In the seventeenth and penultimate part of\u00c2\u00a0Maskerade<\/i>, the Ghost is truly unmasked. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I want some closure for Agnes in the final section, but otherwise? Wow, this resolution is so satisfying. Pratchett dances a fine line here between satire of opera, satire of people who like opera, satire of people who\u00c2\u00a0hate<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0opera, and a necessary emotional end to Walter Plinge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A LOT TO JUGGLE, I ADMIT. But it works! It works to have Agnes call out Salzella and be the one to unmask him just as it works to have Granny cede the fight over to Walter.<\/p>\n
Why does all of this matter? Well, the power of the theater and of opera is what fuels Salzella\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eventual end. It is quite ironic that he hates the thing that destroys him, but his whole villainous monologue is an act of irony. He claims to hate opera with a passion (REMEMBER WHEN I SAID HE LOVED IT, OH MY GOD), yet he follows the operatic climax to a T. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the humor, of course, as well as the tragedy of his character. When Walter arrives, freshly full of confidence and decked out in the costume of the Ghost, Salzella just assumes that the narrative will stay the same because\u00c2\u00a0he<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is in control of it.<\/p>\n
And I get why he thinks that. He stole the image and the story from Walter, well aware that he could pin his own heinous crimes on that poor kid. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his whole thing, too! He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even be\u00c2\u00a0original<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0in his crimes; he has to piggyback off what someone else came up with. So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fitting to me that he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be original or unique in the end. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trite. Contrived. A copycat. Unoriginal. The funniest part about that is that Salzella reveals that he thinks he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the ONLY NORMAL PERSON HERE. Oh, Salzella, I hate to burst your bubble, except I\u00c2\u00a0love<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0bursting your bubble. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not special at all, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Granny exploits. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0Walter<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0who is special, whose intensity in his beliefs fuels the dramatic fight between him and Salzella. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what allows the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mask\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to work, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? Walter believes the invisible \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mask\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is real, so much so that he immediately transforms into the Ghost before everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes.<\/p>\n
I guess it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s satisfying to me because I love seeing people who are cruel to characters like Walter get their comeuppance. Make no mistake: Salzella is\u00c2\u00a0incredibly\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>cruel to this kid and not just for trying to get the people in the opera to believe he was a murderer. This whole monologue highlights how poorly he thinks of a kid who never\u00c2\u00a0once\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>did anything to affect Salzella\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. Walter had been obedient and kind to Salzella, and this is what Walter got in return.<\/p>\n
So fuck Salzella. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy that Granny got to intimidate him (GRABBING A SWORD WITH HER BARE HAND OH MY GOD), and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that Walter fought him, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that Salzella died by\u00c2\u00a0stage fighting<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hilarious and poetic. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely a poetry to all of this, too. Since the conclusion of this matches the absurdity of much of opera and theater, it means that Salzella takes a long time to die, which is great. But the poetry I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m most impressed with is when Granny suggests that Mr. Bucket hire Walter as the music director of the theater. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awesome to know that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be the person to bring musical theater to Ankh-Morpork, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also exactly what this kid deserves. Granny explains it so well: no one knows this place and music and storytelling quite like the kid who made up a story for himself because he was ignored. Walter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life has been full of stories up to this point, hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<\/p>\n
Gods, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait until he gets to tell his own. Except for the one about cats.\u00c2\u00a0Cats<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is an awful musical, FIGHT ME.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also glad that Henry Slugg chooses to\u00c2\u00a0be<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Henry Slugg instead of maintaining the impossible and miserable identity of Enrico Basilica. AND HE IS REUNITED WITH HIS BROTHER AND MOTHER IN THE PROCESS. Which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 can we also take a moment to address how hilarious it is that the audience\u00c2\u00a0doesn<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave the entire time all of this is happening<\/i>? IF THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT THE BEST JOKE ABOUT OPERA AUDIENCES OR THEATER AUDIENCES IN GENERAL, I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW WHAT IS.<\/p>\n
But what of Agnes? I can tell that Granny tried to push her towards being a witch again, given that she reasons that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more rewarding to control the story rather than be a part of it:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can either be on the stage, just a performer, just going through the lines\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 or you can be outside it, and know how the script works, where the scenery hangs, and where the trapdoors are. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that better?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Agnes, however, disagrees. Granted, this section\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cutoff comes before the end of the book, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping that means there is more to her story. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where Agnes will feel more satisfied; I just know that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0happy being Christine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice, nor does she want to be a witch. Where does Agnes fit in?<\/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=qsD4wkZUVE4<\/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>
\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":"In the seventeenth and penultimate part of\u00c2\u00a0Maskerade, the Ghost is truly unmasked. 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-3854","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\/3854","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=3854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}