89. (June 2020) Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

1. Romansbildung

WildCard — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 17:58:07 +0000

This book functioned in some ways as a Bildungsroman, a novel about the gradual, perhaps episodic, development of a young person, morally, spiritually, and psychologically. Quite often, this young person grows into society, accepting a role as an adult (or near adult), with its attendant responsibilities and opportunities.

Casiopea's development is not straightforward. Her development moves away from the social traditions of her small town. Does she develop toward the faster, more modern society she encounters on her journey? Or is there even something more different about her development? At the end of the novel she is riding around in a stolen car with a demon. That doesn't seem to be quite the same thing as having grown into the "modern" society she to which she has become exposed during her journey.

Hun-Kamé develops, too. While not a young person, taking on some of Casiopea's mortality changes him at each stage of the journey, and, at the end, he retains a tiny portion of his human heart, changing Xibalba in a small way, too. We don't know whether this change will last, but our story ends with that change.

What are your thoughts on this theme of moral, spiritual, and psychological development regarding both Casiopea and Hun-Kamé? Were their changes believable? Relatable (insofar as a god can be relatable)?

6. Roleplaying

WildCard — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 18:03:06 +0000

Could you see yourself using any of this book's elements in your own roleplaying? I can definitely see myself using the Mayan pantheon as revealed here, and even the conceit of having to travel from place to place to retrieve parts of Hum-Kamé's body. The set pieces work for me as encounters, too. I became very aware of this in the encounter with the Uay Chivo. I could see a party coming up against him, and it just clicked.

What do you think?

2. Binaries and the Liminal

WildCard — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 17:59:13 +0000

There are a lot of binary opposites in this book, and a lot of standing in the in-between space (liminality). In Chapter 13 (page 129 in my book), Casiopea is described as “caught in an in-between state” regarding whom she can socialize with because of her grandfather’s edits. Of course, she is in an in-between state in others ways, too. Particularly, she and Hun-Kamé are in an in-between state as they share their divinity and humanity with each other during the bulk of the novel.

In addition to the class and divinity/humanity states, I noticed religion/secularity, Christianity / Mayan religion, good/evil, male/female status, small town / big city, colorism (lighter skin color more highly valued in both small town and big city, Vucb-Kamé / Hun-Kamé, and lots more.

Were any of these binary opposites or the in-between states interesting to you?

4. Mythmaking/Storytelling/Worldbuilding

WildCard — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 18:01:27 +0000

A lot was said in the novel about the power of words and of stories. In a lot of ways, this is how I approach spirituality myself, without the sense that it is literally true as it is in this novel of magical realism.

This story has a lot to say about telling stories about women with agency, about indigenous people with agency. And it seems to say that telling this story makes it more true and more real in the world of those of us who read it.

I've got to compare this approach to that of our slow read (even though I'm way behind on my reading for that). I find a lot when I scratch beneath the surface of Jemisin's The Broken Earth, but it is hard work. I didn't find a lot beneath the surface of this book, but Moreno-Garcia tied most everything together explicitly. I found the story satisfying, the world that was built, and ultimately the story that was told.

What is your sense of this? Did you like the story? The myths that were pulled together to make this world?

5. The Universal and the Particular

WildCard — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 18:02:29 +0000

This is the one implicit aspect of the novel that I'd like to tease out. It's not openly stated, but I see the notion that the particular trumps the universal all through the book. Specifically, I'd like to think about the universal God that Casiopea has learned about but who is never a character in this book. This universal God is never encountered and never acts. Contrast that to all the other particular deities and supernatural entities in the book. Hun-Kamé himself relativizes and particularizes the European god who really doesn't have much power in the setting of the novel.

Dominant cultures very often universalize their experience, their myths, their gods, and the ultimate aspect of this is monotheism. My God happens to be the only God and is universally valid across cultures. This is a form of erasing the particularities of other cultures.

I think this novel subtly calls into question all the Western universals -- monotheism, objectivity, the West itself (meaning western Europe and White North America).

What did you think of this? Was it as light a touch as I'm imagining? Did it work?

3. Chaos/Order ==> Free Will / Fate

WildCard — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 18:00:41 +0000

I'd like to focus particularly on the chaos/order binary opposite. Vucub-Kamé depends on order for his ability to see the future(s). Casiopea becomes an element of chaos that gets in the way of that ability.

In Chapter 23, Casiopea notes that having a car gives you the choice of turning, while being on a train doesn't afford this. I began thinking of how they are being railroaded along this journey, with Vucub-Kamé setting the terms, and, of course, that winds up being the case at the end, with all the symbols being set into place along the way that ensures that Hun-Kamé must agree to the contest between Casiopea and Martín (which is very symbolically a contest between the two gods of death).

What did you think of the way even the gods are locked into a certain order when the appropriate symbols, myths, stories lock them in -- more on that in a different discussion question -- and about human free will that changes the rules, creates chaos, shakes things up so that new things can arise?