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”
Writing SciFi
“How do you decide what to include?“
“Where do you start?”
“How do you decide if the narrator is reliable?”
“How reliable does a narrator have to be for you to believe them?” Continue reading “Writing SciFi”
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”
The Future Is Queer
Queerness has always been categorized by a degree of nonconformity. The term has previously been used to define what’s perceived to be strange. Yet, the strangest aspect of this is not the object or individual to which this term is given. In fact, the most unusual part of this is the public’s inability to perceive a change in normality as progress instead of a threat. Usually, when queerness enters literature or film, there is a common plotline for all characters. The importance of their existence is centered around their sexuality. Writers choose to not give a character a solid arc or personality and opt out to produce two-dimensional fillers. Jemisin has refused to fall into that tradition and instead has written queerness as a normal ideal rather than a defining factor.
“Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world” Continue reading “The Future Is Queer”
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”
Laws of Attraction
Revelations occur in the strangest of moments. Right in the midst of my procrastination, as my attention span struggles to grasp on my work, I tune into my roommate’s video that’s playing in the background. “That’s not something I’ve been trained to be attracted to” flows from her laptop. She’s watching another episode of BKCHAT NYC, as she usually does. This time on the topic of race and attraction. I was halfway through writing another blog post when these words resonated with me.
“That’s not something I’ve been trained to be attracted to”
Stone Everlasting
Steel’s conversation with Nassun about living forever, helped me understand why Steel, a stone eater wanted Nassun, an orogene to destroy the world. It wasn’t because he is naturally evil, and wants the world to suffer. He has nothing to live for, it’s a selfish wish, that can only be- for that reason Nassun and Steel are similar. Steel is not naturally cruel, just in pain, and living forever is the cause.
Children of Malice
Remember the very first blog post I made? Probably. not, but it was centered around Māori mythology and the idea of primordial parental figures. In all honesty, the post was meant as a basis for a thread of connections I’m currently trying to unpack. There were times where it might have seemed contradictory or lacking, so I’m here to explain somethings before I start. I said that Jemisin takes inspiration a lot of different cultures. This inspiration isn’t appropriation, but rather a reference point for growth. Her blog post about creating races clearly states she isn’t interested in using other people’s beliefs or traditions for personal gain. See the rest of my findings as a plausible origin for what we’ve read instead of a concrete backstory. Continue reading “Children of Malice”
Home
The other day I read about an Icelandic fishing village named Vestmannaeyjar and their fateful fight with their local volcano 1973. Immediately I thought of parallels with this event and the Broken Earth Trilogy. In both situations, homes are destroyed but with different outcomes.