In the fifteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Jingo<\/i>, I GET ANSWERS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of classism, racism<\/b>.<\/p>\n
SO MUCH JUST HAPPENED AND I AM VERY PLEASED.<\/p>\n
Solid Jackson<\/b><\/p>\n
I grew up in a boostrap household, and it was an infuriating thing to experience. Like many Americans, my parents believed in the boostrap theory \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the idea that if one pulls one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s self up by the bootsraps, you can succeed. It involves lots of hard work and suffering, and, above all else, you cannot ask for help. Self-determination is the key. On the surface, that might seem like a benign or inspiring idea, but it created a toxic environment in my home. The same goes for the society at large in my country. There is nothing more shameful than getting help, so that means you are justified in hating those people who\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0get help. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a vicious hatred of those on welfare or who receive government help of any sort. If these people just helped themselves instead of depending on someone else, then they could easily succeed. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure you can see how reductive and bizarre that is. The world is, point blank, just not that simple. Effort does not erase institutional barriers. Effort does not change external circumstances out of a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s control.<\/p>\n
And sometimes, people are just dealt a bad hand. But that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t something I was allowed to talk about. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the reason my mom was so virulently racist, despite adopting two Latinx boys. She refused to let us ever use our identity to engage with the world, and often told people that we were white. She even encouraged us to do the same on official forms or whenever people asked. (Spoiler alert: we refused to do so for the most part, and by the time we got to high school, we rebelled against her any chance we got.) Why? Why would someone do something so non-sensical? Because in her mind, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153relying\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on your race or ethnicity for anything was a sign of weakness. You weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t working hard on your own; you were\u00c2\u00a0cheating<\/i>. The only thing life rewarded was hard work and suffering and nothing else.<\/p>\n
But this manifested in other ways, too, and I felt a kinship with Les because of that. In the opening of this section, Les privately despairs at being unable to be honest with his father. He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a painter. Why? Well, not only is it something that no one in his family has been, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a\u00c2\u00a0respected<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0profession. But Pratchett takes it a step further by quietly showing us that Les is, ultimately, afraid to be himself with his father. And this whole culture of telling people to keep things to themselves, to never complain, to gain virtue through silent suffering, is a toxic and unsustainable disaster. I\u00c2\u00a0wish<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0I had learned to vocalize my problems instead of internalizing them, like I did at a very young age. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m lucky enough that I broke free from my parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 expectations of me and pursued a life that I wanted. I failed a lot during that time period (which I referenced in reviews for\u00c2\u00a0Moving Pictures<\/i>), but I\u00c2\u00a0had<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to do it.<\/p>\n
One more thing before I move on: Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s satire is remarkably vicious in this book, and it continues to thrill me. How so?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I mean, I started out with nothing, son, except that old boat that your grandad left me, but \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
THEN YOU DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T START OUT WITH NOTHING, MOTHERFUCKER. This bogus refrain is something I heard my entire life, and practically every time I heard it, it was from someone who had PLENTY OF HELP ALONG THE WAY. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a lot easier to pretend you did it all yourself, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<\/p>\n
Underneath<\/b><\/p>\n
Leshp is a FLOATING ISLAND. Because of a unique build-up of gasses and rock in this specific part of the Ocean, a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bubble\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bursts, shooting the land to the surface, which then sinks for many, many years until the bubble grows and bursts again. This would totally explain the layering that Les witnessed, too. Each time Leshp rose from the ocean, people would build on top of the existing structure.<\/p>\n
You realize what this means, right? In about a week, Leshp will sink into the ocean, and this goddamn war will truly be pointless. I mean, it was always pointless, but this is\u00c2\u00a0literally<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the case. There is no reason for it to exist.<\/p>\n
71-Hour Ahmed<\/b><\/p>\n
As if the Leshp reveal wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough, we learn of the fate of Vimes and the watchmen. Initially, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem all that great. Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempt to use the Handshake on the D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Regs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 supposed leader fails because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll let Carrot explain it:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As I understand it, sir, the D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122regs think that any leader who is stupid enough to be defeated so easily isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worth following. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Klatchian thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Pratchett, however, takes this conflict \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Ankh-Morporkians vs Klatchians \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and complicates it even further. The D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122regs are a subset of people within Klatch who truly exist separately from the rest of their own society. Culturally, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more nomadic and prone to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 crime? However you would put that. But beyond that and not having centralized leaders, they are a significant force for one major reason:<\/p>\n
They\u00c2\u00a0hate<\/i>\u00c2\u00a071-Hour Ahmed.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s here that Pratchett gives us Ahmed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full motivation for his behind-the-scenes scheming: He wants to unite\u00c2\u00a0all<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0of Klatch under one banner or ruler, and that includes the tribes like the D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122regs. Given what Pratchett demonstrates in the scenes prior to Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversation with Jabber, it made perfect sense to me. Why would they submit to a centralized leader? Thus, Ahmed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions were a grave miscalculation. He figured that the assassination attempt on a Klatchian leader would inspire the tribes in Klatch to unite to fight a common enemy. But, as Jabber puts it:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A man n a horse came and said we must fight the foreign dogs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s us, sir,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Carrot helpfully.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u201cbecause you have stolen an island that is under the sea. What what is that to us? We know no harm of you foreign devils, but the men who oil their beards in Al\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Khali we do not like. So we send him back.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not work. AHMED IS LOSING. So he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting increasingly desperate, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he??? He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to bait the D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122regs into doing what he wants, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to work, especially not with Vimes and the watchmen around.<\/p>\n
THIS IS SO GREAT.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/youtu.be\/M0wbyo3zP3Y?a<\/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. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b>
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Check 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 fifteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Jingo, I GET ANSWERS. 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":[521,463,248],"class_list":["post-4011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-jingo","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011","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=4011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}