In the sixteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Maskerade<\/i>, I love everything this book chooses to be. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just gonna jump right into this because I so desperately need to read the next section. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that Pratchett found a way to make the adage of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The show must go on\u00e2\u20ac\u009d INTO A THEMATIC PLOT POINT. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so clever, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all! But I actually saw it as a joke\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0a bit of admiration for how tenacious and persistent theater folks can be. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m basing that mostly on what Granny does for Walter Plinge, which I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to at the end of this review, but I really do get the sense that this is humorous and flattering. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not mutually exclusive!<\/p>\n
Anyway, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll touch on that more in a bit. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice that my suspicion of Andr\u00c3\u00a9 turned into\u00c2\u00a0something<\/i>, though I get why never would have guessed that he was\u00c2\u00a0actually<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0a secret policeman. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very excited to get to the next book about the Watch because I WANT TO KNOW HOW ELSE IT HAS CHANGED. Who else joined? What other policies are new? GIMME IT ALL. But Andr\u00c3\u00a9\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reveal also provides the story with another character who has put together many of the pieces of this mystery. Andr\u00c3\u00a9 isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a bumbling fool, even if he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out that Salzella was behind everything before Nanny did. (!!!!) He sure got close, though. Where he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a step behind, though, is in refusing to see the Ghost as two separate people. He claims that he was with Walter when Dr. Undershaft was murdered, thus exonerating Walter; yet he was in view of Salzella when the Ghost was seen that night, exonerating him.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Life isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t neat! Whoever said there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only one Ghost?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I love Granny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s phrasing here.\u00c2\u00a0Life isn<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t neat<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicated and layered and hard to categorize. And isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that a great summary of what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen here in\u00c2\u00a0Maskerade<\/i>? You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t simplify characters like Walter or Agnes, or even Mr. Salzella for that matter! The same goes for Henry Slugg or the witches. Life isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t neat, and ultimately, Pratchett respects that through his story. He does that first with chaos, and y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I am still so endlessly amused by the sheer chaotic beauty of the unmasking sequence. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an easy thing to accomplish, but my god, it unfolds so well. I love that after these characters all realize that Salzella is probably onstage and hiding in plain sight, Pratchett jumps to Henry Lawsy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s point of view. This allows us to see the action from a third party, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n Bless you, Terry Pratchett, for this:<\/p>\n As the fat ballerina collided with a donkey in evening dress she staggered and grabbed at his mask, which came off\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And this:<\/p>\n The dancers, after a moment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s confusion during which Nanny Ogg took the opportunity to decapitate a clown and a phoenix, tried to continue.<\/p>\n The chorus watched in bemusement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all made even funnier when other audience members\u00c2\u00a0think they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen this before.<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0See, this is where Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s satire hits the hardest. He pokes so much fun at the kind of snobby theatergoer who claims to have seen it all when THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED IN THE HISTORY OF THEATER. (I say that, but then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m aware of that amazing thread on Tumblr about actual theater mishaps that sounds like a list of impossible urban legends. I wish I could find it!)<\/p>\n Of course, because this book must torment me, we cut away from the reveal that Salzella knocked out Henry Slugg and\u00c2\u00a0poorly<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0took his place (IS HE GOING TO SING!!!), but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m okay with that. There are a number of really, really powerful moments in this book, but holy shit. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still reeling from Granny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Right and Wrong monologue, not only because it shows us the kind of character she is, but because it tells how Pratchett thinks of Walter Plinge.<\/p>\n I know I mentioned this in the last review, but the sympathy and kindness that this text shows this character is simply one of my favorite things about\u00c2\u00a0Maskerade<\/i>. This passage is a good example of that:<\/p>\n Mrs. Plinge had taught him to read using the old programs. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how he knew he was part of it all. But he knew that anyway. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d cut what teeth he had on a helmet with horns on it. The first bed he could remember was the very same trampoline used by Dame Gigli in the infamous Bouncing Gigli incident.<\/p>\n Walter Plinge lived opera. He breathed its songs, painted its scenery, lit its fires, washed its floors and shined its shoes. Opera filled up places in Walter Plinge that might otherwise have been empty.<\/p>\n And now the show had stopped.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Pratchett recognizes that Walter is the life of opera in this book. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the character most dedicated to the appreciation of it and the love for it. (Which means he can easily be contrasted with Mr. Bucket, who owns the Opera House but doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always know what to do with it, or with Salzella, who may love opera but is using it to destroy others.) So when he has a breakdown over what\u00c2\u00a0must<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0be the first time the show has stopped in his life, Granny does something beautiful for him: headology. I appreciated the distinction that Pratchett made between it and psychiatry:<\/p>\n A psychiatrist, dealing with a man who fears he is being followed by a large and terrible monster, will endeavor to convince him that monsters don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist. Granny Weatherwax would simply give him a chair to stand on and a very heavy stick.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So what she does here is\u00c2\u00a0empower<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Walter to do something good. She does this by admitting that Walter might be different and strange, but that does not mean he is Wrong. (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tangled,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she tells him, but not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153twisted.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) That difference is important because Granny knows that Walter has a good heart inside of him. If he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t? Well, Salzella\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ghost is what he might have become. She likens the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153twisted\u00e2\u20ac\u009d mind to Black Aliss because she was a witch who used her power to be Wrong. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a moral judgement, sure, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why she refrains from treating Salzella with cruelty. It might be the easiest solution, but is it Right?<\/p>\n No. So she gives Walter his mask and she validates him. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the magic she refers to in this section: the power of belief and confidence. That mask gives Walter the confidence he needs to be himself, and there is nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.<\/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=C78mbvX0sfM<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the sixteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Maskerade, I love everything this book chooses to be. 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":[463,514,248],"class_list":["post-3852","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\/3852","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=3852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\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 have been announced here.<\/a>
\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":"