Baru's journey to understanding control and subverting it
Riddles & Games
In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him slay the other two. ‘Do it,’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it,’ says the priest, ‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it,’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be yours.’ So tell me—who lives and who dies? ―George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
“There’s no right answer,” Juris said, because how could there be, the riddle was designed to provoke. Three ministers have gathered for dinner when they taste poison in their wine. One attending secretary has a dose of antidote. All three ministers demand the bottle. One minister says, give me the antidote, or I will release the files that detail all your affairs and mistakes. The next minister says, give me the antidote, or I will destroy your right to ever bear children. The third minister pulls a knife. Who gets the antidote? Whose power is strongest? Who is truly in control? Why should the secretary, who has all the power here, yield to one minister over another? It was a bad riddle, in the end. You couldn’t answer it without making some smarmy, lawyerish argument about the primacy of one power over the rest. Only it was not a bad riddle, Barhu had realized. “There’s a right answer. I figured it out when you told me that you had my parents. People are engines, Juris. Each of a unique make. And if you discover the schematics of that engine you may find the power that drives it. You’d found a power over me that I couldn’t challenge, because everything I do comes from that day when I was seven years old and I wanted to make my parents happy again.” “You’re babbling.” “I’m not. This is the answer.” “There is no answer—” “There is. Who contrived to put three ministers at a dinner party with poisoned wine and only one dose of antidote? Who arranged the dinner? Who provided the poison? That person has the true power.” “It’s a rhetorical device, you self-important cunt,” Juris said, with a contempt that was almost fond. ―Seth Dickinson, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant
Welcome to the second part of my deep dive into the Masquerade novels by Seth Dickinson, wherein I will explore Baru's relationship with control, compliance and rebellion through the series so far; you can find the first part here. I love this series and firmly believe it deserves far more attention, but as always the goal of my writing is to share the wisdom and insights to be found in the books I discuss and that means significant spoilers are far likelier today than last week.
Baru Cormorant perched atop the imperial throne of Falcrest, by Theos Zhang
Seth's choice to dress up Varys' infamous riddle to Tyrion in the style of the Masquerade is beautiful both as an example of insightful intertextuality (Varys and Littlefinger are certainly Martin's cryptarchs) and as reinforcement for Baru's growing understanding of power and control in the series.
Raised in a colonial school and separated physically, emotionally and ideologically from her family and culture by colonizing Falcrest, Baru vows to one day destroy the Masquerade from within. Xate Yawa shares this goal on behalf of her home, Aurdwynn, having seen decades of rebellion and suffering make no progress in unseating Falcresti occupation. Apparitor fears returning home, and instead only wants to work with Falcrest until he has a chance to escape with his secret lover and family.
And, horrifyingly, this is exactly what Falcrest wants. These three foreign-born cryptarchs are experiments by Cairdine Farrier and his rival Cosgrad Torrinde in their parallel quests for a self-governing colonized world, and have simply been given enough leeway to test the extent of their conditioning. Put in context of the riddle, Baru spends two and a half books begging for the antidote before realizing how terrifyingly long ago Farrier placed her in that metaphorical room – and how long ago Tain Hu gave her the means to escape.
Baru and Tain Hu, by psrj
Compliance & Rebellion
When I first read these books two years ago, one of my main takeaways was this skin-crawling, chilling notion of courageous, hopeful, idealist rebellion being twisted and coerced into enabling and expanding the very institution it is fighting against. Even if every cog in the machine dreams of malfunction, they spend every day working to keep it running.
Falcrest achieves this not just in the individual lives of Baru and Yawa but also economically and societally through trade, vaccinations and modernization, insinuating itself and transforming all it touches.
(How many of our own institutions are built on this very tactic? I just finished Elif Shafak's 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World, and can't help but see the parallel to women pursuing freedom in conservative countries. Either stay obedient and quiet in often abusive situations, or strike out alone to be labeled sinful, inviting violence and reinforcing societal views.) A haunting example from the text is the revelation that Farrier has conditioned Baru to associate her lesbian nature with death, shame and rebuke. She finds herself in a pattern of putting off her romantic interests until oblivion is closing in, even hallucinating the death of her friend and lover Ulyu Xe soon after their first time together because she is so certain doom will follow her acting in accordance with who she is. I wrote a little about how Baru escaped this mental knot in my post on lesbian representation, check it out!
So, these incredible books ask, how do you actually escape and/or break the system?
Tain Shir, by marceline2174
Chaos
One answer is personified in Tain Shir: cousin of Tain Hu, failed former protégé of Farrier and among the most fearsome and fascinating characters I've ever read.
“Tain Shir walks the deck of RNS Sulane between the bombs and incendiaries and steel-tipped barbs. A weapon among weapons but she alone is free. The tragedy of the knife is the hilt. The tragedy of the crossbow is the trigger. Shir has neither. She cannot be gripped nor fired. She is unmastered. The sailors are rude with her. So be it. Etiquette is the domain of those whose power is conditional upon the respect of others, and Shir is unconditional. If she drifted alone in the void beyond the moon or if she walked among the monarchs of the ancient Cheetah Palaces she would not be altered in her capabilities or her intentions, for not one truth of her resides within a relationship to any other thing.” ―Seth Dickinson, The Monster Baru Cormorant
An idea I'll explore next week is how many of Dickinson's characters feel like they are the protagonist of their own fantasy saga, and Tain Shir is a potent example as Baru's predecessor and antagonistic foil. Shir is a force of nature and chaos because that is how she escaped Farrier and Falcrest's conditioning and chains.
Tain Shir is here to teach a lesson. A lesson about the costs of manipulation, and the hubris of forcing others to pay those costs for you, and the lie that you can serve a master today without also ceding to him all your tomorrows.
She is defined by violence as a stark contrast to the way Baru is constantly getting people killed second-hand: Shir wields machetes and crossbows while Baru wields pen and paper, but who has actually spilled more blood?
Tain Shir and a cormorant, by hivemire
Yet despite her infinite badassery, Shir doesn't seem to share Baru's goal of toppling Falcrest. (It's unclear what she wants beyond keeping Baru honest, but that won't stop me speculating next week!)
Baru is presented with the opportunity to follow in Shir's rebellious footsteps and become a walking one-woman apocalypse for Falcrest by carrying a deadly plague, but ultimately flees in horror. She spends most of the third book questioning this split-second decision and whether she has now doomed her mission.
But, thankfully, Barhu has a plan.
Baru and Tain Hu, by marceline2174
"Compliance"
I'm running long today and will have to run through the details next week – have I even mentioned yet that Baru is a savant mathematician and accountant? good grief, this story defies summary – but Barhu ultimately decides to defeat her opponents by playing on their expectations of her.
By appearing to comply and rebel within the parameters Farrier expects – and trusting Xate Yawa's loyalty and lobotomy expertise – Barhu is able to gain the upper hand and briefly dictate her master's decisions just as he has been controlling and exploiting Baru's all her life. But will her influence last, and will her plan to bring down Falcrest work? Come back next week as I speculate on the future of this series!
Thanks so much for reading! <3
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