(Im)Possibilities

In the first book of the “Broken Earth” Trilogy, “The Fifth Season” by N.K. Jemisin, we are met with the manipulation of myth and science in both, good faith and bad faith ways that racialize orogenes. Orogenes are individuals that have the ability to feel the seismic activity, which gives them the power to control such things as earthquakes and volcanoes. Orogenes are feared by the rest of the population because of this power that they hold. In order for the non-orogene individuals to be able to feel safe from the orogenes, they are kept under close watch by Guardians. Guardians have a power that negates that of the orogenes, causing their seismic power to have little to no effect. Throughout this novel, we learn and understand that the orogenes are treated extremely unfairly because of their ability, and face oppression in emotional and physical ways. Our course epigraph explains how the term “race” is not used to describe how an individual appears or looks but rather a ranking in society based on essentializing a specific group of people, or race. These social rankings, are recognized as essential in the function of our society and is why there has always been a pronounced power dynamic, throughout history. Throughout “The Fifth Season” we are met with several examples of racialization, which can also be tied to real-world events and scenarios.

In “The Fifth Season” there is a caste system that has been established, keeping the orogenes at the very bottom. It is seen that orogenes are mistreated in several ways by other individuals of higher power. At the beginning of the book, Damaya is a young girl who is found to be an orogene by her parents. After finding out that Damaya was an orogene, she was forced to sleep in a barn outside of her family’s home. Even though Damaya had a family that loved her, orogenes are so frowned upon that the people closest and dearest to her pushed her away for the simple fact that she was an orogene. In chapter 2, Schaffa says to Damaya “Not all parents do the right thing … by the time a Guardian arrives a mob has carried the child off and beaten her to death. Don’t think unkindly of your parents, Dama. You’re alive and well, and that is no small thing” (The Fifth Season, Chapter 2). This excerpt exemplifies the fact that the orogenes were extremely oppressed, and families would even abandon or kill their children after hearing that they were orogene. Another quote that backs up this point is when Essun says to herself  “House empty, too quiet, tiny little boy all bloody and bruised on the den floor” (The Fifth Season, Chapter 1). Essun who is the oldest version of Damaya, is looking at one of her two children dead in her own home because her husband Jija found out that their son Uche was an orogene. Physically and emotionally, orogens experienced the absolute worst treatment by other individuals of different castes. They were beaten and tortured, and if not killed, they were given the worst possible living conditions. Later in the book, we learn that all orogens have different levels of strength when it comes to their power, a 10-ringer being the strongest. Stronger orogens have more important jobs but are still treated poorly, and do not get any special treatments for having these more important tasks. Later in the book, Damaya changes her name to Syanite, which is done to detach her from her past life as Damaya, and now as someone who works and does jobs for the Fulcrum. During one of her adventures, she comes across something called a node. The book states “It’s the sort of thing they give to orogenes who’ll never make it to the fourth ring—the ones who have lots of raw power and little control. At least they can save lives, even if they’re doomed to spend their own lives in relative isolation and obscurity” (The Fifth Season, Chapter 8). Although the purpose of using nodes was done mostly in good faith, to protect the Stillness and keep it safe from detrimental seismic activity, orogenes are kept in these nodes, stuck underground for the rest of their lives controlling seismic activity in the location that they are stationed in. These orogenes experience extremely inhumane treatment by the individuals who put them there, with no choice but to serve the Stillness as a tool instead of as an individual and a living working being. As we can see from these examples, orogenes were not treated with respect or fairness by anyone, not even by other orogenes. If there was no oppression from guardians or other caste members, it was by other orogenes who were constantly in competition with one another. This helps keep the hierarchy where it is by turning people against one another because it makes it hard to trust one another. This can be seen in the real world throughout history and still today in the present time.

As media becomes a larger and larger part of our daily lives, more and more information is at the end of our fingertips. People are becoming more and more polarized from one another, creating tension between individuals, or groups of people. This polarization and inequity creates beliefs that form systems and laws that allow some groups to be treated differently; better or worse than others. In our course epigraph this is explained when it is said “My understanding, thus, is that race is a structural relationship for the articulation and management of human differences, rather than a substantive content” (Passage from page 27 of Geraldine Heng’s The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.) Race has been used as a factor in creating and maintaining a social hierarchy throughout history and even still today. As you can see in a majority of major cities, there are very distinct lines of segregation between different racial groups, with those who are part of a lower class in the system, living in the worst-kept parts of the cities. (A City Divided) This holds the individuals living in these areas to stay at their “spot” in the social hierarchy. Furthermore, it prevents these individuals from having the same opportunities that other individuals have in the nicer, safer, and more up-kept parts of the city because of where they live and the conditions they are almost forced to live in. This gives a perfect example of why we live in a hierarchical system, providing benefits in numerous ways to those who were chosen to be at the top of this system. While those individuals who are not as fortunate at the bottom of the system, are faced with more daily challenges than those who have reaped the benefits throughout history and their daily lives.

