{"id":3945,"date":"2016-09-21T05:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=3945"},"modified":"2016-09-19T08:51:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T15:51:41","slug":"mark-reads-hogfather-part-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2016\/09\/mark-reads-hogfather-part-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Hogfather’: Part 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Hogfather<\/i>, Susan figures out what Teatime has been up to. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

AHHHHHH I AM SO CLOSE TO FIGURING OUT WHAT THIS IS. I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m missing just one piece of this, so let me write down what I\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0know.<\/p>\n

1) The world where Teatime went is the world where children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beliefs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c their fears, their nightmares, their truths \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are all real. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like a collective version of their minds.<\/p>\n

2) In this place, there is a tower with a room for every child that has ever existed in the Discworld. IN each of these rooms, there is a display case for the teeth that were taken by the Tooth Fairy. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure if that is the\u00c2\u00a0only<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0thing in the room, nor do I understand why they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re kept in these display cases. To prevent #3?)<\/p>\n

3) Teatime and his men broke into the cases, hauled all the teeth downstairs, put them in a single pile, and drew a magic circle around them. This is to CONTROL CHILDREN.<\/p>\n

4) Teatime was hired by the Auditors to take out the Hogfather.<\/p>\n

5) Which he did by controlling the children to\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0believe in the Hogfather.<\/p>\n

6) Which is why the Hogfather \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disappeared.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

7) And, given Mr. Brown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death and Susan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commentary on it, I now understand why this place was perfect: Death can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enter here because\u00c2\u00a0there is no death in the mind of a child.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>They rarely can conceive of it; people just \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disappear.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

8) This also means that in this space, the horrific nightmares of Teatime\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game ARE 100% REAL.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll say what I said in the video for this part, though. The piece I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still missing is\u00c2\u00a0Death<\/i>. Death figured out what the Auditors were doing, and he took it upon himself to become the Hogfather. In doing so, he had to work harder than the Hogfather ever had to in order to counter the lack of belief. Is\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0why his displays of charity and cheer were so over-the-top? Did he believe that the Hogfather had to\u00c2\u00a0now<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0be more demonstrative than ever?<\/p>\n

I feel like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s close to the truth, but I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW. I still have just under a hundred pages left in this book to go, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m expecting Pratchett to ruin me fairly soon. Anyway, I have some more thoughts! I was genuinely sad about Mr. Brown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death. Teatime\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s murder of him, through Banjo, is so senselessly cruel that I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even bother to feel entertained by Teatime\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weirdness. While I wondered aloud while reading this why Banjo is so loyal to Teatime, I suspect this place has something to do with it. Banjo is frequently referred to as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153childlike\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by the text, so what happens when he enters a place for the minds of children? What if Teatime\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0his worst nightmare, so he just does as Teatime says?<\/p>\n

The only other major thing I wanted to talk about was how effective the horror elements were in this part of the book. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been creeped out before, but Pratchett taps into this preternatural fear that many people of have of certain aspects of their childhood. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a dresser or an armoire with a face, though I recognized the phenomenon that Catseye described. For me, it was this horrible paneling I had in my childhood bedroom. It was faux wood and had tons of drawings of water fowl on it. At night, especially when the light from my neighbor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s backyard shone through the vertical blinds and the oleander bushes, the shadows would meld with the drawings, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d often wake up convinced that someone was in the walls, staring at me.<\/p>\n

IT WAS AWFUL AND I HATED THOSE TERRIBLE PANELS. My mom renovated that room a few years ago and threw out the panels, thankfully. But in this place where Teatime has set up shop, that face would be\u00c2\u00a0real<\/i>. NO, THANK YOU, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122LL PASS. The same goes for Scissor Man. I never heard that specific children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s myth, and I wonder if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a regional thing. We had stories of bogeyman, but the main thing my mom used to frighten me was herself and Jesus. And the Devil. So would those versions show up here, too? Oh gods, probably! See, this place isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cute or adorable at all; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like a perpetual nightmare factory.<\/p>\n

(And I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to read more.)<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Gp8ywVQN-Xg<\/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\u00a0 Mark 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":"