In the twelfth part of\u00c2\u00a0Hogfather<\/i>, the wizards reminisce, and Death does a good deed. Sort of. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about the wizards. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mentioned a few times before that they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily my favorite characters because Pratchett rarely, if ever, grows them. They each play their roles, and they stick to them. And I never really touched on this either, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think of another series where there are recurring characters who\u00c2\u00a0don<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0have names. All the wizards have titles! Does that mean that different\u00c2\u00a0people<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0inhabit those roles or is it actually the same person the entire time?<\/p>\n
Actually, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not necessarily important. I believe this is a bizarre writing choice, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not without some merits. I say all this because I want to praise just how ridiculously funny the opening conversation is between all the wizards. It comes right after Ridcully and Ponder get close to discovering the reason\u00c2\u00a0why<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0these \u00e2\u20ac\u0153household\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gods keep appearing in the world: there is suddenly an excess of belief because a major focus of that belief has disappeared. It stands to reason that, given the timing of all this, that figure is the Hogfather. Which, of course, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a whole lot of sense because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, Death is out there building up reserves of Hogfather belief, right? Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he deliberately trying to counter this loss of belief?<\/p>\n
But what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s truly\u00c2\u00a0glorious\u00c2\u00a0is that this possible discovery inspires\u00c2\u00a0utter shenanigans<\/i>. Once the Dean suggests that the Hogfather might have been the god who disappeared, an argument is set off. First: do any of these men believe in the Hogfather? (Some do. THEY TOTALLY DO.) BUT THEN, MAGIC HAPPENS. The Dean reveals that he used a pillowcase instead of a stocking for Hogswatch, and all hell breaks loose. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of incredible to see where this argument goes and how Ridcully completely loses control of everything while it happens. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an avalanche. An unending disaster. Some wizards accuse the Dean of having an unnecessarily posh upbring; the Dean thinks everyone else doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how to actually celebrate the holiday.<\/p>\n
Then, the conversation morphs into an even funnier topic: the bitter cynicism of Hogswatch.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly the time for silly arguments. In our family we were lucky to get through dinner without a reprise of What A Shame Henry Didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Go Into Business With Our Ron. Or Why Hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Anyone Taught Those Kids to Use A Knife? That was another favorite.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it was such a delight reading this. Part of that comes from the fact that for the first time in a while, the wizards largely\u00c2\u00a0agree<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0on something. They went from viciously arguing with the Dean to bonding over horrible Hogswatch traditions. But the truly wonderful thing about this is the reveal that Ridcully\u00c2\u00a0genuinely adores Hogswatch<\/i>. On the surface, that seemed a ridiculous statement. How could Ridcully, the most straightforward and brash wizard we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ever met, love something so silly and sentimental? Except as soon as I thought about it, it made perfect sense. Of\u00c2\u00a0course<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0he would love a holiday as loud and in-your-face as he is! He would love the paper hats and the games and the food and the drinks and IT IS THE MOST RIDCULLY HOLIDAY IMAGINABLE.<\/p>\n
And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all ruined by the Cheerful Fairy. The Senior Wrangler messed this one up, creating the Cheerful Fairy on accident, and if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anything that wizards don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cheer. Ever. (Except Ridcully, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point. HE IS CHEERFUL OFTEN.) But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tinge of sadness to this because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like the Cheerful Fairy can\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0anything else.\u00c2\u00a0Her\u00c2\u00a0entire purpose is to cause cheer! So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad the wizards indulge her for a moment since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really fair that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been created in a place where she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s useless. And hey, the wizards need to have some fun, right?<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll read the scene where the wizards lie in wait in the Library alongside the Librarian, who might be the only person who outwardly believes in the Hogfather. They intend to catch a glimpse of him and hopefully get the Hogfather to help them, but you know what? I bet they all secretly believe in him, too.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Death is most likely making his way towards Unseen University, but along the way, he spreads a little Hogswatch cheer. Like before, Death recognizes the inherent unfairness of the world, and in this case, he steals food from a more wealthy family in order to give a Hogswatch meal to many of Ankh-Morpork\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better known beggars. It truly is a sweet gesture, but Albert isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly pleased with it. Again, he sees a lack of fairness as the way the world works, not as something that needs to be fixed. Even though the family who \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lost\u00e2\u20ac\u009d their meal can easily get another one, and even though the beggars may never have a meal like this again, Albert still thinks it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong. I understand the context Albert comes from, but Death isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly wrong about this disparity existing, nor is he necessarily wrong that sometimes, those who have everything in the world should give things up to those who have nothing.<\/p>\n
But is it helping people to believe in the Hogfather? I sure hope so.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dcZtViN1-DY<\/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\u00a0Hogfather, the wizards reminisce, and Death does a good deed. Sort of. 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":[519,463,248],"class_list":["post-3941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-hogfather","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941","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=3941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}