Throughout the first novel of the “Broken Earth Trilogy”, we are introduced to several examples of racialization. “The Fifth Season” gives us a unique perspective on how the social hierarchy is truly a long-enduring issue in the real world. Not only does it paint a picture in our head of what the extreme scenarios of racialization and a set-in-stone caste system could lead to, it also allows us as individuals to be more aware of the hierarchical social issues we are currently enduring, and the same issues that have been ongoing for several generations.

Work Cited

“The Fifth Season” by N.K. Jemisin

Mini-Collaboration 1

A City Divided: https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/data-demographics-history/a_city_divided__a_brief_history_of_segregation_in_the_city_of_buffalo.pdf

The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin, is a science fiction novel that is the first book in The Broken Earth trilogy. This novel takes place in a futuristic world where different groups of people have power based on their physical traits and abilities, which is a common theme across the dystopian and science fiction genres. This is a genre that I have personally never read before, or explored the elements that accompany it. Throughout reading The Fifth Season, there have been many eye opening allusions to, and different perspectives related to the real world that readers can make personal or societal connections to. This novel conveys many real world topics such as structural inequality, racism, oppression, and the process of racialization. More specifically, according to the University of Pennsylvania, “structural inequality describes disparities in wealth, resources, and other outcomes that result from discriminatory practices of institutions such as legal, educational, business, government, and health care systems” (Mini Collaboration). This means that different groups and communities are treated unequally compared to others, due to countless power structures, levels of respect, and access to resources. N.K. Jeminsin, continuously highlights this concept throughout her science fiction trilogy and it has been interesting as a reader to pick up on and discover these connections to our society. 

Geraldine Heng, a social justice activist and author, who enjoys reading and commenting on literature related to social issues and oppression, has written many pieces defining racism and the process of racialization. From her piece, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, Heng defines race and racialization as, “a repeating tendency, of the gravest import, to demarcate human beings through differences among humans that are selectively essentialized as absolute and fundamental, in order to distribute positions and powers differentially to human groups” (Course Epigraph). This means that race and the process of defining someone’s race is not something someone is born with, it is something that is socially constructed. Race is created by people in society and it is a process that is made by institutions to purposely give a certain group more power and privileges, while taking it away for others (Course Epigraph). Race is predetermined through history and is intentionally done to create a hierarchy within society where groups are treated differently. Throughout reading The Fifth Season, I was able to notice how N.K. Jemisin aligns her writing to this definition and topic.

One main way N.K. Jemisin conveys racialization and connects to Heng’s definition of the term through establishing inequality between groups and having a main group of people that are oppressed. The novel takes place in the Stillness where there are orogenes, people who have the power to control seismic events, and stills, who do not have any controlling powers. Orogenes are treated as less than stills due to their powerful ability of controlling seismic events. This group is feared and disrespected by the powerless people of the Stillness, making orogenes the minority group that is oppressed and discriminated against. For example, the main character Essun and her son Uche are orogenes and possess the seismic controlling powers (mini collaboration). Due to his powers, Uche is killed by his father, Jija, once he finds out this information. The book states, “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). Jija, who is a still, was terrified to find out that his own son is an orogene, and killed him instantly when he discovered this. This goes to show that there is deep rooted hatred and discrimination of orogenes and powerless people feel threatened by them, because Jija killed his very own son. Stills feel threatened by orogenes and result to violence towards them because they are considered dangerous. Thus, Uche’s death by Jija, his father, represents the fear and hatred that people have against orogenes (Mini Collaboration). N. K. Jemisin uses this as a parallel to racism within the real world through a fictional point of view for readers to uncover while reading the trilogy. 

Additionally, Jemisin racializes other groups within her trilogy as well. Even within the community of people with powers called orogenes, there is a systematic hierarchy. In the novel, many orogenes reside in the Fulcrum for a portion of their lives, which is a city that serves as a training ground for orogenes. They believe that it is important for every orogene to be able to control their powers and be able to use them correctly and safely when necessary. To break people up and create different groups there is a hierarchy of rings that categorize orogenes based on how well they can perform and control their powers. Orogene begin their training process as “grits” or have one-ring and eventually can reach the level of ten-rings. This sparked discrimination and hierarchy issues through one-ring orogenes being treated as inferior or less than, and ten-ring orogenes being considered as superior and the most powerful (Mini  Collaboration). To convey this, Jemisin writes, “For the other grits—and that’s what she is now, an unimportant bit of rock ready to be polished into usefulness, or at least to help grind other, better rocks—” (The Fifth Season 191). Through this, she is highlighting how grits or one-ring orogenes are treated as less than and are unimportant. The grits have access to less resources, are treated with less respect, and are seen as the lowest group within the Fulcrum (Mini Collaboration). This also alludes to systematic inequality and racialization within our society, it is just highlighted in a fictional way for readers to pick apart on their own. 

In my opinion, after reading the novel The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin wanted to write this trilogy to parallel racism within our world and society with her own science fiction spin. She wanted to break down systemic inequality that is simple enough for readers to grasp and understand (Mini Collaboration). She highlights the concept from Heng’s definition of race being socially constructed through the creation of discrimination towards orogenes in the Stillness, and the hierarchy of orogenes within the Fulcrum. By doing so, she is allowing for readers to go into the story with no biases and see the discrimination orogenes go through. This sheds light on the greater issue or racism in our society today and could potentially make readers think differently about the world around them such as identifying their own privileges and unintentional biases.

