In the first part of\u00c2\u00a0Guards! Guards!<\/i>, everything is better with dragons in it. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For general discussion of oppression<\/strong><\/p>\n Gods, this was a delight to read, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n I made a comment during my read of\u00c2\u00a0Pyramids<\/i> that the Sphinx scene was\u00c2\u00a0very<\/i> readable, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d actually counter that with the meeting between the Brethren: this was SO MUCH MORE FUN. Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a knack not just for how people talk (and interrupt one another), but his dialogue feels like it should be performed. (For real, at some point on tour this year, I am going to assemble folks and perform this because IT NEEDS TO BE DONE. I call dibs on the Supreme Grand Master.)<\/p>\n But before I talk about the Supreme Grand Master and his mischievous goals, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about DRAGONS. Well, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much here aside from discussing them in the third person, but\u00c2\u00a0I really love dragons<\/i>. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re one of the few things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m generally interested in when it comes to fantasy. But how does Captain Vimes fit into this? Since I know\u00c2\u00a0nothing<\/i> about any of the\u00c2\u00a0Discworld\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>books to come, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know who the main character is. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comfortable to be back in Ankh-Morpork again, and YAY, CAMEO APPEARANCE BY THE LIBRARIAN! But how does Vimes relate to the Grand Master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scheme? I assume by his name that he is the actual Captain of the Night Watch, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly recall the Night Watch\u00c2\u00a0existing<\/i> in past books set in Ankh-Morpork. (It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been some time since I started\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>, forgive me! A lot has happened since then.) I also think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find fighting a dragon difficult if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the gutter, but hey! You never know!<\/p>\n So, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night. First of all, I love that Pratchett not only further builds the world of Ankh-Morpork (of\u00c2\u00a0course<\/i> there are secret groups in the city!), he pokes a great deal of fun at secret societies and the role they often play within a fantasy narrative. Christ, how many books have I read or how many movies have I seen where some ultra-secretive organization was quietly manipulating events behind-the-scenes? They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not treated with the sort of reverence I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to in these kind of stories, you know? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say that the threat posed by the Supreme Grand Master is to be ignored. I think I\u00c2\u00a0need<\/i> to take him seriously. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit of Dios in his characterization, particularly since he is such a manipulative person. As he collects his Brethren together to begin to push them towards awakening the dragons mentioned at the start of\u00c2\u00a0Guards! Guards!<\/i>, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made\u00c2\u00a0very<\/i> clear that he purposely chose men he could control:<\/p>\n But incompetents with possibilities, nevertheless. Let the other societies take the skilled, the hopefuls, the ambitious, the self-confident. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d take the whining resentful ones, the ones with a bellyful of spite and bile, the ones who knew they could make it big if only they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been given the chance. Give him the ones in which the floods of venom and vindictiveness were dammed up behind thing walls of ineptitude and low-grade paranoia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sooooo\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 he just described a fairly specific portion of Reddit, right? COULDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T RESIST.<\/p>\n I\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i> think this is a brilliant choice for Pratchett to make, though! The Brethren here are not smart enough to realize what the Supreme Grand Master is doing to them, but they\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i> believe they are quite brilliant and observant themselves. We see that through the recurring gag of Brother Watchtower interrupting the Grand Master to wax poetically about the things that he knows. Even if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0completely wrong<\/i>. Of course, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore that the entire conversation about kings, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153skions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and princesses is a hilarious joke about fantasy tropes. It is!!! LIKE THIS PART:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He has to marry a princess, too,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Brother Doorkeeper. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On account of him being a swineherd.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n They looked at him.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who said anything about him being a swineherd?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Brother Watchtower. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I never said he was a swineherd. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this about swineherds?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a point, though,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Brother Plasterer. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s generally a swineherd or a forester or similar, your basic skion. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to do with being in wossname. Cognito. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to appear to be of, you know, humble origins.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n BLESS<\/i>.<\/p>\n But y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. I just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so thrilled with the entire section where the Supreme Grand Master manipulates the Brethren into agreeing with him by having them validate their mutual sense of misguided oppression. Because ultimately, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what this is: misguided. Note that\u00c2\u00a0every<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0example that Pratchett has these characters give one another is nothing more than an irritation. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that someone being cruel or rude isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meaningful; it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that feeling irritation doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter. It means that these aspects of life\u00c2\u00a0are not systemic failings<\/i>. Paying rent sucks (IS THAT NOT AN ABSOLUTE TRUTH), but playing your tuba at night? Other people having nice things? Not paying your bills? Okay,\u00c2\u00a0nice try<\/i>. The only reason I latched on to this as I did in the video is because, as I said then,\u00c2\u00a0I know people who do this<\/i>. I have met actual living human\u00c2\u00a0men who believe that because someone didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have sex with them, they were oppressed. (Rejection\/lack of reciprocation sucks. Not an oppression for you, sir.) I have met an actual living straight man who thought he was oppressed because he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to have a straight pride parade and was upset that he \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allowed to have the same fun as the gays.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0I CANNOT EVEN MAKE THIS SHIT UP<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this horrifying combination of entitlement and disrespect. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so used to the world catering to them that they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fathom something\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i> including them. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say that this is precisely what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening here, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think any of these men are actually suffering under the weight of any societal bigotries here. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no oppression actually happening.<\/p>\n And the Supreme Grand Master knows this. He exploits their self-confidence, and then he exploits their dislike of wizards, all so that he can get people to assist him in awakening the dragons. But why does he\u00c2\u00a0need<\/i> them? Why doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he do this himself? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also perplexed as to his end game, especially after this line:<\/p>\n He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d won. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be dragons again. And a king again. Not like the old kings. A king who would do what he was told.<\/p>\n Again, very Dios-like to me. So, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t aim to make himself king, but a sort of advisor who holds the\u00c2\u00a0real<\/i> power? Why? How is he going to do that? And if the second half of de Malachite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a charred lump,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d how is that going to affect the Supreme Grand Master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan? Does he even intend to kill the dragons once he raises them?<\/p>\n I AM INTRIGUED.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XbxKp5PTJPw<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a> I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans! In the first part of\u00c2\u00a0Guards! Guards!, everything is better with dragons in it. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[486,463,248],"class_list":["post-3100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-guards-guards","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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