In the sixth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Deep Wizardry<\/i>, I am destroyed. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I HAVE FEELINGS, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n
The Talk<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to project all over this and be sad so JUST BE WARNED. Firstly, let me state how cool it is that this talk is presented plainly and positively within the book. Duane creates a believable scenario for Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mom to ask her about her relationship with Kit. Despite that the whole thing is complicated by Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s refusal to lie while maintaining the secrecy of her wizardry, it still feels\u00c2\u00a0real<\/i>. It makes sense that Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mom would question her after coming home so late the night before! Plus, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s written to show how awkward the conversation is without denying how important it is. I got the sense from Nita that she really\u00c2\u00a0would<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0talk to her mother about sex if she wanted to have it! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such an important thing to talk about it.<\/p>\n
And it reminded me that I never once had a talk about sex with my parents. Not\u00c2\u00a0once<\/i>. Oh, my mom certainly\u00c2\u00a0yelled<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0about sex in my general direction, but I know that this \u00e2\u20ac\u201c coupled with a truly abysmal sex education in high school \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is why I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what I was doing when it came to sex. I also made LOTS OF BAD DECISIONS, too. So there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of me that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll always resent people who had parents who supported and cared for them like this. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not writing this for pity or sympathy. I just wanted to make the point that this is a\u00c2\u00a0vital<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0conversation that parents need to have with their children\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0that it needs to happen in a way that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t invoke hellfire or damnation or presents sex as an act that ends only in disaster.<\/p>\n
In short: you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not helping your kids if you do this. Bless you, Diane Duane, for giving others a framework they might be able to use to\u00c2\u00a0actually<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0approach a conversation about sex, either with their parents or with their child.<\/p>\n
The Pale One<\/b><\/p>\n
Well, Diane Duane found a way to make a shark terrifying in a new way. THANKS FOR THAT, OH MY GOD. Seriously, The Pale One is unnerving beyond just being a shark, which I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thankful for. I think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all seen enough of the trope where sharks are evil just because we think they have to be. Instead, the Pale One is scary because Duane writes him with a detachment. The approach to the Pale One is eerie; his size is impressive, as is his massive jaw. But this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t what made me so frightened of him. No, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the way he talks:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My people,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Pale One said to S\u00e2\u20ac\u2122reee, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tell me that they met with you two nights since. And fed well.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
AHAHAHA OKAY, SO HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S BOLD. Okay, okay.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My lady wizard,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Pale One said in that cool, dry voice, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also terrified out of your wits.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
OKAY, ALL RIGHT, JUST PUTTING ALL YOUR CARDS ON THE TABLE.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Look to yourself first till you know your new shape better. It has its own fierce ways, I hear; but a sperm whale is still no match for me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The shark said this with the utter calm of someone telling someone else what time it was. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would not make three bites of you, as I would with Nita. I would seize your face from below and crush your lower jaw to make myself safe from your teeth. Then I would take hold of that great tongue of yours and not let go until I had ripped it loose to devour. Smaller sharks than I am done that to sperm whales before. The tongue is, shall we say, a delicacy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/b><\/p>\n
GOOD FUCKING GOD<\/b>.<\/p>\n
I noticed that the Pale One counters Kit immediately by saying that Kit has no reason to fear him because fear is an internal thing. OKAY, DUDE, HAVE YOU HEARD YOURSELF TALK?\u00c2\u00a0IT IS TERRIFYING<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sing surprise at me, Kit: I know the human names well enough. After all, you are who you eat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
YOU ARE JUST TROLLING THESE KIDS, GOOD SIR. Right??? He knows what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing. At the same time, there is a neat little teaching moment here for Kit and Nita. The Pale One is intimidating, but both of them openly challenge or question him at one point during their conversation with him. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re already learning to control their fear, and that shows. Fear\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0an internal response, and I think both characters have shown a willingness to face their fears head-on. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty damn cool, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n
Diane Duane is still offering a massive discount on the first 9 books in the\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0series just to this community, so please take advantage of this deal while you still can:<\/b><\/p>\n
http:\/\/bit.ly\/markreadsYW<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ON3NdYFa7Gg<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>.
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! 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 Death Note<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Neon Genesis Evangelion<\/em>. 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 sixth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Deep Wizardry, I am destroyed. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[515,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-3826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-wizardry","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826","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=3826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}