A fractal is a mathematical geometric shape. As Ron Eglash describes in his Ted Talk, they are known to be used in modeling structures because they have a recurring pattern that progressively gets smaller. They take on a seed shape. Fractals are used to model many different things, one of them being African culture to model architecture. We learned about fractals our first day of class and have been building on the topic ever since. As we have learned, fractals apply to more than just math or architecture, they are also seen in pieces of literature. A fractal can be created in one piece of literature, as it connects the beginning, middle and end of a story. Fractals can also be created by connecting one piece of literature to another. By connecting pieces of literature, we are creating patterns. The patterns are seen at the heart of the readings. Although each reading is different, there are still underlying patterns that create this metaphoric seed shape. They all have similarities that relate to one another making the literature in our class a fractal seed shape.

The first piece of literature in our class that I feel adds to our seed shape is Everyday Use by Alice Walker. The story Everyday Use talks about an African American family who struggle with different perspectives about their heritage. In the story, Dee, the more educated prettier sister, wants the quilts their grandmother made as a symbol of their heritage. This is an issue because the quilts were promised to Maggie, her sister who is less educated but still very much appreciates and understands the value of the quilts. Dee believes that she is more deserving of the special quilts because she very outwardly displays her heritage. She even changed her name to Wangero to represent her African culture more. She says, “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.” However, just because Dee outwardly expresses her heritage more than Maggie it does not mean that Maggie is not close to hers. In fact, Maggie is the one who learned how to make quilts. The difference between Maggie and Dee is that Maggie represents her heritage through practice not public displays. The message behind this story is that heritage and culture is truly honored and respected through practice, not outward displays. The story creates a seed shape in it. It does this because the pattern of the importance of practicing your heritage is prominent throughout. The quilts in this story are symbols. They symbolize their heritage. The quilts are passed down through generations and represent family, something Dee doesn’t understand. The quilts in the story also have patterns. They are the Lone Star and Walk Around the Mountain pattern. Just as the patterns symbolize their family and the repeated traditions they practice. Just as the repeated patterns in the literature for our class create a fractal shape. 

Another piece of literature that creates our fractal shape is Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass by Frederick Douglass. He wrote this narrative to document his experiences as a slave. Throughout the story he talks about how dehumanizing slavery is. He emphasizes the horrors that slavery is by talking about the malleolus intentions of slave owners that include treating slaves as property and keeping them illiterate and uneducated. In the narrative, Douglass explains how he learns to read first from his slave owner’s wife and then is able to keep going and teaches himself with some help. After Douglass learns how to read, he starts to realize even more how wrong slavery is. After his final escape, he marries and writes his narrative to try and shed light on the truth about slavery. The pattern in this story is that knowledge is everything. The power of reading and writing helped Douglass while he was a slave. It got him through it and educated him, giving him hope and power. After his escape, Douglass used writing as an outlet to fight slavery. He wrote his narrative to tell his tale and the horrors he went through in order to help get change. In the narrative he says, “The paper came, and I finally read it from week to week with such feelings as it would be quite idle for me to attempt to describe. The paper became my meat and my drink. My soul was set on fire. Its sympathy for my brethren in bonds-its scathing denunciations of slaveholders-its faithful exposures of slavery- and its powerful attacks upon the upholders of the institutions-sent a thrill of joy through my soul, such as I had never felt before!”. This quote describes the joy and importance that literature brings in Douglass’ life. That knowledge is the most important tool.

These are two examples from our literature that show our fractal seed shape. The fractal seed shape can be used for many different things. They are just to represent patterns being repeated. The pattern for our class is that we must take a deeper dive and really pay attention to what the author is telling us. This is shown in Everyday Use because it shows that the importance of heritage is practicing it and not the public displays. It is also seen in Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass because it shows how powerful reading and writing is. This pattern will keep showing up in our class. We will have to look further than a first glance or what is being obviously displayed and we must dive deeper in the literature. 

A seed shape is the starting point of a fractal, it is the beginning of something never ending. Fractals are the object of study in Ron Eglash’s book African Fractals, in which he describes seed shapes such as a “single straight line” (8) in a cantor set and a “triangular shape made of four lines” (10) of a Koch curve. These seed shapes produce a kind of infinity, in which the seed shape is reproduced over and over and over onto the original shape. In a Cantor set this takes the form of the middle of the straight line being erased, and the two lines produced by this erasure becoming two smaller versions of the original seed shape. When their middles are erased, four seeds are produced, ready to take part in this process of erasure and production. This process is called recursion. As recursion takes place, the original seed shape is not lost, but is still discernible as the essential shape of the fractal when one zooms out to see the whole picture. The concept of seed shapes is not exclusive to mathematics, but is relevant in other conversations. A foundational concept can be likened to a seed shape, the concept being the seed that allows for the beginning of thought, and the thought then being applied over and over in increasingly specific realms, creating a potentially infinite number of applications and understanding. A seed shape in the form of a foundational argument can be found in James Snead’s article, “On Repetition in Black Culture.” Snead first asserts that the world is “not inexhaustible in its manifold combinations,” that there is a limit to what can be created, and therefore there must be repetition. Snead then argues that different cultures see this repetition differently, specifically that European culture sees repetition on a scale of accumulation and growth, whereas black culture sees repetition in terms of circulation (149). This idea that Snead provides, of seeing the world as cyclical rather than infinitely growing/progressing, can prove to be a seed shape for analyzing literature and the world. 

