Chain of gold a review part two.
Chain of gold. A continuing review.
I am finding that this book was a good read and reading it alongside
the bane chronicles is a good thing as it gives context to what she is talking
about and how we need to help around what is happening in the shadow hunter’s
world.
I also see a lot that is mirrored in our world and history as
well, so in looking at what we are doing as a society to those who are vulnerable
to abuse and neglect. However, I did find that we are unable to see
what happened once is happening again. So in looking at this we see that they
are unable to see what is happening to a lot of people. So, what is happening in
the book as the book isn’t set in the modern age it is set in London and Idris. (The shadow hunters’ spiritual home is a home
that is complex in a way. As it is glamorized to be invisible to “Mundane's,” It is a place where technology doesn’t work
due to Adamas[i]as a stone that makes it impervious to demons.
We see that they want to be able to “rule the world,” in a
way. That isn’t healthy it is a way that we see things happening now in trump
and other politics that are influenced by the online world and it is almost impossible
to have a completely offline life, we are charged for wanting a paper bill or
to have the cash to pay for things and many places due to covid don’t take cash.
As well as the lack of human interaction as well, we can live
our lives completely online and there is a name for it now the hikomory, and it
is becoming more and more common as well, we are seeing that this isn’t a good
thing either, we are seeing that we need to be very aware of this as well.
So in a previous post,
we saw an overview of the book now I will do a deep dive into the chapters and quotes
that I found that resonate well, with me.
However I did find that it did follow some usual tropes that
we find in the shadow hunters’ world, and a running gag that I did find funny
as well, so this gag being that Manguns and the other downworlders always had a
different name for the light woods that wasn’t the lightwoods as we see that it
was a “thing,” in the TV series that they where always getting the name lightwood
wrong and I would like to see if this is a thing or not as I know in the books Mangus
was always getting Jace’s name wrong.
So this book focuses on the London institute and the time of
the accords, being negotiated and the downworlders demanding to have rights. so it was 1800 so when women were expected to be married off or to
have a “calling,” however we do know that the Shadowhunters do have a calling to
protect the mundane from the threat of demons and we see that this is an issue
as well, so in a way, we are looking at what is happing to them in a way that
we see reflected in reality.
If a woman had a disability, we see that she was shipped off
to a “facility for the disabled, or in the case of the Shadowhunters we see that
they were taken to the silent city. [ii]
We see that Tatiana blackthorn is this
person, we see that she is driven mad by grief and the fact that she can’t protect
her son from the rune ceremonies’ so we
see that she isn’t able to help the way that she lives and she lives in the lightwood mansion in Idris, we see that
they have stripped of there property due to Benedict lightwood having demon pox
and turning into a worm, [iii]
Now we see that there is a trend toward denationalization
and supported independent living or assisted living facilities as well. [iv]
However, we see at the time and in the book that the way that women were
treated and lived predisposed them to abuse and we see that there is the way
that we treat women have changed and we see that there was a need for women to
marry to protect their assets as they [v]passed
from male to male so it was very important for people to have a male in the
family and we see that this is where some of the characters are very set in their
ways and we see that as a punishment we see that having property taken off
people is one thing that they do to punish the shadow hunters. That don’t obey the clave’s orders, but we see
that they do try to obey the ”mundane,” laws.
We also see that they respect mundane culture but try to stay away from
it as well. As they see that this could corrupt their youth.
However, this corruption is made worse at times by not
taking the concerns of the youth seriously.
This is something we are seeing more and more in cultures as well we see
that they are wanting to have things all their way and not respect their elders
however in saying that respecting their elders goes both ways.
So we are seeing that this is an interesting concept as respect
is earnt not given and we see that the shadow hunter has a way that we see that
is a very interesting concept in saying what we need to have is a way that we
see the world differently however what does this look like to a person who has
been brought up that they are respected as the authority on the subject not
work to earn the persons respect. So how
we earn the person’s respect is the issue. We earn it through trust but the
Shadow hunters and the downworlders don’t trust each other they see each other
as a threat and the shadow hunters see the downworlders as less than human and
this isn’t a great thing. To see someone
as less than human. However, I see that
the downworlders do have more humanity than most of the Shadowhunters in a way
that we see that they can understand the world and see it as a complex place to
navigate and to see that we are all human and have flaws where the
Shadowhunters are told that they must be perfect all the time and this isn’t possible
all the time.
We see that there are some exceptions as well, in some of
the younger Shadowhunters in a way that they see the world and its complexity of
it. Especially we see Will Herondale looking
for answers to who is his grandfather and we see that it is a prince of hell we
see that Ragnor and Magnus can help at times and we see that they are seen as a
convenient source of magic to the Shadowhunters.
Yet at times this is what the disability community faces all
the time we see that we get comments like, If I lost a leg I would kill myself,
if I was in your shoes I wouldn’t want that life, or even from a medical professional
not treating the person due to communication issues. [vi]
This can affect people’s quality of life as well, as people with a disability have
so much to offer as a collective group of people.
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