| Hi All! Soooo, I wrote this whole long post earlier today. It was poignant, it was insightful, it was funny…it disappeared into the ether, never to return, when I tried to send it. That is, of course, 100% my own fault. I knew my email program had a tendency not to back things up well. I knew that I should probably compose the post on something more secure. But I’d never lost anything on that email service provider before, so I was overly confident, and the thought of going through a whole extra step in writing and sending out this post was tedious…basically, hubris and laziness took over. And now here we are. I have gone through an extensive after-action review and come up with a series of steps to take going forward in order to reduce the risk of that happening again. Namely, I’ve created a dedicated Scrivener file for composing newsletter posts. Which is where I’m currently composing this. The amusing irony of all that is that this post is about the unexpected pitfalls and benefits of (self) criticism. This is my final installment in my deep dive into the psychology of Slava, the heroine of The Midnight Land. Last time we looked at her Jungian/MBTI type (INFJ, just like mine). This time we’re going to look at her Enneagram type. While the MBTI/Jungian type system looks at a person’s psychological functions and describes how they prefer to gather information and make decisions, the Enneagram looks at a person’s core fear, core desire, and core vice or passion. There are three groups of three types: the autonomy triad (Eight, Nine, and One), who prioritize autonomy; the attention triad (Two, Three, and Four), who prioritize attention; and the security triad (Five, Six, and Seven), who prioritize security. Within each triad, each type has its own unique core fear, desire, passion, and vice-to-virtue path for development. Now, I didn’t know this when I was initially working on The Midnight Land. However, in retrospect the book holds up very well to an Enneagram-centric analysis.And my retroactive analysis concludes that Slava, like me, is an Enneagram type One. Maybe with a Nine wing (meaning she also has elements of the Nine type), which I may or may not have myself, but definitely a One. In fact, the whole book is a deeply One-ish work. You see, the special gift of Ones is criticism. It’s not normally depicted that way, but that’s my take on it. Ones are normally known as Reformers or Perfectionists, whose core desire is to be good, flawless, perfect, incorrupt, and above reproach, and whose core fear is to be bad, flawed, wrong, corrupt, and subject to criticism. They have their own internally generated sense of right and wrong, and are constantly striving to better themselves and the world around them. As part of this, they are extremely critical, of the world but especially themselves. While other types might magnify their virtues and minimize their flaws, Ones often magnify their flaws and minimize their virtues, to the point that their good points exist only in their unconscious, Shadow side. Obviously, this isn’t very much fun, especially for the Ones themselves. Ones also have Anger as their core vice/passion, so they are often very angry, even if they don’t know it themselves. In fact, there’s an excellent chance that they don’t know it, because Ones tend to be very controlled, especially of their anger.In Slava’s case, at the beginning of the book her anger and her (self) criticism have taken over her life, leaving her bitter, resentful, depressed, and hopeless. She engages in constant mental criticism of herself and everyone around her, but feels powerless to change anything. It should be noted that her criticisms, especially of others, are often valid and just. She has her family’s gift of true sight, which in her case presents itself as insight into the what is wrong, flawed, or bad, especially in the human heart. On the rare occasions when she ignores it and fails to see the bad in others, it turns out poorly. Her critical visions are correct, but she needs to learn how to channel them into something constructive rather than destructive. This happens in part through her interactions with her opposite. Olga Vasilisovna is not only an ESTP, Slava’s opposite in the MBTI system, she’s also an Enneagram Seven, which has an opposing relationship with the One. To achieve personal growth, hedonic, carefree Sevens may need to learn to act more like controlled, critical Ones, and vice versa. When Slava sets off with Olga and her men and is suddenly surrounded by Sevens, she is for the first time in her life accepted uncritically for who she is. As she travels North and encounters people outside of her sister’s kremlin, she sees herself for the first time through the kind eyes of others, and begins to realize that she may have good qualities, and that she may be able to act upon the world instead of being an angry but helpless victim. While stuck in the snow in the Midnight Land, Slava once again descends into the depths of self-criticism—but this time she is pulled out of it by the necessity to save the others. As they try to escape, Slava begins to discover her hidden virtues of compassion, serenity, true sight, and right action. She comes to this realization both through the acceptance and praise of her traveling companions, and through just, rather than unjust, criticism. While the people back at the kremlin criticized her constantly, their criticisms were unjust and full of ill intent. On the journey, though, Slava encounters magical beings who offer her not only encouragement, but just critique. Most importantly, she is told that her tendency to wallow in self-criticism is a form of selfishness. Because she is in fact strong, brave, competent, and worthy, she owes it to others to stop hiding behind her own self-criticism and take action. In the end, she is able to use her ability to see good and bad, right and wrong, in order to overcome her own self-doubt and self-criticism and take action to make things better. In the end of the book, there are no wholly good or completely evil characters, but Slava is able to accept and forgive the flaws in herself and others enough to make things better, even if not perfect. I could go on and on about the types of the different characters, about the critiques of society in the book (ahem, exploitation, carceral state, and anthropocentric world view), but since I’ve already blown past the thousand-word mark on my second attempt to write this post, I’ll settle for what I’ve got so far. Next month I’ll talk about the next set of books in the series, but for now, stay cool and happy reading! E.P. |
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E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman 
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