In the tenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Maskerade<\/i>, Nanny earns some money, the witches go shopping, and a new suspect crops up. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
SO MUCH AWESOME IN JUST ONE SECTION, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n
Mr. Goatberger<\/b><\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a clever skewering of publishing culture here, and I wonder how much of it is from Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own experience with people trying to exploit his writing. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what sort of arrangement he had with his publisher, but even if nothing ever happened to him personally, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure he had friends who did not get the best treatment by their publishers. I KNOW SOME STORIES, TOO. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just amazing to me that Pratchett hits on so many of the terrible things creators are told by their bosses as to why they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be paid.<\/p>\n
I LITERALLY HEARD SOME OF THESE THINGS FROM THE POWERS-THAT-BE WHEN I WAS AT BUZZNET. That includes being told that the economy had never been worse (\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6the Great Depression?????), that finances were so difficult that they were going to have to make major cuts (and a week later, the company signed a massive, million-dollar ad campaign and hired an entirely new department\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0acquired another company), that no one was reading long-form articles on the Internet (despite that Mark Reads Harry Potter was the single highest-read blog on the entire site), and finally, that any ad revenue my writing made\u00c2\u00a0must<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0be split evenly between all those who helped me (I wrote all the posts myself and put them up myself, and I had a notoriously difficult time getting the Advertising or Engineering department to ever pay attention to me, yet they got the benefits of my work).<\/p>\n
SO I RELATE TO THIS A LOT.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Indeed? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen in thirty seconds?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Granny told him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WHAT DID SHE SAY??? I WANT TO KNOW!!!<\/p>\n
Another Letter<\/b><\/p>\n
Each new letter from the Ghost brings me NO CLOSER to determining his identity. Obviously, the ghost wants the best of Christine, but has not figured out that Agnes is the one he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s teaching and who is singing on stage. Which is weird! The Opera Ghost is so observant otherwise, so why not now?<\/p>\n
But the letter is not the most significant part of this scene. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I was so confused by the way Bucket reacted to Walter, and now my brain can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let go of the idea. Ahem:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s harmless enough, if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what you mean. Some of the stagehands and musicians are a bit cruel to him\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 you know, sending him out for a tin of invisible paint or a bag of nail holes and so on. He believes what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s told. Why?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I just wondered. Silly, really.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
OKAY, DOES BUCKET\u00c2\u00a0SUSPECT<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0WALTER? I mean, the motive is spelled out right there: Walter is teased by\u00c2\u00a0everyone<\/i>. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lonely. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always in the Opera House. He knows it better than pretty much everyone. WHAT THE FUCK. I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T LIKE WHAT THIS BOOK IS MAKING ME THINK.<\/p>\n
Nanny and Granny Spend a Night on the Town<\/b><\/p>\n
Look, I am just so pleased with the ridiculous spending spree that these two witches go on in order to convince the Opera House to sell them Box Eight for that night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s performance. It is comically absurd, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. They still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if the box can even be bought\u00c2\u00a0period<\/i>, yet Nanny pays for Granny to do the following things.<\/p>\n
1) Go to Madame Dawning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bougie, niche, and hilarious dress shop, where Granny announces that she will overpay for a dress that is being made for the Dowager Duchess of Quirm. (I love this scene A Lot.)<\/p>\n
2) Purchase all the necessary accessories so that Granny can truly pull off being Lady Esmerelda Weatherwax. (The name sounds so important!)<\/p>\n
3) GET A MANI\/PEDI AND HER MAKE-UP DONE. If you have not experienced the soothing perfection of a mani\/pedi, GO GET ONE. OH MY GOD, THEY ARE AMAZING.<\/p>\n
4) Look\u00c2\u00a0sickening<\/i>. I get that Granny has no taste for make-up, so it was especially funny to me that she looked great with it on.<\/p>\n
I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T WAIT TO SEE WHAT SHE DOES WHILE IN THIS ROLE.<\/p>\n
Agnes<\/b><\/p>\n
You know, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like I have a good grasp on Andr\u00c3\u00a9 as a character because I know so little about him. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thankful for the conversation that Agnes has with him, though. I tend not to like fantasy or science fiction stories where people just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask questions or don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t talk to other people about what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on. Agnes is not that shy about it, and her convo with Andr\u00c3\u00a9 made it clear that she wants to track down the Ghost and figure out who he is. She does this\u00c2\u00a0while<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0knowing that people are dying around her for\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 for what? No one knows why the Ghost is killing people. Indeed, Agnes rejects the notion that the Ghost\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the one committing the murders:<\/p>\n
On the other hand\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 someone was teaching her to sing at night. A mysterious person sang songs on the stage when everyone had gone home. She tried to think of that voice belonging to someone who killed people. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work. Maybe she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d caught some of the fog and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0want<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0it to work. What sort of person could have that feel for music and kill people?<\/p>\n
Answer:\u00c2\u00a0I genuinely don<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know<\/i>. Unfortunately, Agnes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scene in this section lays even more suspicion at Walter Plinge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s feet, since she discovers that the whole crew has been using his name as a inside joke in the program for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a role [a castmember would [rather not be remembered in.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Then, she overhears Mrs. Clamp in the kitchens, insulting Walter at the top of her lungs, and SERIOUSLY, THIS BOOK IS GIVING THIS KID EVERY MOTIVATION TO WANT TO KILL PEOPLE IN THE OPERA HOUSE.<\/p>\n
Good lord.<\/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=6pqhmMHK53o<\/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 tenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Maskerade, Nanny earns some money, the witches go shopping, and a new suspect crops up. 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":[463,514,248],"class_list":["post-3836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-maskerade","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3836","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=3836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}