them to work together if they want to survive. 

References

Lepsch, Victoria. (2024) ‘Lithosphere Essay: Using Race to Manage Society’. SUNY Geneseo. Published Essay.

Vu. (2019, September 19). Toxic Self-Marginalization: How our unconscious addiction to being underdogs harms our work – Nonprofit AF. Nonprofitaf.com. https://nonprofitaf.com/2019/09/toxic-self-marginalization-how-our-unconscious-addiction-to-being-underdogs-harms-our-work/

It is March 31st, 1650 when tragedy overfalls the city. An extremely powerful earthquake strikes the city at 2:00 in the afternoon. Churches, homes, and buildings crumble, leaving the citizens in ruins and dust. Many try to save artwork and religious artifacts, some are successful while others are not. This story takes place in 1600’s Cusco, Peru. Cusco is the former capital of the Inca Empire, which fell out of power due to the Spanish conquest in the 1500s. It is located high in the Andes Mountains. 

It is important to set the scene, as this earthquake not only physically destroyed the city but also had religious and societal impacts. As said before, Cusco was the heart of the Inca Empire, which was ruled by South American Natives. According to Britannica, the Incan Empire“extended from the Pacific coast and Andean highlands from the northern border of modern Ecuador to the Maule River in central Chile.” (See figure 1) According to Cusco by Mark Cartwright, the city was built in the form of a puma and was dominated by fine buildings and palaces including gold-covered and emerald-studded temples. The city flourished with art, religion, and architecture. The city had a population of around 40,000 with another 200,000 in the surrounding area (Cusco, Mark Cartwright). Cusco was honored by the Inca subjects as a sacred site. Soon, however, Spanish conquistadors changed the trajectory of the Empire. In 1532, Spanish soldiers led by Francisco Pizarro, overthrew the Inca leader Atahualpa and conquered Peru (History Crunch). Due to previous European travelers who had brought diseases to South America, the Inca Empire was weakened, giving the Spanish an advantage. The takeover resulted in the Spanish forcefully changing and controlling the fallen Empire. The Spanish completely changed the system of rule in order to try and keep the Inca out of power(Lumenlearning). In addition, the Spanish changed systems of agriculture, which had been finely honed by the Incas over years of time. Heavy manual labor taxes were forced upon the Inca, which was called “mita” (Lumenlearning). Overall the Spanish forced their culture, economic, and political policies onto the Inca and held power over them.

Figure 1: Features a map showing the Inca Empire and Cusco. 

Figure 2: Evidence of destructive events based on archeological discoveries including the collapse of buildings as well as other archeological artifacts.

Despite the magnitude of destruction of the earthquake, the amount of casualties was fortunately quite minimal. “Structural survey and Empirical Seismic vulnerability assessment of dwellings in the historical Centre of Cusco, Peru” (Brando 2019) determined that the earthquake caused extensive damage, which spread to neighboring towns and was felt as far as Lima, Peru. From a geographical standpoint, the magnitude of the earthquake on a Richter scale was above 7 MM, similar to the more recent earthquakes that occurred in 1950 and 1986. The cause for earthquakes has to do with two important concepts that include the shifting of tectonic plates and fault line boundaries. Tectonic plates are large sections of the Earth’s crust that float on the semi-fluid asthenosphere, and fault lines are the boundaries and gaps where these plates meet. When friction and pressure is caused by the movement of these massive sections via sliding, they begin to collide, or move away from one another along the fault lines. This is what leads to the phenomena of earthquakes. According to the figure shown above (Figure 2), it can be observed that Cusco sits directly on the Cusco fault line and is also very close to the Tambomachay fault line (approximately 4 km). Oftentimes if one fault line is triggered causing a high enough magnitude earthquake, a fault line nearby can also cause another earthquake at a lesser magnitude which occurred in this case.

 Furthermore, the earth earthquake not only destroyed the land but had lasting effects on religious circumstances. It crumbled various Inca temples and sacred locations. The Catholic church took advantage of this by aiding the recovery with their practices. It is also important to highlight the fact that it is human nature to seek answers and reasons as to why bad things happen, especially in regards to religion. In the case of the earthquake, religious authorities in Cusco interpreted the catastrophe in their own Catholic perspective which left a lasting influence on the natives, among others, “in which the cataclysmic results seemed to explode straight from the Bible” (In 1650, a massive earthquake hit Cuzco…). With destruction everywhere people turned and the wish to seek for answers increasing as a result of this devastating event, it made it much more feasible for the religious authorities to swoop in as a beacon of hope and slowly transform ideologies from one to the next. It was also very common back then for people to connect such disasters to religion rather than science to explain what was going on with the world. When people have their religion to look at when disasters happen it gives them a sense of comfort and the fact that after this catastrophe, the Catholics saw that people were having doubts about their religion and decided to swoop in and spread their ideas connecting the earthquake to the Bible, leading many to change religions and follow their Catholic ways.