The narrative of accumulation and growth fits well into the narrative structure of order, disorder, and order restored. The order is the base to grow off of, the disorder creates the need for growth, and order restored achieves the growth. This structure also prioritizes both the need for an opponent or antagonist and the end goal of the win. The opponent creates the disorder which one can fight, and win against, in order to restore order. In a society that prioritizes accumulation and growth, these types of stories are seen as the norm. Stories that do not fit this mold are still often read as though they do, and are less understood because of it. The stories that don’t fit this mold resemble more closely the ideas of repetition, circulation, and flow as described by Snead. Snead offers that an essential nature of the cycle is the “cut” which allows you to “pick [the thing going through the cycle] up when you come back to get it” (150). In using the “cut” rather than the win, this structure emphasizes compromise and shared experience. However, if one views these stories through a different lens, the lens of Snead’s seed shape, one can see these stories and the varied arguments they offer more clearly.

One piece of literature that can be analyzed through this seed shape is that of Harriet Jacobs’ book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. In some ways, one could think of Jacob’s story through the structure of order, disorder, and order restored. She begins in relative order, not knowing she is enslaved until she is seven years old. Then upon learning she is enslaved, and especially when her first enslaver dies, disorder begins. Finally, order is restored as Jacobs’ achieves freedom in the north. While this summary fits relatively well onto Jacobs’ narrative, when one zooms in closer to the details of the book, the structure no longer fits these expectations. 

The main ways in which Jacobs’ book does not meet the expectations of one conditioned to read for accumulation and growth is in the content of what would be the disorder and the conclusion. The disorder that Jacobs’ experiences does not exactly rise but rather exists in constant and differing threats she experiences. Jacobs is sexually harassed by her enslaver and threatened with her life by the wife of her enslaver. The way she escapes this disorder is by hiding in her grandmother’s attic for seven years, being disconnected from her children and living in constant fear of being caught. In escaping this disorder she flees to the north, where she is still disconnected from her children and initially fearful of being discovered. Each solution in Jacobs’ story has another problem. Even at the end of the book, Jacobs writes “the dream of my life is not yet realized. I do not sit with my children in a home of my own” (Jacobs, 464). Through this ending it is clear that Jacobs’ story is not one of accumulation or growth in a linear sense. Instead it resembles more closely the circulation and flow described by Snead. Jacobs does not win at the end of her narrative, she finds a compromise between her and her children’s freedom and her desire to live with them and have a home of their own. A foundational concept that can be seen as a seed shape is one that can provide the framework for an idea or conversation, then offer more specific insights as one focuses on specific topics. As can be seen by the application of Snead’s concepts to Harriet Jacobs’ book Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl, his ideas of accumulation and growth and circulation and flow as responses to repetition work as a seed shape for discussion of other topics. Viewing Jacob’s book through Snead’s ideas allows the reader to see it through a different lens. Instead of attempting to assign roles of antagonists and protagonists to the people in Jacobs’ book, one can see the many roles taken by many characters and the ways in which they don’t necessarily simply triumph over one another, but find compromises.

In attempting to discern a central “seed shape” for our ENGL-337 course thus far, I found it difficult to focus on just one. There have certainly been several thematic throughlines that we have followed between pieces of writing over the course of these first few weeks, but as I have begun to delve into each of them, I have found that every possible seed shape has its roots in another possible seed shape, all of them intertwining and spiraling into the infinitely complex whole of African American literature. Any given individual concept that can be identified in the study of African American literary history cannot be separated from the whole that it is a part of, and that whole is also a part of each of its own fragments. Many of the concepts we have discussed in this course can be traced back to a uniting core of the many perniciously sprawling limbs of American white supremacy, but this is less a seed shape than it is the structural groundwork from which the study of African American literature has grown. However, even as the whole of American white supremacy is self-reproducing, some of its manifestations may be seen as having their own unique ways of recurring on their own, exemplified by common threads prominent in this course.

Before I go on to identify what I believe is the most significant of these threads given the information I have now, I would like to make it clear what my understanding of a “seed shape” is, as this is what I will be basing my argument off of. The terminology of seed shapes has its origin in the mathematical study of fractals, which Eglash at one point describes as “simulations for natural objects…with a seed shape that undergoes recursive replacement” (African Fractals, 12). Essentially, fractals are patterns resulting from one basic shape replacing each section of its own form with itself, and then doing the same substitutions with the resulting form, and so on; the output for one iteration becomes the input for the next. The possible result is an infinitely complex shape made entirely of a simple, self-reproducing shape– the fractal’s “seed shape.” This phenomenon is often seen in objects of nature, hence why manufactured fractals are often seen as “simulations” of nature’s patterns. More abstractly, then, a seed shape could be considered to be any core concept that recursively reproduces itself until it has created a deeply complicated mechanism of phenomena wherein the original, basic concept is always underpinning each resultant example of it.

