“Given her sensitivity, no one should have been surprised that the rememberings affected Yetu more deeply than previous historians, but then everything surprised wajinru. Their memories faded after weeks or months—if not through wajinru biological predisposition for forgetfulness, then through sheer force of will. Those cursed with more intact long-term recollection learned how to forget, how to throw themselves into the moment. Only the historian was allowed to remember.”

Solomon invents the word “rememberings” to replace a more conventional concept like “memories,” highlighting the active process involved in engaging with the past. Here, Solomon lays out the fictive conceit of the novella: that the wajinru species has evolved such that their memories function in the service of self-preservation, keeping them blissfully ignorant.

“Yetu loved Basha’s memories, loved living inside of his bravery, his tumult. But if ever he’d made a mistake, it was choosing Yetu as historian. She couldn’t fulfill her most basic of duties. How disappointed he would be in the girl he’d chosen. She’d grown up to be so fragile.”

These sentences give insight into how Yetu perceives herself in relation to past historians. She is overly self-critical and compares herself to Basha, whom she regards as much stronger and more resilient, criticizing herself as overly sensitive and “fragile.” In the early pages of the novella, Yetu consistently feels disempowered, weak, and defeated.

“She’d been appointed to this role according to her people’s traditions, and she balked at the level of self-centeredness it would require to abandon six hundred years of wajinru culture and custom to accommodate her own desires.”

Here, Yetu articulates her perspective on The Conflict Between Self-interest and the Interests of Society, a central theme in the novella. At the beginning of the text, Yetu feels that the present-minded focus on one’s desires and needs is “self-centered” and superficial in comparison to the depths of the 600 years of history that she carries.