Artemis

Content Warning: This section references sexual assault/sex with a minor.

The people of Artemis operate outside of any country’s jurisdiction. There are limited regulations that, if broken, will lead to extradition or deportation, but Artemisians and visitors to Artemis are mainly free to do as they wish. The absence of codified rules facilitates moral relativism: the idea that morality is situational, or that there are no absolute rules to determine whether something is right or wrong. Pragmatism and self-interest permeate all levels of Artemisian society, particularly in economic matters. Jazz is unconcerned with the ethics of corporate sabotage, agreeing to undermine Sanchez Aluminum not because of or despite moral considerations, but simply for the money. The colony’s administrator, Ngugi, embraced a similar philosophy to create and support KSC: “Favoring a single company with special laws isn’t fair? Tell that to the East India Tea Company. This is global economics, not kindergarten” (37). Similar pragmatism underpins Ngugi’s ultimate embrace of Jazz’s smuggling operation; as Jazz herself notes, smuggling will likely always exist, and other smugglers might not stop drugs and guns from flowing into the colony as Jazz does.

As Jazz’s commitment to keeping harmful materials out of Artemis demonstrates, most Artemisians stop short of moral nihilism: the belief that right and wrong simply do not exist. Even at the beginning of the novel, Jazz adheres to a personal moral code, noting that she “always keep[s] [her] bargains” (42). The community at large also embraces certain moral standards, leading to a good deal of vigilante justice. Jazz describes Artemis’s justice system as follows: “[W]e don’t have jails or fines. If you commit a serious crime, we exile you to Earth. For everything else, there’s Rudy” (27). Early in the novel, Rudy metes out physical punishment to a man who has been beating his wife. There is no trial, and no one tries to intervene. Rudy gives the man the exact injuries his wife last sustained. The population also regulates itself. When Jazz’s ex-boyfriend, Sean, has sex with a 14-year-old girl, he receives justice at the hands of his victim’s family, who beat him up. There is no defined age of consent on Artemis, so Sean did nothing illegal, but a “morals brigade” keeps people from harming other citizens with their behavior.

The novel leaves the question of whether this model of justice is desirable or sustainable, being somewhat ambiguous. When Jazz finds herself on the run from an assassin, there are few systems she can turn to for support. However, Jazz also prizes her independence, which the relaxed regulation facilitates: Though she chooses to follow certain moral rules, she would bristle at anyone enforcing those rules or telling her what they should be, as her exasperation with the woman who criticizes her sex life demonstrates. By the end of the novel, Jazz’s personal morality has evolved—she is ready to sacrifice her own life to save the rest of Artemis—but it is unclear whether she or the novel has embraced selflessness as a universal behavioral standard.