Applying this to our course, and to the study of African American literature more broadly, I view a seed shape as being a societally ingrained thought system of which certain of the issues prevalent in the history of African American artforms are symptoms. Most of what we have talked about in this course are symptoms of several, interconnected conceptual seed shapes, but I have found myself continually returning to one idea, which is threaded through all of the readings we have at this time done as a class. African American literature was first cultivated in a society that did not want it to exist; and in a sense, the same is still true of more modern African American literature. As much as the myth of a post-racial America is pushed onto us, the fact remains that we live under a state where black voices may only be systematically uplifted on the terms of white hegemony. Therefore, a prominent seed shape germinating through the history of black literature has been the black literature as a study and as an artform has consistently been viewed as socially valuable in the context of “Western” notions of value.

Interestingly enough, the first iteration of this seed shape that made me think of this idea was with Ron Eglash himself, in his discussion of fractals. In our first class session, we watched a video of a presentation by Eglash about his studies of the usages of fractals in a variety of African societies. While it is clear that he is trying to be respectful and reverent of the often monolithicized “African culture,” but there was one comment that particularly stuck out to me, which I think reveals a problematic mentality that often accompanies white people trying in good faith to bring awareness to achievements by people of color worldwide. When explaining the successes his foundation has had with the application of his research in education, he claims that introducing young children in America of African descent to the history of African fractals has been “very successful teaching [them] that they have a heritage that’s about mathematics, that it’s not just about singing and dancing” (“African designs,” 14:40). 

This comment may seem innocuous at first, but it carries troubling implications. It apparently subverts the stereotype of African culture being more centered on the body and nature, with European culture being more centered on the mind and intellect; however, it implicitly creates a hierarchy in which “mathematics” is to be more valuable than “singing and dancing.” Eglash is aiming to introduce African cultural traditions into the EuroAmerican world, but only the ones that have a use-value that adheres to EuroAmerican thoughts of value. He seems to dismiss soul-affirming practices of singing and dancing as trivial, emphasizing only aspects of African American heritage that are deemed practical. He creates a similar hierarchy between intention and intuition. He dispels the thought that African usages of fractals are based purely on intuition, but in doing so degrades the value of intuition and the just as valid use of intuitive thought over intentional thought in many cultural practices. This may be digging a bit too deep into a couple of well-intentioned but simply misguided statements, but it did prime me to be more aware of similar ideations made manifest further in the class.

It became clear to me that this framework of black achievements being promoted only on white has been a challenge faced by black authors since the inception of the African American literary tradition. This is perhaps most apparent in the prefaces of the autobiographies of formerly enslaved people chronicling their experiences with slavery, a genre of literature now known as the “fugitive slave narrative.” In order for these artistic works to be published for a wider, largely white audience, the narrative would have to be prefaced by accounts from white people establishing the credibility of the narrative’s black author. Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is preceded in most printings by a preface in which William Lloyd Garrison asserts that the following narrative “is, in [his] judgment, highly creditable to [Douglass’] head and heart” and he is “confident that [the narrative] is essentially true in all its statements (Garrison, May 1, 1845). Following this is often included a letter from Wendell Phillips to Douglass, in which Phillips states that he “can put the most entire confidence in [Douglass’] truth, candor, and sincerity” (Phillips, April 22, 1845). For another instance, Harriet Jacobs’ Life of a Slave Girl was not widely accepted until a white scholar offered support for the truth of the narrative. The fact that the initial perceived value of these foundational pieces of African American literature was dependent on notable white people attesting to their veracity suggests that what was valued about the literature was not the authors’ artistry, but the framing of the literature by white activists as solely calls for abolition. Compounding this is the unfortunate truth that these authors were pressured to give simply a clear description of their enslavement to be most convincing for the cause of abolition; dominant society was not interested in African American literature as “literature,” but rather as a political tool.

Distressingly, it appears that this idea is still underpinning the foundations of modern “black studies.” When African American artforms and histories stopped being fully excluded from the realm of academia through the 1970’s and 1980’s, they were introduced as separate areas of study from Eurocentric cultural studies. As Toni Morrison expressed in a quotation that is featured as a central epigraph for this course, “Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form” (Morrison, 1989). The way I have connected this to my argument is that hegemonic American academia seems to present African American literature as being valuable in the same way that white literature. Students are often taught to read works in the classic “canon” for their artistry and their expressions of profound thought and deep feeling. African American literature, on the other hand, tends to be taught more as a study of African American people and their history, focusing less on the authors’ very real artistic achievements in their works. This is so prevalent that readings by white readers of any works by black authors may come with the assumption that every piece of black literature must have some “political” purpose; something very obviously evidenced by the fact that white readers frequently believe that Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” must be about slavery, even though there is little textual evidence to support this. The shadow of white supremacy remains uncomfortable with non-white voices being centered; thus, there is an underlying societal thought instilled in white Americans that the study of works by black authors is valuable because it will help the white readers feel better about themselves– as though reading about past and current injustices towards African Americans will help absolve the guilt of white Americans– and not because it is valuable in and of itself.

