In the fourteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Guards! Guards!<\/i>, Ankh-Morpork adjusts to their new king, which reveals uncomfortable truths about humanity. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This truly doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like any other\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i> book. I think you can read some humor into this development \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the idea of a populace accepting a dragon as their king is pretty funny \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but Pratchett doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t include this here without some searing insight into\u00c2\u00a0why<\/i> the people of Ankh-Morpork were so willing to adapt in this manner. Some of that is seen through Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes, like this bit at the opening of this section. After multiple people discuss the advantages of having a dragon for a king (which is properly portrayed as an ABSURD CONVERSATION), Vimes realizes just how screwed they are.<\/p>\n If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t as cynical as real life.<\/p>\n We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got along with the other guys for centuries, he thought. Getting along has practically been all our foreign policy. Now I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just heard us declare war on an ancient civilization that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always got along with, more or less, even if they do talk funny. And after that, the world. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worse, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably win.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important that Pratchett characterizes the citizenry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts as more cynical than Vimes because it shows us how that kind of complacency is dangerous and depressing. These people are so certain of the futility of their own free will that they accept a world where a dragon is king. Again, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a ridiculous sentence, obviously, but this has real-world implications that I think are important to discuss. Now, as someone who has lived under the weight of several oppressive systems, I understand the difficulty in challenging a dominant narrative. I know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not easy, and I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever suggest that. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case here, too! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know a simple or risk-free way to stop the dragon, you know? (Actually, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I know any way to do so yet; I imagine that the Librarian and maybe the Supreme Grand Master are the only ones in Ankh-Morpork to know, since they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the book.)<\/p>\n So why doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anyone want to\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i> anything here? Why is it easier to just accept such a horrible system of rule and pretend it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually reasonable?<\/p>\n The scene between the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153civic leaders\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Ankh-Morpork sheds some light on that. I was totally convinced (and utterly wrong) that Lupine Wonse was trying to make the best of a bizarre and frightening situation. He was using the language of the bureaucracy of Ankh-Morpork \u00e2\u20ac\u201c most likely made common by the Patrician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to deal with the new \u00e2\u20ac\u0153king\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who had taken residence in the Palace. Given how the last section ended, I thought\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i> was the joke. A dragon shows up, says nothing, roasts a couple of people, and the brilliant people of Ankh-Morpork crown said dragon king because what else can they do? And thus, governmental policy is drafted around the dragon, who still just sits around hoarding and eating and roasting, until it is every bit a part of the society, as common as the thieves and assassins. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Aknh-Morpork way!<\/p>\n So we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got this long scene, one that is littered with euphemisms and red tape and absurdity, and I was utterly prepared to accept the parody that Pratchett was putting onto the page. All these people would accept the dragon as long as it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t personally affect them. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d dance around calling the king what it actually was. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d use language to avoid acknowledging reality. This is remarkably common of government officials or chancellors or\u00c2\u00a0anyone<\/i> in a position of power in the Discworld, so I thought I knew what was going on! (With one exception: the Patrician. He may use some of these techniques, but he himself knows\u00c2\u00a0exactly<\/i> what he is doing.)<\/p>\n Oh god, I WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN CLOSE TO UNDERSTANDING THIS:<\/p>\n What kept going through his mind were Wonse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last words, as he shook the secretary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s limp hand. He wondered if anyone else had hear them. Unlikely\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been a shape rather than a sound. Wonse had simply moved his lips around them while staring fixedly at the assassin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s moon-tanned face.<\/p>\n Help. Me.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And then Pratchett immediately jumps to Wonse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s point of view, where I find out that THE DRAGON IS NOT A PASSIVE PLAYER IN THIS. THEY ARE OPENLY THREATENING AND MANIPULATING WONSE TO GET WHAT THEY WANT. Not only is this horrifying and unnerving, but we see how Wonse is\u00c2\u00a0trying<\/i> to minimize the damage within Ankh-Morpork as best as possible, all while dealing with a creature that can read his every thought. He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even\u00c2\u00a0think<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0about creating a plan to overthrow the dragon because the dragon will know. Worse, the dragon can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to understand why Wonse isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just letting them run rampant in the city, eating and burning whomever they desire. