The Mountain in the Sea

An innocuous object that the novel only briefly mentions, the macaroon demonstrates how symbols work and how an object can have different significations in different contexts. For Ha, the baked good is an icebreaker, a treat she brings to introduce herself to the team. The macaroon represents greeting and gift-giving and reveals Ha’s interest in making connections. She adds another layer to the dessert’s meaning when she jokes about baking it. The comment alludes to her role as a scientist and evokes connotations of female domesticity that Ha rejects: “I would never bake” (25). This implies that Ha has no time or interest in hobbies that she deems trivial and may compromise her definition of authority. In addition, the macaroon suggests a future in which making something from scratch, in a world where everything is automated and processed, is an anomaly.

For the other characters, the macaroon takes on equally distinct meanings. For Altantsetseg’s voice translator, the faulty device doesn’t know how to compute words that have a specific regional or cultural signification. The device translates the macaroon as a “cookie thing,” highlighting how language is contextual and not universal. For Evrim, who doesn’t eat, the macaroon is a sentimental and aesthetic object: “It was a gift to me, and I enjoy looking at it” (60).