Encomiendas served as the lifeblood that sustained the Spanish colonization of Latin America. These grants, approved and enforced by viceroys to the Spanish king, entitled colonists to indigenous land and labor. Indentured servitude of the indigenous peoples and enslaved African peoples allowed the Spanish conquistadors to gut the original structures of Cusco and distort them to serve colonial demands. Catholic churches were built by enslaved Africans and Cuscueños in the skeletons of Cusco’s religious buildings. At the time of the earthquake, the malignant changes of colonial influence were well underway, transforming many of the “undesirable” traditional aspects of the grand city to more closely fit Spanish ideals. The Spanish sought to commandeer the city of Cusco into a Spanish colonialist utopia, but progress towards this end was slow and intensive. The 1650 earthquake thus provided an unprecedented opportunity for the Spanish colonists, as the widespread devastation of native and Spanish buildings alike meant that rebuilding the city would no longer be impeded by the preexisting city, but could be built anew in a pure, Spanish image. Similarly, this pressing need for reconstruction efforts could cement colonial control over and subjugation of indentured servants. In a letter to the Spanish king following the earthquake, Spanish colonists made an explicit request to extend their encomiendas, tightening their grip over the lives of the enslaved peoples, but also extending the terms of their servitude over additional generations. The Spanish colonists suffered as a result of this unprecedented earthquake but saw it as a prime opportunity to erase what little of the indigenous culture remained, and to build back in a more pure Spanish vision.

The artwork that emerged after the earthquake represents Spain’s impact on the town’s reconstruction, religion, and art style to fit their ideal standards as mentioned in the previous paragraph. For example, the Andean baroque style (see Figure 5) combines Christian and indigenous symbols (Hajovsky 2018).  The colonization of Cusco can be seen in the artwork of religious paintings, European architecture, and city layout. 

Figure 3: (Hajovsky 2018): This painting by an unknown artist shows the town of Cusco during the 1650 earthquake. Many of the Spanish settlers flocked to the town center where their religious building was and surrounded the sculpture of Santo Cristo (Holy Christ), as it was taken out of the church and paraded and placed into the center of the town. 

In the top left corner of the painting is a Marian apparition, a symbol in the Catholic religion where it represents the intervention of a divine power that can provide medical healing, messages, etc (Otto 1985). In this instance, the Marian apparition showcased a light to stop the earthquake, which is why many of the Spanish settlers surrounded the Santo Cristo. This would later become a symbol in Peru of a figure that can stop earthquakes called the Nuestro Señor de los Temblores (Our Lord of the Earthquakes) (Tripoli 2017). However, the religious symbols in the painting were painted to rejustify the reconstruction of the indigenous building of Cusco to their Spanish image and the forcing of Catholicism onto the Cusco people as the earthquake ruined much of their native architecture. 

The painting also shows a dominant perspective of the Incas religious and social culture but has been changed to showcase more Spanish architecture (Hajovsky 2018). An example of this change is the way the buildings are set up in a gridlike pattern and the construction of new buildings to fit their European ideals (Hajovsky 2018). The symbols of Catholic saints, and angels, in the sky show that the Spanish thought it was their Catholic right to conquer Cusco and to change the buildings, culture, and religion of the indigenous people. This was a “manifest destiny” mindset that the Spanish church and state had when they conquered not just Cusco but many other Latin American countries (Eckler 2020). This painting depicts how Spanish settlers thought this earthquake was something that their gods and Catholicism gave to change Cusco into their European ideals and forcibly spread their faith with the creation of Temblores that “stopped the earthquake” and protected them from it (Max 2010). Furthermore, the creation of the Temblores was done by the Spanish to appeal more to the Cusco people and have them be converted to their religion through this manipulation. 

Figure 4: (Leibsohn, Mundy 2015): Map painting of Cusco by an unknown artist. It was made in 1643 before the earthquake. In the map, the bottom and middle center of the map show a cross, religious buildings, and the houses are also in a gridlike pattern. This style represents the Spanish settlers’ ideals of what they wanted Cusco to look like. The upper portion of the map has more mountains and rivers, with many of the buildings clustered together, signifying what Cusco looked like when inhabited by the indigenous people. 

