In the twelfth part of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay<\/i>, EVERYONE IS SO CLOSE TO THE TRUTH, AHHHHH. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For talk of consent, misogyny, transphobia\/transmisogyny.<\/b><\/p>\n
SO MUCH IS HAPPENING, IT IS TOO STRESSFUL.<\/p>\n
Vimes<\/b><\/p>\n
I keep going back to Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s words, and I cannot fathom what thing or place no one would look\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0could provide a steady dose of the arsenic to him. Most of this section of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0follows Vimes as he tries to think of every possible way that the Patrician might be getting poisoned. He considers the following things here, all of which seem PERFECTLY VALID:<\/p>\n
Lord Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bed
\n– His desk
\n– The things on his desk
\n– The table by the bed
\n– The chair
\n– The rug
\n– The food
\n– Which he then breaks down by having Carrot mime the service of Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s food so he can visualize the entire process. So he then considers how the food gets \u00c2\u00a0to the plates\/bowls.
\n– As well as the salt and pepper
\n– And the silverware
\n– And the bread
\n– And the vinegar and mustard
\n– And Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drinking water
\n– And then THE DUMBWAITER. I was so certain that this was the answer, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. No one thought of it! It was such a common and obvious thing in the palace that no one considered that someone could have poisoned the Patrician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s food on the way up to the sixth floor.<\/p>\n
And why does this even matter? Why go to such lengths for someone you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even like all that much? Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I love so dearly that this case reveals Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicated morality. His inner monologue isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always the nicest place in the world; indeed, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quick to judge others, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got prejudices hanging out in his daily thoughts, and he struggles with both apathy and his alcoholism. Yet he makes\u00c2\u00a0choices<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to do things that are right and just. He chooses to see this case as a murder, not a set of political assassinations. That might seem like a strange distinction because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both murder. But he angrily tells Carrot that this conspiracy poisoned two innocent women who already suffered enough in their lives. Why did they deserve to be collateral damage in this attempt to take out Lord Vetinari?<\/p>\n
As far as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m concerned, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important part of Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization.<\/p>\n
Then he put the tray aside and blew out the candle by his bed. He sat in the dark for a while, then felt under his pillow until his fingers located a small sharp knife and a box of matches.<\/p>\n
Thank goodness for Vimes. There was something endearing about his desperate, burning and above all\u00c2\u00a0mis-placed<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0competence. If the poor man took any longer he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to start giving him hints.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS. The Patrician\u00c2\u00a0knows<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening? And is responsible for it? WHY? WHY WOULD HE DO THIS??? I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Vetinari is always steps ahead of everyone else, so maybe he faked his poisoning in order to flush out the people who would replace him??? I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW.<\/p>\n
Dorfl<\/b><\/p>\n
Okay, so maybe I\u00c2\u00a0was<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0on to something with the whole guilt and shame thing??? Carrot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interrogation of Dorfl is both illuminating and bewildering. The golems CLEARLY planned something, are sworn (maybe???) to secrecy, and CAN FEEL WHAT ALL THE OTHER GOLEMS FEEL. But this passage\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 oh god, I get some of it?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think I know who you were following. Clay of your clay. Shaming you all. Something went wrong. You tried to put it right. I think\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 you all had such hopes. But the words in your head\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll defeat you every time\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Following? Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 as a religion? Or something? Did Father Tubelcek shame them? For\u00c2\u00a0what<\/i>? Like, that seems like a possible explanation. What if someone was using the golems to do awful things, they went to a priest to feel better about themselves, and then they started creating more of themselves. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Clay of My Clay,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing, right??? And then someone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c whomever is controlling the golems \u00e2\u20ac\u201c orders them to kill Tubelcek and Hopkinson as retaliation, and then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 okay. So, this is already falling apart, and I also can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out how this is tied to the plot with Vetinari. GAH. What if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re entirely separate and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just happening coincidentally at the same time?<\/p>\n
THIS BOOK IS MAKING ME QUESTION EVERYTHING.<\/p>\n
Cheri Littlebottom<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mostly been sticking my commentary on this in the videos, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore just how pervasive all the commentary is on Cheri\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appearance. As she does more and more things to make herself feel better about being a woman, every man around her appears to have the biggest problem in the universe with her. Her wearing make-up or a skirt has\u00c2\u00a0zero actual affect<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0on their lives, and yet they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just shut their damn mouths. Carrot in particular seems to have the most glaring problem out of everyone. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that through Angua, Pratchett points out how absurd this is. Carrot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s whole\u00c2\u00a0thing<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is being nice and accepting to people, and yet he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accept Cheri\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appearance. He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let her be a woman unless she looks as far from one as possible. And typing that out, I realize how that has real-world implications for how transphobia and transmisogyny can work, too!<\/p>\n
Anyway, Angua is now more ready than ever to leave this place behind, which makes me sad. But the truth is that Carrot isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready to be in a relationship with someone like her, and his reaction to Cheri just reminds her of that, you know? For people who are the wrong kind of different, Carrot would prefer them to assimilate to make the world easier for him to deal with.<\/p>\n
Nobbs<\/b><\/p>\n
The very idea of Nobbs being treated like royalty is a joke I will not tire of. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aware that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got something special in that letter from the Dragon King of Arms, but the treatment he gets here is just TOO MUCH. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so obvious to me that they all want to butter him up so that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll accept his role as soon as Vetinari dies. (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think the Patrician will die, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just my theory.) But does Nobbs realize it? Does he even\u00c2\u00a0care<\/i>?<\/p>\n
Probably not.<\/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=h3tQUGA—E<\/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 twelfth part of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay, EVERYONE IS SO CLOSE TO THE TRUTH, AHHHHH. 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":[517,463,248],"class_list":["post-3893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-feet-of-clay","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893","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=3893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}