In the twentieth part of\u00c2\u00a0Jingo<\/i>, all THREE sides facedown in the desert. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of racism and war.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
THERE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S JUST SO MUCH GOING ON HERE, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Jokes on jokes wrapped in social commentary on top of parodies, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s AWESOME.<\/p>\n
Expectations<\/b><\/p>\n
Even if Pratchett is criticizing war as a whole, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still room for him to poke fun at the way that Ankh-Morporkians view the rest of the world. In a very literal interpretation, Prince Cadram shows the other side just how absurd they are:<\/p>\n
After some hurried discussion a sword was handed up very gingerly, handle first. The prince peered at it, and then licked it with theatrical care. The watching soldiers laughed.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said at last. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, I have to say that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel the least apprehensive. Is this as cold as steel gets?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
YES. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS SEQUENCE. Much of what follows it is in the same vein: Prince Cadram criticizes practically everything that constitutes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153moral\u00e2\u20ac\u009d warfare because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0war<\/i>. Why butter it up? Why portray it as some moral right? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0violence<\/i>, plain and simple, and wrapping it up in pomp and ceremony doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t negate its brutality. The irony, of course, is that people like Tacticus and Cadram don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how their empire-building and colonialism is of the exact same brutality. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a long section in which Cadram internally whines about how\u00c2\u00a0hard<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0it is to maintain an empire, and how he just\u00c2\u00a0wishes<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0people would understand him.<\/p>\n
Pratchett plays with expectations. He has Cadram subvert what the Ankh-Morporkians expect of their opponent. The scene where he taunts the Morporkians with Klatchian is a great example of that! But then surprises me by criticizing imperialism through Cadram. As I said in the opening of this, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so much depth in what Pratchett pulls of in this book. I LOVE IT.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Make-Things-Bigger device, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Lord Rust. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My word, you\u00c2\u00a0are<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0up to date. They were invented only last year.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy this, my lord. I inherited it from my grandfather\u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
THIS IS MY FAVORITE SINGLE JOKE IN THE WHOLE SECTION, MAYBE THE WHOLE BOOK. In\u00c2\u00a0general<\/i>, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy for history to get mythologized, for stories to form about where things came from, and for people to believe it willingly without ever considering if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true. In a specific instance, we see how Lord Rust is surprised that the Klatchians have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153modern\u00e2\u20ac\u009d technology. The joke? The Klatchians\u00c2\u00a0invented<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153modern\u00e2\u20ac\u009d telescope, but Rust is just too prejudiced to ever believe that. THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME, and not just along racial lines, either! But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great example of an insidious behavior that often isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t addressed.<\/p>\n
Surrender<\/b><\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what I imagined was in that cylinder, but it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get there in a second, but let me just have a moment to appreciate the sheer brilliance of this: Vimes arrests\u00c2\u00a0an entire army<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0in this section. Not the leader, not just one battalion, THE ENTIRE FUCKING THING. Is it funny? No, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0hilarious<\/i>. The idea is so absurd that I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but be amused by it. Yet Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice to have Vimes, with Ahmed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s support, arrest these people is indicative of a much more serious message: Cadram is a warmonger and an attempted murderer. Rust and his men may have been following tradition in Ankh-Morpork, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re now part of a crime. A big one, which is why Vimes gets so discouraged towards the end of this section. This is one of\u00c2\u00a0the<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Big Ones, a crime against more than just a single person or even a group of them. All of these people were complicit in Cadram\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan, even if that was\u00c2\u00a0technically\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>unknown on the part of the Morporkians. But can ignorance be used here to excuse their behavior, their thirst for vengeance, their xenophobia?<\/p>\n
I love it. DEARLY. Yes, it kind of falls apart once Vimes realizes he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not quite sure how he can pull off the arrest\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0charge Prince Cadram with attempted murder. Look, I get why Vimes is disappointed by the Patricians complete surrender to Klatch, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s missing a vital piece of information: Leshp is going to sink again. VERY SOON. So what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to come of a peace treaty signed on an island that won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist? Is it still going to be valid? Is that Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan???<\/p>\n
I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m close to the final few pieces, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want that to invalidate the feelings that Vimes is going through. Not only does he feel like Vetinari took something important from him, but he just listened to his Dis-Organizer announce ALL OF THEIR DEATHS FROM THE ALTERNATE TIMELINE. If Vimes had stayed in Ankh-Morpork, things would have been utterly worse. His presence in Klatch was\u00c2\u00a0literally\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>lifesaving. War would have come to his home, and they all would have died.<\/p>\n
Maybe he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll figure out Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manipulations soon, but for now\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 lord, this was super disturbing. I do not like the idea that they all died, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad Vimes made the decision to chase after Angua.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=10fhPk89PUM<\/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 twentieth part of\u00c2\u00a0Jingo, all THREE sides facedown in the desert. 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-4025","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\/4025","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=4025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}