In the seventh part of\u00c2\u00a0Reaper Man<\/i>, Windle Poons meets his fellow undead; Bill Door meets Miss Flitworth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parlor. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Ah, that wonderful combination of humor, bitter truths, and sadness. I feel like Pratchett is getting better at this with each book. I mean, look: it is unbelievably funny to think about half of the shit in the Fresh Start meeting. A bogeyman who won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come out from the shadow under a chair. An honorary member who is a wereman \/ reverse werewolf. An undead activist who works at a mortuary and conducts recruitment meetings by shouting in cemeteries. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SIMPLY TOO MUCH.<\/p>\n
And yet, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still brutally sad to think about because all of these people are deeply lonely, and they know it. They hide their sadness and their dejection through jokes or anger or eye rolls, and the worst part is that they all\u00c2\u00a0know\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>it. Even Reg Shoe, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the cheeriest and most motivated of them, is most likely not as happy as he seems to be. (I realize I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m probably projecting here because THIS IS ME TO THE LAST DETAIL, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be ready to admit that I interpreted this character wrong once I learn more about him.) At best, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to deal with an unfortunate situation as positively as he can, thus the existence of Fresh Start. But is that something these people\u00c2\u00a0need<\/i>?<\/p>\n
I think that they might in the long run, but in the immediacy of the undead existing in the Discworld, these people just want to live their lives without attracting anymore attention. There are some examples given here \u00e2\u20ac\u201c such as Arthur\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story about Reverend Welegare \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that paint a picture of undead life. (I suppose we can count Lupine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trouser problem, too. Wow, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a weird fucking sentence to type.) Obviously, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s different for each of these people, since they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not all zombies. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a banshee, two vampires, a wereman, a bogeyman, a zombie, and Reg. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Reg? I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite remember. Regardless, they all know that the living look upon them with disgust and fright. On top of that, there are logistical concerns they each have to deal with now:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you know people can say what they like about you\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0take away your property, just because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re dead?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Obviously, the joke is that they\u00c2\u00a0did<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0die, but people normally don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keep \u00e2\u20ac\u0153living\u00e2\u20ac\u009d after death. But what if this keeps getting worse? What if the undead continue to lose their possessions? Their jobs? I mean, this is some genuine oppressive shit, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? In that sense, I could see how Fresh Start might become necessary if more undead continue to show up in Ankh-Morpork. Hell, there\u00c2\u00a0have<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to be more undead, right? Death still doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a replacement, and people die every day. So what happens\u00c2\u00a0next<\/i>? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine that the harassment these people face is going to end.\u00c2\u00a0They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still viewed as monsters by the general public, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only a matter of time before everyone turns on them. Right?<\/p>\n
Even on a personal level, Windle feels like he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drifting. As a whole, the undead are just trying to do their best in the midst of an existential crisis. You can see that specifically in Windle, who has to accept that he needs to move out of Unseen University, a place he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called home for over a century. A wizard, not living at the University! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a strange thought, but this is now a strange world, and Windle is trying his best to adapt.<\/p>\n
I think you could say the same thing of Death, who as Bill Door is still navigating his own strange form of humanity. Life at Miss Flitworth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s farm has settled down to a routine that must feel familiar for Death, whose entire life was full of them. Which is why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very surreal and kind of touching to see Miss Flitworth invite him into her parlor. Is it out of loneliness? A desire for company? Some other reason? I sense it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the former, given the dilapidated state of the room. Had she used it for anything since she lost her father? Since her man had run out on her, possibly deserting her? (HOW FUCKING SAD IS THAT EXCHANGE, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL???? HELP ME.)<\/p>\n
As awkward as their conversation was at times, I still found it to be sweet. This is new for both of them \u00e2\u20ac\u201c more so for Death, of course \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying. Badly and uncomfortably and without the sort of dramatic wit and brilliance most people seem to have, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening nonetheless. Sometimes, life is lived gripping the arms of a chair while you sit in silence.<\/p>\n
The original text contains use of the words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153idiocy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stupid.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9DXEm-XKqOE<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– Please help book\/finalize the Mark Does Stuff European Tour!<\/a>
\n– I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>.
\n– The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K., and Ireland. Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the seventh part of\u00c2\u00a0Reaper Man, Windle Poons meets his fellow undead; Bill Door meets Miss Flitworth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parlor. 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":[463,496,248],"class_list":["post-3400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-reaper-man","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400","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=3400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}