#nad bart meta

[nadiajustbe]

The reason Bartseq is both such a revolutionary fantasy series in the minds of those who have read and is heavily unknown and unpopular among the general middle grade/YA reader audience lays in the fact that is themes, character and the magic system are heavily rooted in the injustice and existing systemic issues of our real word, as well as the way real people navigate those issues within different societal classes, thus forcing the readers to immers themselves in the problems of reality instead of providing full escapism into the fictional world, which is one of the driving forces of (especially children and teen) fantasy as a genra. In this essay I will...

[nadiajustbe]

Today I am being insane about the pg bodysharing arc yet again.

See, it makes such in interesting twist on how bodysharing is usually represented in mass media. Most of the times it's about fear, it's about horror, it's about duality of human nature, it's about learning to live with something horrifying and something other inside you, almost entirety an act of adopting and finding a way to live with a "monster inside your head". And while in most cases the main character learns how to do so and they become friends/colleagues or even lovers with the said entity, in its core at the start of it all it's almost always presented as a source of conflict, in some cases even a tragedy in character's life.

Bartimaeus Sequence flips it upside down. Instead of making bodysharing a source of conflict, it makes it a source of resolving the conflict. It shows it entirely and utterly as an action of trust, a state of unity, a moment of full understanding of one another, all the beauty and holliness of being one. Not to say that other media with this trop doesn't do that, but what stands out to me is the way it's presented. Not at any point the bodysharing is shown as source of pain or tragedy or sacrifice — yes, Bartimaeus and Nathaniel have to adapt to being one organism split into two minds, and they indeed do bicker a lot, but that's what they always do! That's how they are!

At no point any of them seem to suffer from this situation for any periods of time, as if they are more rewarded than cursed. Bartimaeus may talk all he wants about how it's not the most comfortable place to be in, but it's very difficult to ignore the fact that they are both in the full awe from that experience, especially at the start of it. Contrary to the norms of the trope, there's no "inner fight", no picture of Bartimaeus as an "invader" of Nathaniel's mind, the one that can cause any negative influence to him. It's shown to be harmonious because he's here, because they are together in this, to be a contrast to the spirits' who decided to tie their way back to the Other Place by not willing to achieve such harmony.

Part of why it's so well achieved for me seems to lay in how it's written, the literal description, the words of the page. So many times bodysharing is a visually focused trope, the scenes of character transforming into a best accompanied by the tunes of tragic or epic music, the agonising picture of inner struggle, the masterfull things the two are able to achieve once they are together — in the end of the day nine out of ten times the narrative focuses on what's happened outside to show what's happening inside, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Bartseq, however, focuses mainly on the thoughts and feelings of the character, shows what's happening on the outside by showing what's happening on the inside. Bartimaeus describing inhabiting Nathaniel's body as an experience of entering a saint temple, Nathaniel noting how weird it feels to feel your muscles move as if by themselves. All of this is very unusual for the trope, and it is achieved both by a formal of a book and an author's deliberate choice of describing characters' inner thoughts instead of seeing it through the eyes of the outsider. An incredibly difficult thing to write, and yet it's written so well.

It's by using this description Johnatan Stroud archives this interpretation of the bodysharing trope — he makes the reader feel all the wonder, all the uniqueness, all of the marvel of the experience of being one instead of simply showing a character in a struggle.

And there's something so beautiful about Bartseq making bodysharing to be in its very core and act of love, trust and knowledge instead of making it a source of conflict and pain.

[nadiajustbe]

There's been a lot of wonderful meta about magicians "dehumanising" themselves in order to uphold the system of power, and while this is true, I propose you another concept: instead of acting like it's denying the concept of personhood, the magician system acts like it replaces it.

Changing your own name, ripping you from your family, from your heritage, from your social statues as a commoner, from your friends and your community, all of it is indeed acts as driving force of making magicians symbolically less "human". However, the system does not present it like that. The system presents it like a needed sacrifice to form a new, "better" sense of personhood within your role as magician. They teach that to be valued as a human being, to be regarded as a person, you have to exist within the system and serve its unspoken biases, because otherwise you're none of it. Otherwise you have no name, no job, no purpose, no reason to call you a human. They replace the overall understanding of personhood established in every other society, granted by existing, by loving, by being a human, and make it a condition.