As I am currently taking a class in African American literature, especially one where the majority of my classmates and my professor are white, I think it is paramount for me to remain aware of this apparent trend, being someone brought up by blatantly white supremecist systems. I want to make myself as aware as possible of the ways in which this strain of thought may have seeped into my own subconscious perceptions of African American literature and African American art more broadly. As we continue through the semester I hope to continually challenge my own experience of the course, and recognize the biases I may have that could suggest that the centering of black voices in this class could be valuable to me for the self-serving reasons that are often implicitly given, distracting from the inherent value of the literature’s artistry. Awareness that we are living in an environment that has a foundation in refusing black voices speak for themselves without being superimposed by what dominant white society views as valuable about those voices is key in working to dismantle those trends, especially in education.

As people every day we go through life working through the struggles and growing as individuals. When you apply the concept of struggles to literature, we can connect it to a seed shape. This seed shape is the concept of order → disorder → reorder. This concept shows how people have a life before a struggle, go through the struggle, and then come together as a changed person who has overcome the struggle. This seed shape applies to almost everything in life. A movie, a conversation, a song, a book, or even a day-to-day experience. This seed shape involves recursion. It is something that occurs every day over and over again. It can be going to the bathroom and finding out that there is no toilet paper on the roll, or making a mistake in life and pushing through the battles to overcome it. But on a deeper scale, it can relate to one’s education. When we are children we have fresh minds, and we are influenced by those around us, especially our immediate family. When it comes to family and our developing brains we can be influenced by something as deep as a political standpoint, or a view on the outside world. 

When children partake in everyday life they have a sense of order. Things like when dinner is ready every day, or when they have chores. These aspects of life help to shape their seed into who they are today. 

Alice Walker writes in Call and Response an expert titled, Everyday Use. In this piece, Walker invites the audience into the life of a young African American child and her mother. Describing the relationship between mother and daughter and the struggles of the time. Being African American during this time comes with its struggles, the time when African Americans and White people do not see eye to eye when the world is filled with hate. “Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye?” (Walker 1797). This is the order of her life. This is when looking scared into a white man’s eye was the “normal.” Not only is this issue applicable to the mother but it also is to the daughter. A child growing up with an order of life where being scared was part of growing up, being different and not fitting in was part of growing up, and working during the day was part of growing up. This was part of her premature life, her “normal,” her order. 

Until this child grows and learns more from the struggles of reality she will stay in a constant state of order. 

As a child develops the order will change and become disrupted, this will cause a disorder in the once-organized way of living. This is something that people go through as they come of age, as they are exposed to and understand the true struggles of life. As time moves on and we learn about the harsh realities we try our best to learn and adapt. But learning can be a struggle. Not only can learning be a struggle but so can teaching. When a person or student has grown their whole lives in a sense of order, it is hard to open their mind to new ideas and concepts. A child or teen who comes from a home where things are taught in a certain manner, or they are encouraged to perceive people in a certain way. As children grow and their minds expand then they are truly faced with the harsh truths of the world. These harsh truths disrupt their once-ordered minds. 

If there was a student, a white male student. Those who come from an order at the home of white supremacy, and are suddenly exposed to the truths of America’s foundation, or history, it would disrupt their order of life. 

In Barkley Brown’s essay, “African-American Women’s Quilting” she opens the audience to the world of teaching Black women’s history in the ideals that are consistent with Black women’s understanding of that history. When teaching a classroom full of students of different races and backgrounds, including students who have grown up in Western norms, it can be challenging for the teacher but eye-opening for the student. “ I do not mean that white or male students can learn to feel what it is like to be a Black woman. Rather, I believe that all people that can learn to center in another experience, validate it, and judge it by its own standards without need of comparison or need to adopt that framework as their own” (Brown 922). Students who have yet to be exposed to these truths or the true history of people from different backgrounds will learn new views. Although the students do not have to necessarily agree or believe the things being taught to them, it will still cause a disorder in the order they once believed in. Their “normal” and the order they have grown around, been influenced by, and constantly exposed to will become altered, and for some ultimately change for the better. 

As things change and time goes by, people in everyday life learn new things, discover new things, and challenge themselves to new levels, causing their order to be disrupted. But in the end, the order will be restored. When this order is restored, it doesn’t mean that the person had to like the change or change with it, but they will ultimately come out a different person or a new person. This concept can also be applied to things we do as a society. Something that was discussed in class was the difference in time periods. One of the things that I brought up was telephones. As a society decades ago there were no phones. Then as time went on and discoveries were made and technology was improved, cell phones were invented. As we know time never stops and neither did the advancements of this technology. The cell phone that we have today was once a rotary phone. But the advancements developed and things were changed causing the once order to be disrupted. Although the disruption was not drastic enough to the point where we don’t have any phones at all it was still fondled with. Now in today’s society, we still have phones, and there is order. But due to the disorder the phones have advanced technology, there is a difference in how they were decades ago. 

