In the eighteenth and final part of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay<\/i>,\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>Vimes helps Dorfl with his new life, and Angua decides what to do with hers. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Well, this was yet another\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0book that I fell in love with, and goddamn, it was great to get this after the delight that was\u00c2\u00a0Maskerade<\/i>. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about why this book rules just based on the ending alone.<\/p>\n
Dorfl as the Rationalist\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Writing Dorfl as a conscientious and thoughtful thinker post-freedom is one of the best things ever. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no secret anymore that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my favorite of the new characters introduced in this book, and this is the completion of his story arc in\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay<\/i>. Sworn in (albeit briefly) by Vimes as a Watchman, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0perfect<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0for upholding the law. In a way, he reminds me of Carrot in that he is so literal in how he interprets the world around him. That purity is infectious, and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a sarcastic bone in his body. (He also has no bones in his body anyway, so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that, too.) When he tells Constable Visit that he actually wants to read more of his pamphlets, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not lying. And he really\u00c2\u00a0does<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0want to approach the world of religion with rational thought. But it is in his concept of the law that I find Pratchett at his most relevant:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What Better Work For One Who Loves Freedom Than The Job Of Watchman? Law Is The Servant Of Freedom. Freedom Without Limits Is Just A Word,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Dorfl ponderously.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S JUST SO GENUINE, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Which is why his attempt to understand the fright of freedom is so earnest. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only understood most of his existence as a need to obey orders. Without orders, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jumped into freedom, though his experience with it is\u00c2\u00a0still<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0different from any other golem. If Carrot had not granted him that freedom, what would he have done? Most likely, he would have returned to the same comfort of predictability that the other golems returned to. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that people\u00c2\u00a0like<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0being restricted or having their freedoms taken away from him. The point here is that often, people will choose things that provide them with stability over chaos. Dorfl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life is chaotic now; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much to figure out! Yet I love that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not only willing to do it, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also going to slowly help other golems work their way to a similar place.<\/p>\n Nobby<\/b><\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yea. Wish I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never told them about the damn ring, really.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t saved you a lot of trouble, certainly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Colon.<\/p>\n Nobby spat on his badge and buffed it industriously with his sleeve.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S a good job I never told them about the tiara, the coronet, and the three gold lockets,\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>he said to himself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Nobby doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t strike me as that much of a joker, so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 holy shit, does he\u00c2\u00a0really<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0have royal lineage in him? THE SHEER IRONY, OH MY GOD.<\/p>\n Personhood<\/b><\/p>\n I ADORE THAT PRATCHETT HAS VIMES FIGHT FOR DORFL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S RIGHT TO EXIST. And he does so through such a clever method:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Suggest You Take Me And Smash Me And Grind The Bits Into Fragments And Pound The Fragments Into Powder And Mill Them Again To The Finest Dust There Can Be, And I Believe You Will Not Find A Single Atom Of Life\u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153True! Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s do it!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153However, In Order To Test This Fully, One Of You Must Volunteer To Undergo The Same Process.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n There was silence.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not fair, said a priest, after a while. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All anyone has to do is bake up your dust again and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be alive\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n There was more silence.<\/p>\n Ridcully said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is it only me, or are we on tricky theological ground here?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yes. Yes, you are. And that doubt is all it takes. Uncertainty is a hell of a thing, and by injecting just a tiny bit of it into their minds, Dorfl secures the right to stay alive.<\/p>\n I love it. Dearly. Dorfl, the ceramic atheist who can withstand the petty machinations of gods and the simple manipulations of priests, yet still keeps an open mind. As long as the world makes sense, Dorfl will believe in it.<\/p>\n Angua<\/b><\/p>\n Of course, the one last plot thread left without closure is Angua, who had resolved earlier in this book to leave Carrot behind because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, the future could not work between a man like Carrot and a werewolf like Angua. I was saddened at first to see her packing, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that Cheri had come around to see Angua as a friend instead of an abstract threat. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still an uncomfortable nature to their relationship, but I believe that comes from the fact that Cheri has had to re-adjust her line of thinking, now that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been friends with a werewolf the entire time.<\/p>\n Yet it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s their friendship that led to immense changes in Cheri\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life and, by proxy, the lives of all the lady dwarfs who now get to live closer to the life that they want. Cheri would not have been able to explore the use of makeup or clothing as she had with Angua by her side, and I was thankful Angua had played such an important role in her life.<\/p>\n But what of\u00c2\u00a0Angua<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life? Was she really going to leave? Could she commit to that decision? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Carrot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s un-ironic sincerity that ultimately keeps Angua in Ankh-Morpork, though. For one more day, of course, but that one day more might turn into two days, which might turn into three. Maybe her relationship with Carrot won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work out, or maybe he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll finally come to truly understand why she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been so concerned about their future. In the end, though, Angua delays what feels inevitable to her because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too hard to leave Carrot behind. My hope is that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both in another\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0book and that Pratchett can pick up from where he left off. This is such a cool storyline, and the idea of it being potentially serialized is very exciting for me. PLUS, I LOVE ANGUA, SO MORE OF HER IS GREAT.<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great ending to this book, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. And I know many of you have been looking forward to me starting\u00c2\u00a0Hogfather<\/i>, so I hope it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just as fun as this has been. Our next\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0post is a bit of a surprise, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start\u00c2\u00a0Hogfather\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>on Tuesday. Until then: thank you. This was so fantastic.<\/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=V-L8aMcIT6k<\/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 eighteenth and final part of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay,\u00c2\u00a0Vimes helps Dorfl with his new life, and Angua decides what to do with hers. 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":[463,248],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906","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=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3906"}],"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":"