In the second part of Mort, Mort spends his first day with Death, and it’s about as weird as you would expect it to be. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Mort.Â
Trigger Warning: For brief discussion of animal death/killing.
I don’t always need a primary conflict to become apparent in a book for me to be interested, and I think this is a good example of that. The idea of Death taking on an apprentice is fascinating enough as it is, and there are minor conflicts that are already a part of this story. For Mort, his primary concern is figure what the hell he is doing as Death’s apprentice. What does that entail? What sort of things will Death expect of him?
It’s fitting, then, that the pair’s first outing (to Ankh-Morpork for curry, which made me so hungry that I am currently in a cafe near my house so I could get some curry) introduces Mort to what does in a very brutal, sad fashion. I’ve noticed that Pratchett seems to have an inherent love of big cities, even if he pokes fun at them, so I was excited to get back to Ankh-Morpork and watch someone discover the joy and absurdity of the place. Like Esk, Mort is from the Ramtops, and his only concept of a big city was Sheepsridge, which is nothing like Ankh-Morpork. Amidst the splendor and din of the city, and the weirdness that is watching Death walk through said city, Death is called. As you’ll see in the video, I mistakenly believed that Death was angry about Mort asking him how he could eat. Oh god. NO, NOPE, I AM ALREADY DESTROYED AND IT HASN’T EVEN BEEN 30 PAGES.
I GET VERY ANGRY INDEED, he said. He upended the sack and Mort watched the pathetic scraps of sodden fur slide out, to lie in their spreading puddle on the cobbles. Death reached out with his white fingers and stroked them gently.
KITTENS. SOMEONE DROWNED KITTENS IN A FOUNTAIN. Thank you, Terry Pratchett, for finding a way to emotionally devastate me so quickly. But there’s an important point here that I think we’ll see more of:
YOU DON’T SEE PEOPLE AT THEIR BEST IN THIS JOB, said Death.
Note that this is the first time that Mort sees Death do what he does, and it sets a very sad tone for the whole thing. The remainder of this section isn’t nearly as sad, but it’s a good hint that this might not all be a silly journey.
Still, most of this is a lot of fun. Mort’s first chance to see the world is all filtered through the lens of his travels with Death, so everything is a lot weirder than it would have been had he merely gotten to explore the Discworld on his own. It’s a culture shock, almost, because Mort has to constantly re-think the way he looks at the world. I mean, he eats dinner across from Death, who nearly every human is unable to see. He gets nice clothing and an expensive haircut for the first time. And then he mysteriously wakes up INSIDE DEATH’S HOUSE, with no knowledge of how he ended up there.
I think that in that sense, this follows a familiar fantasy trope of a character being introduced to a fantastical new world. Sort of, though! Because the Discworld was already pretty damn fantastical long before I met Mort. On top of that, his experience inside Death’s house is weird, sure, but it’s also so normal. The existence of Albert and Ysabelle is strange to Mort because he couldn’t comprehend the idea of Death having an adopted daughter or a manservant. But is it all that unreal to him? The first task that he faces isn’t some Herculean feat of mental acrobatics or a lengthy lesson in the finer points of the business ethics of Death. No, Death summons Mort to his office and asks him to literally clean up his horse’s shit.
Lord.
It’s during that task that Mort has an extended conversation with Ysabelle, who seemed even more flustered that Death had obtained an apprentice. I wonder if her fury is based on her fear that Mort is replacing her. Death reveals at the end of this section that Ysabelle will inherit the job, but then there’s that wink? I don’t know if Ysabelle knows she’s supposed to be Death. And perhaps Death meant something different when he said “All this will belong to her.” Does he mean the realm Death lives in, but not the job? I DON’T KNOW. And Mort doesn’t know either. I like fictional journeys like this, I admit. I like when we can stand in for the main character in terms of how much we know. So yeah, I’m excited to see how this is going to develop further.
Video 1
Video 2
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