I think that this seed shape will recur until the end of time. The struggles of life are inevitable, all we can do is learn and reorder our lives. Do you think there are serious times in your life when this seed shape has been applied? What about the silliest little things that this seed shape can be applied to? What about when you go to the dining hall for soup and there is no soup left, so instead you get fries? You had an order going into the dining hall, then the order was disrupted, but in the end, you ultimately restored this order, but changed along the way. Things don’t always have to work out in the end, but it is part of life and we can keep on going no matter what life throws at us.

The origin of words is something that is studied extensively through history and as we move further away from them they can sometimes regain their meaning or completely lose them as they age. Like words the idea of one’s own origin can be either realized or left behind as they move through the acts of their life. The origin of ones can be looked at like a seed shape. A seed shape being the beginning of something. That beginning can be thought to be either when a person is born or the life a person leads before beginning a new life. The course concept of culture and one’s background heavily play into some of the stories we read and what one is leaving behind or regaining plays into its foundation. Two pieces of work that go into these kinds of topics would be, “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker and, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave,” by Frederick Douglass. When observing “Everyday Use,”  the character Dee can be seen as someone who struggles with her cultural identity as she at first resolves to leave it behind before returning to it later in life. In the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave,” we witness the retelling of a life that Douglass left behind.

In “Everyday Use,” Dee lives among her family and grows a dislike for the culture she grew up around, eventually leaving home and not returning for multiple years. Dee in her earlier year’s shows a distaste for the life she was currently living as can be seen when her mother made the comment towards her, “Why don’t you do a dance around the ashes? I’d wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much,” (Walker, p.g, 1798). The meaning of these words can be looked at as Dee hating where she came from. The house is almost a representation of a life she doesn’t think suits her and that she wants. Everything Dee represents is so far removed from the humble upbringings that encompassed her childhood, to the nice clothing she demanded for her graduation, to the way she treats her sister as if she are lesser than her. When talking to her sister Maggie she talks as if she can’t understand larger concepts. “”Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” she cried. “She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.”” (Walker, p.g, 1800). Maggie is far more rooted in the cultural upbring that surrounds the quilts that are to be passed down in her family but because they can be used as memorabilia Dee doesn’t seem to understand why they’d ever be used. I’ll further delve into what Dee’s return to culture looks like in the next paragraph but it’s important to note that her idea of culture turns into someone who is on the outside looking in. Even as someone who has personal connections to the history she’s looking at she doesn’t feel any true connection to it. 

In the text Dee is painted as someone who wants nothing to do with her upbringing before she eventually returns to the home she had once lived in. Once returning home she seems to be enthralled with its whole existence. “She stoops down quickly and snaps off picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot without making sure the house is included,” (Walker, p.g. 1799). The current house that Dee is taking a picture of is almost an exact replica of the previous house that she had hated so much. One could question why Dee would bother including the house when it should remind her of something she never particularly liked. Dee’s return in a way symbolizes her return to origin, or the seed shape. The house, the inhabitants, and what’s inside of it represent her childhood and the culture surrounding it. “”This churn top is what I need”,” “”Mama,” Wangero said sweet as a bird. “Can I have these old quilts?”,” (Walker, p.g. 1800 & 1801). Dee remembers things about her childhood, but actively tried to remove aspects of it from her life. When previously offered the quilts Dee had turned them down, saying they were out of style. Dee’s interest in her background is newly founded and while reconnecting with one’s cultural heritage should be celebrated, Dee wants to use it as some sort of display. “Dee (Wangero) looked at me with hatred. “You just will not understand. The point is these quilts, these quilts!” “Well,” I said, stumped, “what would you do with them?” “Hang them,” she said. As if that was the only thing you could do with quilts,” (Walker, p.g. 1800). When observing Dee’s point of view one could make an argument that she just wants to preserve the quilts as a form of respect but based on how the other characters receive the idea that seems to be out of the norm for their culture. Dee likes the aesthetic of her culture and doesn’t quite understand the inner workings of it. She’s an outsider in every sense of the word that is trying to reconnect but doesn’t seem to want to learn from those who she deems lesser than her.

When looking into the, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave,” one can gleam a very different perspective of what looking back at one’s background can look like. Douglass was someone who had grown up in and thoroughly experienced the ins and outs of slavery but had escaped it and lived to tell his story. Douglass however when recounting his experience doesn’t do it to reconnect with his background but to help others understand the hardships he had to endure while trying to help other people who were enslaved escape. “I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night,” (Douglass, p.g. 276). Douglass appeals to the heart’s of specifically white women with husbands in power to try and make change in the times he was living in. It was all that he could do when with the color of his skin he was seen as half a person.With a background like Douglass’s, it’d be hard pressed to find a person who would want to return to it, even if it’s just in memories. Many would argue that Douglass has every right to move on from his background and pretend like it doesn’t exist and yet he doesn’t. Douglass recounts every aspect of his life, forfeiting some information as he isn’t in a privileged position to share the full narrative. To Douglass it might have been seen as his responsibility to share his story in order to help free his people and so he relieved it all. In his writing he tends to give a lot of information, so much that you may miss important details. “ I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. The steamboats steered in a northeast course from North Point. I will do the same;” (Douglass, p.g. 299). In his writing he takes risks in giving exact instructions for how to escape and yet he takes that risk because he knows that it must be done in order to help others.

