Written through the perspective of its two main characters: Tranquility and Infinite, the reader is introduced to an added element within the writing never before included into a creative project; that of the urban subculture of the Nation of God and Earth. It is through this framework that one sees how each character develops through the story, with its underlying theme of Love. The dialect of the culture adds-on and enriches the cleverness in the writing. The many expressions from several of the characters indirectly teach the reader what the knowledge of self is about. It provides a general view of the teachings, how its members talk, and how it informs their lifestyles. It blends well in all the other layers within the story of so-called African-American culture beautifully captured in Emblem’s writing.
Sketches of Tranquility provides a creative forum of expression that enables the reader to connect, at varying levels, to the situations and/or characters of the story. For women it can become a story not too foreign from their own lived experience. For its female main character, it is the battling between success in the white-minded world and its contradictions with what she’s been taught to be as a righteous Black woman. Is she embodying more of the white man’s nature by getting her law degree and living on her own, rather than living out her nature as the true and living Earth, who is the Mother of civilization? It is this contradiction, as it is brought to her attention as a form of mental abuse by the male main character that becomes one of Tranquility’s battles with him. Mother than an independent woman, Tranquility is an expert in mastering both the grafted world (by extracting an expertise that will bring her financial security and serves as a way to help original peoples) and her world of truth embodied by her mother, sisters, and Infinite, whom she wants nothing more but his upliftment. She’s a woman that has it all together: a successful schooling career, a job in her field of study, a tight-knit family, knowledge of herself, and the ability to inspire. Infinite is the archetype of what most men in urban United States go through. Falling victim to savage passion and his inability to properly activate his talents were some of his struggles. Knowing the white man’s traps (i.e. more Black woman in college than Black men), he rather deals with his reality by attacking his black woman and trusting a female devil in providing him artistic guidance. His defeat and loss of power is felt all throughout this amazingly written novel.
This has been one of the most powerful stories I’ve read in quite sometime. Peace, Earth Izayaa Allat.
