{"id":3056,"date":"2014-12-11T05:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=3056"},"modified":"2014-12-08T20:17:29","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T04:17:29","slug":"mark-reads-pyramids-part-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2014\/12\/mark-reads-pyramids-part-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Pyramids’: Part 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh part of\u00c2\u00a0Pyramids<\/i>, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a mess, and Dios has created a mess, and Ptalcusp IIb has created a mess. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of objectification of women<\/b><\/p>\n

SO MUCH JUST HAPPENED.<\/p>\n

A Fresh Day<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not letting this slip by. Dios returns to the palace refreshed and energized, and that means I\u00c2\u00a0need<\/i> to know where he went overnight. What did he do??? Something is giving him physical energy or possibly healing him? Or something? I SEE YOU, DIOS. I SHALL REMAIN SUSPICIOUS OF YOU.<\/p>\n

Bittersweet Jokes<\/b><\/p>\n

Seriously, perhaps more than ever before, the jokes that Pratchett makes in this book are just LACED with sadness. Is it funny that Dil reveals a trade secret to Gern, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that they make the dead look better than they did when they were alive? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funny until Pratchett pulls us out of the scene deliberately by putting us in Teppicymon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shoes, and then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just CRUSHING. I think this whole section finally made me realize how\u00c2\u00a0frustration<\/i> is built into the narrative. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re frustrated by Teppicymon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inability to communicate with those around him. Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dios, and I need to write an entire part of this review just on him as the antagonistic force within\u00c2\u00a0Pyramids<\/i> and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be yelling a lot. HEADS UP.<\/p>\n

Tradition<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly some humor in the commitment to tradition within the nation of Djelibeybi, especially since Pratchett is able to show us how this affects\u00c2\u00a0everything<\/i> in Dejl society. But he veers away from that by demonstrating the horrific ways in which tradition can hurt people, often violently so. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s played with the idea of roles in plenty of books before, and a lot of that feels like a commentary on the fantasy genre itself. So when Teppic begins talking to his subjects honestly and genuinely, they all freak out in a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absurd to us. But within this universe, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0literally<\/i> never been a king or pharaoh who stepped out of his assigned role. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know how to deal with it! And in the case of the stonemason, Teppic finds out just how far this extends. Tradition has dictated that the king of Djelibeybi is a\u00c2\u00a0literal<\/i> god, which means anything and everything he touches is now holy, AND THAT INCLUDES BODY PARTS. So the logic here is that the stonemason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand is so holy that everything it touches post-Teppic\u00c2\u00a0defiles it<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So it has to be cut off.<\/p>\n

(Oh my god,\u00c2\u00a0the puns<\/i>.)<\/p>\n

Everything in Teppic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life is determined by what was done before. Everything. When he wakes, what he eats, where he goes, how he behaves, what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to say, and how much power he gives to Dios. (All of it. DIOS HAS ALL THE POWER. Of course he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s invested in keeping the status quo! The status quo leaves him in charge!) That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even the case for the handmaidens in court, which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I understand the point being made, but there are practically no women characters at all in this book so far, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot more glaring when the only women mentioned are nameless sex objects. But I do get that Teppic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustration is based on the fact that he\u00c2\u00a0knows<\/i> there are other ways to live and to rule, but Dios refuses to let him do\u00c2\u00a0any<\/i> of them.<\/p>\n

Paracosmic Disaster<\/b><\/p>\n

I actually think that the temporal loop here was something that worked best read aloud. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure I would have realized what Pratchett was doing if I was just reading it\u00c2\u00a0like a normal person<\/i>. But there was something mind-melting about reading those repetitive passages out loud, and it was effective as hell! SO LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TALK ABOUT THIS BECAUSE\u00c2\u00a0HOLY SHIT.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>I do love that Pratchett often takes the metaphorical or the figurative and makes them literal. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case here, since there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now a power in the pyramid. Is that based on belief? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not quite sure what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at work here, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really important to me yet. Ptaclusp was always so opposed to changing tradition, but now that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seen the unreal power of this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153modern\u00e2\u20ac\u009d pyramid? Well, look how quickly he changes his tune. He sees how the negative nodes affect reality, and he realizes that, tradition be damned, he can\u00c2\u00a0benefit<\/i> from it. (So can Pratchett, since we get that goddamn camel\/hoarse pun and\u00c2\u00a0reja vu<\/i>. HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S EVIL, HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DESTROYING ME ONE PUN AT A TIME.)<\/p>\n

Now Teppic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prophetic dream makes a lot more sense. Ptaclusp is going to try to harness this power, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably going to backfire terribly. LORD.<\/p>\n

Politics<\/b><\/p>\n

You know, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever had an antagonist who infuriates me quite as much as Dios does. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t parse my anger towards him while I was making the video for this section, but now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reading through the meeting between Tsort and Ephebe, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m realizing why he pisses me off so much. Teppic is frustrated by Dios\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s refusal to let him stray from tradition. This is not a new dynamic in\u00c2\u00a0Pyramids<\/i>, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something particularly fucked up about Dios dismissing Teppic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire to do\u00c2\u00a0anything<\/i>. When Dios reveals that the meeting between the delegates is entirely fake because he already met with them hours earlier, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a manifestation of futility. Teppic can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do anything even though he wants to and technically, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the one with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153power.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But Dios doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got tradition on his side.\u00c2\u00a0That<\/i> angers me. Look, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to live with these kind of people my entire life. I DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T REALIZE I WAS\u00c2\u00a0RELATING<\/i> TO TEPPIC DURING ALL THESE SCENES. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to cope with people who denied me the right to marriage because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tradition.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d My family was obsessed with tradition. My school district was obsessed with tradition. And oh my god, as an ex-Catholic, DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN GET ME STARTED. Do you\u00c2\u00a0have<\/i> a thousand years for me to unload all of my Catholic guilt on to you??? You probably don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n

And I think that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still an aspect of\u00c2\u00a0Pyramids<\/i> that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a parody of organized religion, too, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the only thing at work here. Tradition is not found only in religion. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s found in this genre, and Pratchett tears it to shreds through these characters and scenarios. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s found in governments, in social contracts, in friendships and families. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not without merit, but the framing in this book is showing us how it can be used in terrible ways.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KvW-BRIzUYU<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

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