Looking back at one’s background and culture is an individual choice that varies from person to person and one may ask why the reason someone does it at all matters. Looking back helps us grow and understand aspects of ourselves, others, and the world around us that we may not have fully grasped before. Doing so for the wrong reasons can damage what we cherish in the end though. With Dee it seems like she ends up hurting others within the narrative with how she sees her heritage as a display piece. She can’t see past how she views her culture and refuses to learn from the people who would most likely know more than her as it doesn’t fit her current life to actually learn properly. Douglass on the other hand does it for very selfless reasons that one may praise him for. There aren’t only two ways to go about looking back at someone’s culture and background but when doing so it’s important to think about why it’s being done.

The concept of the fractal “seed shape,” as explained by Ron Eglash in “African Fractals,” serves as a foundational pillar in understanding the intricate and interconnected nature of African design and culture. Eglash opens chapter one with this explanation of fractal geometry, “Fractal geometry has emerged as one of the most exciting frontiers in the fusion between mathematics and information technology.” (Eglash, 3). In Eglash’s exploration, the term “seed shape” refers to the initial motif or pattern that undergoes self-similar transformations, giving rise to complex and visually stunning fractal patterns. Eglash’s research reveals that African fractals are not just aesthetically pleasing designs but also embodiments of mathematical concepts such as recursion, symmetry, and self-organization. Moreover, his work sheds light on the cultural significance of fractals in African societies, where they are used to convey complex ideas and cultural values through visual representations.

The fractal “seed shape” thus becomes a metaphor for the way in which simple, iterative processes can lead to the emergence of complex and diverse forms, mirroring the organic growth and development seen in nature and human societies. Simply put, a fractal is a shape which is infinite, and is very often seen in nature, and recursively meaning it repeats forever. In this essay, we will focus deeper into the concept of the fractal “seed shape” and explore its implications for our understanding of African design, culture, and mathematics, while also focusing on the specific triangular “seed shape” out of the plethora of ones which exist, and comparing it to our course. 

In regards to the triangular “seed shape”, I believe that our class is, in a way, comparable to the upside down triangle “seed shape”. It starts big and scary, meaning in my case, I have never taken a class like this. Us jumping right in was thrilling and a bit scary for me (but I needed this change). I say “In a way” because I truly do not think we will ever come to the ‘point’ of this triangle, which I see as an end to our learning. Our course could even be compared to the very intricate star Koch curve seed shape, on page 11 of Eglash’s African Fractals. I was overwhelmed with anxiety and happiness to see, first, the in depth module one posted. Not only were we provided a full syllabus and course calendar, but we were given breakdowns of each section which went more into depth. While this is not content based, I wanted to include this observation being that it truly did give off the best first impression which thoroughly continues to shape my interest for this class and the content that comes with it. I also believe that as the class progresses, and we are to encounter more and newer material, we will obviously retain the knowledge in which we have previously acquired. This can be compared to individuals who find it challenging to maintain their cultural identity while assimilating into societal norms. 

There are five components of fractal geometry: Recursion, scaling, self-similarity, infinity, and fractal dimension. The one that I would like to pay explicit attention to is recursion. Recursion is defined as a repetitive process. Eglash states, “We have seen that fractals are generated by a circular process, a loop in which the output at one stage becomes the input for the next. Results are repeatedly returned, so that the same operation can be carried out again. This is often referred to as “recursion,” a very powerful concept.” (Eglash 17). I chose to pull this quote out of the whole paragraph regarding recursion because again, this quote and recursion can be comparable to our course. To any outsiders reading this our Professor, Beth McCoy, for example in our first module on Brightspace states “You’ll be constantly looping back to previous modules and concepts even as the course moves forward.” In addition to this, she also verbally tells us at least once a class to refer back to for example within the past few days, Frederick Douglass’ and Harriet Jacobs’ respective slave narratives, and how Jacobs’ was ‘less believable’ because she was a woman. 

Another text in which we see recursion in, and that we refer back to ourselves is Bernice Johnson Reagon “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See”. In this text, Reagan discusses the plagiarism allegations about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We spoke of it being dangerous to put people who hold a high standing in the eyes of the public in a sort of heroic view, as its hard to see humans as perfect. This concept itself is recursion, the simple speaking back on Dr King Jr. We looped back to Reagons’ text a multitude of times, where we compared her piece to James Snead’s “On Repetition in Black Culture”.

Through the rest of this semester, my goal is to hopefully have a better idea of which seed shape I associate with this class, because as of right now I see it in two different ways. The concept of a “seed shape” as introduced in Ron Eglash’s “African Fractals” is a metaphor for growth and development in a plethora of ways, but for the sake of this paper, growth in our class. Just like my indecisiveness on where to place this class as a seed shape, it is ever changing.