And this creates a very interesting perspective on a relationships and relations of power within the book. Because both Bartimaeus and Nathaniel struggle with regaining their personhood in very similar ways. Both believe that being a person is something to be placed upon you, something someone higher than you has to decide, something you had to pry open from their cold, dead hands. See my post there on briefer explanation.

Nathaniel struggles with proving he's worth being seen as person and regarded as an equal within the higher magician society where every mistake can make you dead. Bartimaeus struggles with being seen as a person and regarded as an equal within the system whose every brick is built on not seeing him as one. And while their struggles are not fully comparable — we have to remember that Nathaniel is on a privileged, opressing side of the line, maybe not as much in a very unique case with Bartimaeus (hence he knows his name, which doesn't balance them completely but makes it more balanced than a typical example of magician & spirit relationship) but within the overall system of magician-ruled society (commoners and spirit slavery), the sentiment which they have towards earning that personhood (described above) is indeed very similar.

The main difference is that Nathaniel sees the turing process of regaining this personhood through the lense of perceiving everyone else outside of his "cast" as less human (both a desperate attempt from his circle as being more human in comparison and the rule he was coerced to believe is the truth), while Bartimaeus sees this process of rejecting the understanding the human definition of what makes a "human" all together and instead relying on his own condense, the existence of his feelings (as much as he likes to deny this), the actions and virtues done by him. He was never supposed to have singularity all together, yet here he is, and he has a very difficult inner dilemma of enjoying being a separate person and being denied this feeling from everyone else around him.

For Bartimaeus being a person is something he was never supposed to have, yet he was forced to be one and now he has to fight to be seen as one, the fight he claims to give up yet never stops fighting it. For Nathaniel being a person is something he was supposed to have from the very start, yet he was denied it and now he has to fight for being seen as one within the new, fake condition he sees as "right".

[nadiajustbe]

Nathaniel does a very interesting twist on a "character who believes love is earned" trope. Because not only does he believe love has to be earned, he believes that love has a kind of a value, a prise, a slippery slope on which one supposed to balance to survive. And not only he believes that, this sentiment doesn't only applies to love as a concept, it also applies to the reason of his worth as a human being, his very life. He believes that his figure only needs to be present in its place when he serves a certain function in an incredibly closed and self-centred part of society which he considers "his", all while this same system teaches him to subside to his own interest only, all while making him to be fully dependent on being seen inside this group. Nathaniel believes he can only be a magician and do the "duty" of a magician because he fully believes that when he's not a magician, he's worth nothing. If he doesn't have his job, People doesn't love nor respect him, yes, but most importantly in his mind he becomes as important and as valuable as a dead corpse. No longer a human.

[nadiajustbe]

I think in taking about Nathaniel the most important thing is not the discussion on whether he has done "enough" to redeem himself. After all, "enough" is a pretty subjective thing, the measure of which changing depending on the person engaging with the text. What is not subjective, however is a fact of understanding that was immediately followed with action.

We can send hours discussing If Nathaniel had done enough to break the system, if there's a situation in which he could try more. But what matters the most is the fact that he understood his complicity within the system, he accepted it without trying to justify himself, he took the blame of every single magician and he used the guilt he felt to make a change, big or small. He was one of exactly two magicians who had ever understood the horrors of the system and decided to put some change into it. Nathaniel's willingness to change is the most important thing he could have done in his situation, and his decision to show it is what makes his arc so wonderful in the first place.

Enough or not enough, he has changed. Enough or not enough he had actively tried to kill the version of himself that hurt the ones he love.

[nadiajustbe]

Nathaniel may sacrifice all his morals, personality and life for his career but when the choice stands between his career, personality, life and Bartimaeus he chooses Bartimaeus. Which says a lot about both his personality and his relationship with Bartimaeus.

