I finished the third book in Seth Dickinson's Baru Cormorant series. It's the last book in the series so far, but it seems a 4th is expected. A friend recommended that I read Baru Cormorant because I enjoyed Seth's latest book, Exordia. Exordia is a fantastic novel deserving of it's own blog post.
But I'm going to write about Baru Cormorant instead, because I finished that series more recently. There's some very light, vague spoilers for the first couple of chapters below. Really light, though. I don't go in depth on the plot.
Seth does an excellent job of painting the tone of the series on his website.
Baru Cormorant wants to understand the world.
Her mother Pinion knows the hunt and the stars. Her father Solit knows the smithy and the telescope. Her father Salm knows how to kill, and why no one ever should. She loves them more than anything. She loves her home, island Taranoke, the warm place at the center of the world.
Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru will look up from the sand and see red sails on the horizon.
The Masquerade is coming. Armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. Their secrets are the secrets of empire and Baru will claim them at any cost. She’ll join the Masquerade. She’ll prove herself a savant at the exercise of power. She’ll be exactly what they need.
Will it hurt? Certainly. Will it ask too much of her? Of course. But she’ll complete her work: finding a way to the top. She’ll do it for her home. Her family. Her freedom.
Baru knows she can save her world. All she needs is a little more power to do it.
It's an interesting premise to me. I've never been much of a fantasy fan. I read the Narnia books as a kid. I read half of A Game of Thrones. I played Skyrim. Baru was sold to me as "hard fantasy" à la "hard sci-fi." Which I suppose mostly amounts to a lack of orcs, elves, and wands. Good enough for me, I find that stuff a bit gauche.
The series starts off with Baru's childhood on Taranoke, which seems analogous to pre-colonial Hawaii. There's black volcanic sand beaches, pineapple, established trade. Then the empire, the Masquerade (they wear ornate masks), arrives.
What follows is pretty analogous (in my view) to America's colonization of Hawaii. The island has coffee and pineapple and minerals and all sorts of novel and precious resources. Trade agreements are made, schools are built, everything comes with a cost. Disease, death, deposition.
The Masquerade seems fairly analogous to the United States, but it's not one-to-one. Both empires were born in a revolution against monarchy. Both empires expand via trade rather than straightforward military conquest. Where they notably differ is that the Masquerade is notably very secular, whereas American colonialism has often been spearheaded by Protestant missionaries.
I think this is an interesting lens through which to view American imperialism. I've been an atheist much longer than I was ever a Christian. I'm very much against proselytization and evangelism and missionary work and all that, and I've felt that way for a long time. As bad as that stuff is, there's far more to colonialism than just religious dogma. I think by taking the familiar dogma out of the picture, we get a better view of how colonialism functions.
So instead of Christianity, the Masquerade has Incrasticism. Their secular ideology, the key to their success as a global power. The Masquerade desires an ordered and peaceful world. They psychologically condition their subjects. Some keys to Incrasticism, per Seth's blog:
Gender is biology.
Race is destiny.
Queer relationships are doomed.
I think for some people (I'm speaking very broadly, like Reddit commentators), there's a tendency to ascribe the above ills primarily to religion and debunked science. Which is to say, if people were right instead of wrong we would all know better. I think the Incrasticism device serves as a good model to show the economic and political incentives that empires have in perpetuating gender essentialism, racism, and homophobia. The Incrastic ideologues dream of workers bred with specific traits in mind, sodomites conditioned into starting families, and so on. They use ideology to perpetuate their empire.
So, a lot to compare and contrast against our own neighborhood empire.
It's an entertaining series with a lot to say. I enjoy the autistic protagonist whose high moments are convincing provincial dukes to enact economic policies. There's duels and naval battles and intrigue and all that stuff in here too, but it's very funny when the plot is moved forward by things like the invention of futures trading. It's a hell of a lot more interesting than the Elder Scrolls.
I'll probably follow this post with another one on the series, with a focus on Baru's autism and how it relates to her relation with her environment and the empire. Maybe throw in some Devon Price stuff because I just finished his book Unmasking Autism as well. There's the whole mask motif in the book. Baru wears a mask. I can probably write a couple paragraphs on that. Later on though.