In the twentieth and final chapter of\u00c2\u00a0The Wizard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dilemma<\/i>, Nita begins to come to terms with her choices. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of death<\/b>.<\/p>\n
This is not how I expected this book to end.<\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take Duane for a grim writer, and I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m saying that while having only read maybe a tenth of her body of work. But there\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0a hope in the\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0books, even if terrible things happen, even if people I love died, even if things don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go the way I want them to. You can see that all over \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dawn,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a chapter about possibility and dreaming of the value of life.<\/p>\n
Yet I admit that my perception of\u00c2\u00a0The Wizard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dilemma<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0changed as I read it. First, the real \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dilemma\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was hidden from me, so I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite tell what this book was about. Then, once it was clear that Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cancer would consume the main plot, I still held out the hope that she would be cured by it. However, Duane took this story to a very dark and uncomfortable place. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easy to read about Nita getting so close to choosing an extension on her mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life over her own wizardry. It was during that time that I began to seriously consider that Nita would fail against the Lone One and that Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother would die in this book. I actually felt it was certain to happen, especially once she presented herself in the last chapter.<\/p>\n
Duane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice to hang Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death over our heads is bold. It allows hope to foster\u00c2\u00a0in spite<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0of all the pain, and it works as a wonderful metaphor for life. Nita could never have stopped her mother from dying. While her wizardry bought her some time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c time which she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly going to use to get as close to her mom as she can \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the inevitable is still there. Her mother will die, it will hurt, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just how life works. Now, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not always a big fan of hearing shit like that. I bristle whenever someone says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just how the world is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d No, because we could\u00c2\u00a0change<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0it if we just tried!<\/p>\n
Yet this cannot be changed. And instead of this coming off as a condescending reminder of that, Duane uses Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dream with her mother to put forth the idea that our work here, in this life and this world, will matter. Their time together matters. Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work and her faith\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>in that work will help guide her to the place her mother is headed, which might very well be Timeheart.<\/p>\n
WHICH MEANS I MUST ALSO PUBLICLY SUPPORT THE IDEA THAT NITA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S MOM BECAME A WIZARD BECAUSE OF HER EXPERIENCE AGAINST THE LONE ONE. Like??!?!?!? THIS IS THE COOLEST IDEA, OKAY. I love it, I think it totally works as character development for her, and the canon\u00c2\u00a0appears<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to support this theory. She fought the Lone One! She defeated it in a way that led to her\u00c2\u00a0banishing It from her body.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>(Not the cancer, mind you, but the physical manifestation of It.) Who else has ever done that???<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been thinking lots about death lately. And legacies. And what sort of world I want to leave behind when I go. There are some days when my thoughts turn dire, and who can blame me? Look at what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening in my country right now. As the days dwindle away, as we get closer to that damn inauguration, I fear a lot of things. Which is precisely why this message felt so appropriate to me. Duane does not urge Nita to simply give up and wait until she dies so she can see her mother again. The final chapter of\u00c2\u00a0The Wizard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dilemma<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0posits that Nita should thrive in the face of pain and loss because each day is a chance to prove that life is worth living:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way out of it, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s enjoy every day. Heaven only knows what may happen afterward, but they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take away from us what we make, one day at a time, just all of us together. That, we keep.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Experiences are unique. Singular. Owned. They are ours! Yes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be difficult for Nita to keep the faith, but part of me believes that this is why Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother appears in her daughter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dream. Initially, I thought it was her way of saying goodbye, and that Duane was ending this book with her death. Instead, I can see how Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother can spend this time fortifying Nita for the future. Building up her defenses. Giving her memories and experiences she can treasure once she passes away. Reminding her daily what a beautiful thing it is to be alive.<\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always feel that way, but you know what? Today, that was a great reminder, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thankful for it.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FkW816H_-Mo<\/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> In the twentieth and final chapter of\u00c2\u00a0The Wizard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dilemma, Nita begins to come to terms with her choices. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[520,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-4031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-wizards-dilemma","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031","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=4031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\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":"