In the second chapter of\u00c2\u00a0High Wizardry<\/i>, DAIRINE!!! Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n
My gods, WHAT A TREAT, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. I made a prediction, and it came true ALREADY and in a way I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready for. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just going to jump right into this because this chapter does\u00c2\u00a0wonders<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to explain Dairine as a character.<\/p>\n Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crying had upset Dairine more than anything else in her short life. It had instantly become plain to Diarine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s three-year-old mind that the world was a dangerous place if you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know things, a place that would make you unhappy if it could. Right there she decided that she was not going to be one of the unhappy ones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If Duane had only stuck with this for the remainder of the chapter, rather than spend all of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Passwords\u00e2\u20ac\u009d addressing Dairine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history with knowledge and wizardry, I would have understood her. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a brief passage, but goddamn, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so powerful. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that Dairine adores her sister, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her love for her that fuels her quest to learn everything about the world. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. (No one is surprised that I love this.)<\/p>\n I relate to it in a peripheral sense. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any single experience that made me seek out knowledge and reading. I did it because it was the only way for me to get out in the world. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve met a lot of people who had strict and repressive upbringings, and many of them could relate to the notion that school had a different meaning for us. The library was a portal to infinite worlds. Science class could be an adventure. And in my case, school provided me with a sense of independence that I lacked at home. The classroom provided me with a chance to speak my mind, to make decision without someone hovering over me, to be respect as an autonomous person.<\/p>\n So I love that Duane phrases Dairine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experience like this:<\/p>\n But there was also that obscure certainty, buried under the months and years since the decision, that the sure way to make the world work for you was to know\u00c2\u00a0everything<\/i>. Dairine sat home and busied herself with conquering the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I might not have described my behavior as a kid as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153conquering\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the world, but I understand this so deeply. If the world is designed to hurt you unless you perform the right way, then Dairine set out to conquer it years before by learning how it worked. What it contained. What it meant. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I had the same goal in mind, but I most definitely behaved in a similar manner. I, too, devoured all the books in the library. I was urged to skip a grade, but I turned it down so that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I swear I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not kidding \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I could be eighteen my entire senior year. I was in honors classes as soon as was possible, and prior to that, I did G.A.T.E. (WHEW, WHAT A NIGHTMARE THAT WAS.) I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lucky enough to have parents who allowed me to peruse the adult section of the public library, but I found ways to read those books regardless. (One of my favorite tricks: show my mother all the books I wanted while hiding one or two of the ones I knew she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d disapprove of on a shelf near the checkout desk. Then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d go look for a last minute book and lie and say I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find it, while I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d slipped the books into the middle of the stack. I NEVER GOT CAUGHT)<\/p>\n I read non-fiction, the classics, lots of young adult works, a ton of sci-fi, and bits and pieces in the fantasy genre. But like Dairine, nothing captured me quite as much as\u00c2\u00a0Star Wars<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0The X-Files<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0did. I understand many of the emotional reasons why those series affected me as much, but it was those two TV shows that got me truly obsessed. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how I discovered fandom: not through books, but\u00c2\u00a0media<\/i>. I UNDERSTAND DAIRINE SO DEEPLY, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. I mean, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a giant\u00c2\u00a0Star Wars\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>sleeve! How else do I have to prove this?\u00c2\u00a0Star Wars<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is massively important to me?<\/p>\n Wait, I just thought about something. Inevitably, Dairine is going to see\u00c2\u00a0The Force Awakens<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna meet Rey and Finn and Poe and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna realize that power isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t available to just \u00e2\u20ac\u0153young sons of slaves or untrained farmboys.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d IT IS AVAILABLE TO HER, AS WELL.<\/p>\n Anyway, while y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all explode over the possibilities (I EXPECT META AND FICLETS ASAP), let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about Dairine realizing she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know something. It makes her behavior in the past two books so LOGICAL. She knew since\u00c2\u00a0So You Want to Be a Wizard\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>that her sister was up to something strange. And given what we learn of Dairine in this chapter, we can see why she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d dedicate herself to discovering Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s secret. One of the most relatable things about this is that Dairine gained access to wizardry through sheer willpower. She wanted it, and she got it. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you wish we could\u00c2\u00a0all<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0do that? BECAUSE I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122VE WANTED MAGICAL POWERS FOR DECADES NOW.<\/p>\n So here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my prediction: Dairine read the Oath aloud, which means she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to go through her Ordeal. What if\u00c2\u00a0High Wizardry<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is her Ordeal? What if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to reveal itself to Dairine while they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out on this trip, and the novel tracks Nita and Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s challenges while they help Dairine become a wizard? They could also\u00c2\u00a0reject<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0helping her because they had to do their Ordeal alone. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Oh, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so excited for this book!<\/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=TEGkzFnlxcw<\/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 second chapter of\u00c2\u00a0High Wizardry, DAIRINE!!! 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":[516,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-3857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-wizardry","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857","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=3857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3857"}],"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":"