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true that Wonse, working under the Patrician,\u00c2\u00a0knows<\/i> humanity, and he knows exactly how he can manipulate people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fears and traditions so that the dragon is\u00c2\u00a0never challenged<\/i>. This confuses the dragon, because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, the dragon knows it is a dragon and knows how people have generally reacted to dragons in the past. And yet, there will be no heroes and no warriors sent to destroy it as long as the dragon does as Wonse directs.<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost laughable right up until the point that the dragon fully understands what Wonse means about human apathy:<\/p>\n You have the effrontery to be squeamish,<\/i> it thought at him.\u00c2\u00a0But we were dragons. We were\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>supposed\u00c2\u00a0to be cruel, cunning, heartless, and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u201c the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n WELL, THIS BOOK IS CERTAINLY NOT LIKE THE OTHER DISCWORLD<\/i> BOOKS. How do you contend with something like that? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like the dragon is wrong in assessing the great evils of humanity, even within the Discworld. Hell, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even really know what the dragon is referring to within this fictional universe, and yet, it rings so horribly true that it hurts to read. The dragon is an immoral antagonist and the dragon KNOWS THIS. So what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s humanity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s excuse?<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fitting, then, that the scene that follows this bit involves the remaining members of the Watch \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Carrot, Nobby, and Colon \u00e2\u20ac\u201c dealing with just such a test of their moral fortitude. While they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re busy missing Captain Vimes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c er, Citizen Vimes now, the palace guard arrive with their first proclamation for the Watch. Well, it applies to the whole city, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Watch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s job to post it up about town so that the citizens know what what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expected of them. Oh, right, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re expected to give up a virgin girl once a month as part of their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153social contract\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the dragon. GREAT. And what is the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction?<\/p>\n Well, Carrot wants to know what they can do to stop it, signifying that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ready and willing to fight it. But both Sergeant Colon and Nobby have unfortunately optimistic hopes about what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need to do:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So I suppose we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to wossname, proclaim it. But don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry, lad,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, patting Carrot on one muscular arm and repeating, as if he hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite believed himself the first time, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come to that. People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never stand for it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Despite knowing it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong, they defer to the rest of Ankh-Morpork, all in the hopes that everyone will refuse to fulfill the king\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demand. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine that will go well.<\/p>\n So what does Citizen Vimes have to say about all of this? The realization that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not in the Watch is still slowly sinking into him when Pratchett finally cuts over to his POV. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had a moment where he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fully accepted it, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that he will. How can you just leave such a huge part of your life behind? Hey, at least we find out that Errol is preparing to fight the dragon in his own little way! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if a swamp dragon could actually damage a real dragon in any measurable way, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still kind of adorable. He is so determined! As for Vimes, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have anywhere to turn, at least not yet, so he bids Ramkin goodbye with the understanding that this might be it for him. They may not cross paths again if the world just accepts this dragon as king, which they seem to be doing rather quickly. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that both characters have an affinity of sorts for one another, though. Whether that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s romantic or not\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, it remains to be seen. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know! Ramkin has never seemed all that interested in romance\u00c2\u00a0anyway<\/i>, but she has grown to like Vimes a whole lot.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how\u00c2\u00a0any<\/i> of this is going to be resolved. I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T SEE A WAY OUT. And I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a broken record at this point, but WHERE IS THE SUPREME GRAND MASTER???<\/p>\n The original text contains use of the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mad.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n http:\/\/youtu.be\/vevGwtIOeB0?a<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n -\u00c2\u00a0Please support the CrossingsCon IndieGogo to help get a Young Wizards convention started in 2016<\/b><\/a>! If the fundraiser reaches $7,000, I’ll be the Guest of Honor. FOR REAL. In the fourteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Guards! Guards!, Ankh-Morpork adjusts to their new king, which reveals uncomfortable truths about humanity. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld.<\/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-3140","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\/3140","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=3140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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