#is the locked tomb political? jesus tap dancing tiddy christ

[incorrect-house-of-nine]

So, folks are still asking me about this.... I think some people believe that colonialism, religious control etc can only be narratively presented in one way, entirely forgetting that Tamsyn is writing from the pov of two protagonists deeply entrenched within those political systems and a third who has no concept of such things on account of being the soul of the world. Its like.. if i asked you to pretend to be a chicken, n then i said, a nuclear explosion is about to happen, act out what the chicken would do. If you ran around flapping n squawking in a panic id ask you why... n if you said ''well, there's a nuke'' id ask you what does a chicken know of a nuke and impending nuclear holocaust. Nothing! So, they'd continue their life as an oblivious chicken. but if i was to say.... continue being a chicken, but this time, there's a fox approaching... what would the chicken do? then the chicken would flap n squawk in a panic, cause chickens know a chicken killing predator when they see one. its in their bones.

Gideon n Harrow in gtn: In the first book, Gideon, and to some extent Harrow are the chicken. They have do not have a complete grasp of what's honestly going on beyond the Dominicus System cause they are within the Empire's system and its propaganda machine. Its only when they get outside of that, once the veil is removed does Harrow realise she's surrounded by monsters, and Gideon sees the true horrors of the Imperialist expansion. Harrow spends the 2nd n 3rd book having her view and understanding of what she knows turned on its head, and we never truly see Gideon's journey but there are hints that the life she's experienced in the in between is not what she read in her comic books. In these books, colonialism/imperialism is everywhere. Its in the Cohorts uniforms (they are literally wearing knock of British Red Coats), its in the refugee worlds, its in BOE's resistance. Classism and servitude is written into the very fabric of the cavalier's oath. There's titles of knight, and prince, and princesses. There's resource management, and wealth being stolen from other planets. There's mass displacement of populations. There's subjugation, and consumption on every page. Nona, Cam, Pal and Pyrrha are living on a refugee planet.

Nona/Alecto, by virtue of being the soul of earth, living on another planet, is also a refugee. She was forcibly removed from her home, forced to take the soup, given an new ''better'' name, forced to 'tame' herself, forced to dress and act a certain way, forced to speak and communicate in the language of the one who forcibly removed her. Told her ''wild'' ways were unacceptable etc etc. Does this sound familiar? cause it should! It should be recognisable to any one person of first nation descent, or any student of history.

It is the history of the Māori, the Australian, Canadian and American first nations. It is the history of the Irish*. Its the history of any peoples who have been colonised! * Ireland is Britain's oldest colony, 1000 years, and is seen by some people to be considered as still colonised to this day. ie Northern Ireland.

I do not know how one can read these books and come away with the idea that these books are not ''overly political'. Everything is politics! Even paper -- something we take for granted -- is a rare resource in this universe and expensive, is therefore political. Even if we look at the first book, Harrow states that there are intra-house politics at play, its just our protagonist either hasn't been paying attention, or doesn't care. Gideon, and therefore we, are given a glimpse of this via a whole barney between Judith, Babs etc about which house has seniority. (albeit because they are adults who just lost their adultier adults with the death of Abigail and Magnus,) The bones of the argument in of itself is political.

I've gotten a bunch of anon asks about the recent kerfuffle and vague posting that seems to be going around about "The Locked Tomb not being political." etc etc. Rather than reply individually, all I'll say to that whole ass thing is .... Are we reading the same series?