[nadiajustbe]

For me Bartnat was never about "9299229 fantasy age gap" and it was DEFINITELY not about "slavery is not serious" (if anything, it was the opposite), but more so "what if a person who knew at your most vulnerable also knew at your absolute worst? what if the person who knew the darkest parts of your personality refused to hurt even though they could so less than with the snap of your finger? what if you were conditioned to see them as less, as someone violent and dangerous and yet you could never bring yourself to intentionally hurt them? what if the only time you could see that you did, in fact, hurt them you would physically tremble on the mere sight of it and yet again refuse to hurt them again even when your life was at stake? what if you both were conditioned to believe that the other was the enemy and would, in fact, make you feel nothing but pain — and you at the worst part of this stake — yet could never really bring either of you to inflict that pain upon the other? what if they were the living proof that everything you were told is wrong and no matter how hard you try to condition yourself into believing the opposite you would just feel it? what if you found unity in the world that is actively fighting against the very concept of it? what if your final act was none but of love, of ripping apart the system you worked for so long for your people, your friends and for them? what if they shared your last breath? what if..."

[nadiajustbe]

I absolutely love and thoughtfully respect the way Johnathan Stroud did not decide to say "hey there's a magical slave and there's his master but they're friends!", instead choosing to show how the positive relationship between someone can only form when the present power dynamic evens (and, eventually, breaks) throughout the story.

Because, see, every single important human of Bartimaeus' had some kind inside of their relationship, something outside of the cruel norm that then went to different character navigating this situation differently and eventually coming to a similar point of mutual respect and better relationship because the dynamic was broken, not because it was present.

Ptolemy gave him his name and allowed him to decide his own dismissal. Kitty was a commoner and therefore Bartimaeus knew her name even before she decided to use magic one singular time and made it very clear it was not to enslave him. Asmira herself was under an higher authority and Bartimaeus eventually found out her name. Nathaniel, the arguably the most complex out of all of them, knew his name was discovered and decided to keep it this way for years and years loosening his control over this situation as time went by despite being told that would literally cost him life.

None of them could hurt him without risking being hurt themselves. None of them could make him obey orders under a literal threat of death, which was a huge driving point for the cruelty of the system itself. For Nathaniel, Kitty and Asmira there still was a factor of them being able to control his dissmisal, and for every of them there's a factor of being able to control his summoning, but it's made very clear there is a shift from the norm, a (while not eliminated completely) balance inside of the imbalance.

It changes the way they communicate, it makes them actually talk and discuss and make pacts (like the one Nathaniel and Bart made in the library scene it AoS, or the clear time interval that was set at the start of GE) it forces them, voluntary or not, to look at Bartimaeus as someone more equal, something more than a tool. And everytime this changes, everytime any of them tries to fit into the horrible "norm" out of fear or propaganda or magician' agenda, it is heavily punished and underlined within the narrative.

When Kitty refuses to step out of the pentacle and that makes her loose the smallest chance of Bartimaeus actually considering her idea. When every time Nathaniel had ever hurt Bartimaeus in his refusal to make him go made him almost loose the one (Bartimaeus himself) who was perhaps the closest to him every time, risk his career and his personality and his life.

And the reason Kitty's relationship with Bartimaeus ends up as positive is because she decided to show her desire to become equal by crossing the Gate to the Other Place. And the reason Asmira's relationship with Bartimaeus ends up as positive is because she eventually founds him going through an equal situation as he is and as a result looks at him as someone closer to her. And the reason Nathaniel's relationship ends up as positive is because they became full equals by sharing a body and their thoughts and the soul itself. And the reason Ptolemy's relationship with Bartimaeus is shown as positive in the first place is because Ptolemy saw him as a equal and wanted to prove it to the whole world.

In the end it's not about a master and slave anymore. It's about various different personalities breaking the system in different ways, for one more difficult and bumpy than for the other, to change the very core of the power dynamics. And it is very important because positive relationship can never exist in a power dynamic where one has complete and immerse power over the other, it has to be changed, it has to be shifted for the very chance of a change into a positive side to exist, and the move in a heavily abusive and brainwashing system like this is not always a perfect straight line but it's always there because equality is important.