(Im)Possibilities

Over the summer, I took pleasure in reading the book “We Rise: The Earth Guardians Guide to Building a Movement that Restores the Planet” by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. From the very beginning, I loved the book. It was inspiring, empowering, and insightful. Xiuhtezcatl (‘Shoe-Tez-Caht’) is an indigenous climate activist, hip-hop artist, and powerful voice on the front lines of a global youth-led environmental movement. Amazingly, at the early age of six Xiuhtezcatl began speaking around the world. He has also worked locally to get pesticides out of parks, coal ash contained, and a temporary prohibition on fracking in his state. He is currently a lead defendant in a youth-led lawsuit against the federal government for their failure to protect the atmosphere for future generations. This is in terms of CO2 emissions, greenhouse gasses release, and any other harmful discharges of chemicals. As many people describe it, that is truly iconic. Continue reading ““We Rise” I Rise”

The Connection Between Rocks and Social Justice: First and foremost, this blog post is very insightful and beautifully written. It’s important to have an answer to the questions “Why should people who care about rocks care about social justice?” and visa versa because it connects two otherwise distinct ideas into one. I honestly love how Sarah introduced the concept of Environmental Racism because it is a prime example of how rocks and social justice intertwine. As she states, “Environmental racism is the inability of low-income and/or marginalized groups of people, generally racial and ethnic minorities, to leave a situation in which they are at risk of environmental hazards, often because of socioeconomic status.” This is prevalent to people of color in the United States. Continue reading “In Response to Sarah Bracy’s “The Connection Between Rocks and Social Justice””

I would like to start out with a nod to a post by Sabrina Bramwell entitled “Say Cheese!” There is indeed something quite eerie about the way the Guardians smile all the time and the connotations that accompany this. In fact, I would like to go even further by including one quote from The Fifth Season I find especially intriguing, plausibly in reference to Father Earth. It reads, “There is an art to smiling in a way that others believe. It is always important to include the eyes; otherwise, people will know you hate them.” (Jemisin 5) The way this quote is presented makes me uneasy, and I’m assuming others as well; this is most likely because it implies the subject of the quote must consciously remind himself to smile, as if it is never simply natural. Continue reading “The Art of Believably Smiling”

One of the more plainly metaphorical aspects to Jemisin’s The Stone Sky revealed to us how Sylanagistines created stone eaters and orogenes because they could find no logical reason to hate and discriminate against the Thniess anymore, or the Niess, as they became more commonly known. After studying the Niess for palpable genetic differences from the rest of the world’s population at the time and finding none, the Sylanagistines finally had to face the fact that they no longer had “logical” evidence on which to base their hate, to their disappointment. The creation of stone eaters and orogenes came as a supplement to this. The Sylanagistines purposefully designed them to look like the Niess so they could have a new “species” to hate. Continue reading “Our Fabrication of Hate”

One of the most powerful moments in The Broken Earth occurs in its final confrontation. “This moment would be when Essun and Nassun finally meet up after years of travel, “I watch you and your daughter face each other for the first time in two years, across a gulf of hardship” (The Stone Sky, 371). While of course the action and confrontation to follow this would have large ramifications for the entire world of the Stillness, this moment overshadows any other portion of the novel. It is incredibly significant, and this scene defines the entire series.

Continue reading “The Importance of Personal Conflict in The Stone Sky”

In a previous post I touch on the topic of consent, but it wasn’t the main point of the post and at the time I hadn’t even considered that aspect to what I was talking about until Dr. McCoy brought it up.  What Dr. McCoy said that really stood out to me and got me thinking was “the issue of childhood being a non-consensual experience.” I hadn’t ever thought of it that way. As a society, we have always seen child-rearing and in general, the way we treat children as doing what’s best for them and looking out for their best interest.  We never consider that we as the adults are taking all choice away from children. Continue reading “A Commentary on Childhood”