Figure 5: (University of Arkansas 2017): A religious building of the Andean baroque style. Andean baroque is an architectural style that mixes Catholicism from Spain and Cusco religion and culture. For example, they replaced the door handles with animals used in Andean imagery (University of Arkansas 2017). This hybrid art style shows how Catholic colonialism is slowly turning Andean symbolism into that of Catholicism. 

In the aftermath of the 1650 earthquake that devastated Cusco, Peru, the city stood amid destruction. After the shaking stopped, the Spanish settlers saw a chance for social reconstruction and a way to reshape Cusco in the image they wanted. As a result of this, the native culture drastically changed in many ways. The art at the time also shows a mix of Christian and native contributions that depict the clash of cultures and the emphasis on segregation nurtured and influenced by conquistadors. So why does this matter? The Cusco earthquake was much more than just an earthquake. It destroyed art and religious items while also proving how intensely colonization has affected ancient civilization. This can be parallelized to N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, where during the Syl Anagist chapters, we repeatedly see how Hoa’s race was used for torturous labor like the encomiendas. In the book, Hoa finds out what the briar patch really is, a place where his race gets the life and magic sucked out of them, however, they’re still alive in order to keep making this magic to keep the obelisk alive. These obelisks are used by Syl Anagist to keep the city alive, with their slogan of “Life is sacred in Syl Anagist,”. This can be seen with the encomiendas in Cusco since Spain forcefully made them do labor to turn their city to their European ideals. Another connection between the book and Cusco, was when Keleni took Hoa and his friends on a tour of their origin and they saw how they were able to use magic for art and culture. This is similar to Cusco before they were colonized by Spain, where the city was rich in indigenous art and culture. However, later in the book the readers find out that when Syl Anagist came over and conquered them, they used their ideas of how they harnessed magic to create what their city is now, however since they couldn’t do it like them, they used those people to build it, by once again using their life and magic. This connects to Cusco, because after the earthquake Spanish settlers in Cusco tried to further enslave the encomiendas to rebuild the city in their Spain ideal image, and when this did happen, many paintings and Andean baroque architecture emerged, however, much of the indigenous material and symbolism remains in such art. For example, old indigenous buildings in Cusco still remain today, becoming a tourist attraction, just like how Keleni gave Hoa and his friends a tour of the old society. In conclusion, N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy connects to Cusco’s history of colonization where both Hoa’s kind and Cusco people were used and abused by those who conquered them.

Bibliography:

“Encomenderos in Cuzco Petition the King after the Great Earthquake of 1650.” Vistas.ace.fordham.edu, vistas.ace.fordham.edu/lib/17th/encomenderos/. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

Hajovsky, Patrick Thomas. “Shifting Panoramas: Contested Visions of Cuzco’s 1650 Earthquake.” The Art Bulletin, vol. 100, no. 4, 2 Oct. 2018, pp. 34–61, https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.2018.1464358. Accessed 15 June 2022.

“The Spanish Conquest | World Civilization.” Courses.lumenlearning.com, courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/the-spanish-conquest/#:~:text=Diseases%20that%20the%20population%20had.

“Map of Cuzco · VistasGallery.” Vistasgallery.ace.fordham.edu, vistasgallery.ace.fordham.edu/items/show/1779. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

Publicación Especial N ° 14 -Resúmenes Ampliados Del XIX Congreso.

Brando, Giuseppe & Cocco, Giulia & Mazzanti, Claudio & Peruch, Matteo & Spacone, Enrico & Alfaro, Crayla & Sovero, Simone & Tarque, Nicola. (2019). Structural Survey and Empirical Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Dwellings in the Historical Centre of Cusco, Peru. International Journal of Architectural Heritage. 15. 1-29. 10.1080/15583058.2019.1685022.

Eckler, Camden. The Roots of Exploitation and Inequality in Latin America, 2020, scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1289&context=honors-theses.

Max. “Black Jesus.” Wayne To The Max, 14 Dec. 2010, waynetothemax.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/black-jesus/.

“A New World Take on the Baroque.” Honors College Blog, University of Arkansas, 2017, honorsblog.uark.edu/a-new-world-take-on-the-baroque/.

Otto. “Dictionary of Mary.” Catholic Book Publishing, 1985, catholicbookpublishing.com/products/dictionary-of-mary-full-color.

Tripoli. “A Lesson in Colonialism at Cusco Cathedral.” BashfulAdventurer.Com, 16 Jan. 2017, bashfuladventurer.com/lesson-colonialism-cusco-cathedral/.