In the first half of the third chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Alone<\/i>, Kit and Ponch try to track down Darryl. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lots to talk about today!<\/p>\n
Family<\/b><\/p>\n
One thing I adore about genre fiction \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from speculative to sci-fi to fantasy and plenty of things in between \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is the way in which these works can often inspire me to ask, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What if?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I love thought experiments; I love to imagine alternate scenarios. I say that at the start of this review because Duane has me asking this question.\u00c2\u00a0What if?<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0What if a wizard was in a family who\u00c2\u00a0didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0accept them and their wizardry?<\/p>\n
As I said on video, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been lucky in that Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family and Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family have, on the whole, been accepting of their wizardly children. There have certainly been disagreements and odd spots, but both these characters have loving parents who are willing to accept their children for who they are and what they can do. What I appreciate about this series, though, is that Duane still gives us various takes on this. In this chapter in particular, Kit thinks about how cool his younger sister, Carmela, has been about wizardry, which is in contrast to the things his older sister has said and done.<\/p>\n
Duane invokes a very specific reaction in Helena, Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s older sister: she initially believes that he may have made a deal with the devil. And in a lot of Latino\/Hispanic communities, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a\u00c2\u00a0real<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0belief for them. I thought it was neat that Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parents didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe this, but someone\u00c2\u00a0else<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0in the family did. This is where the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What if?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bit came in, though. Helena more or less came around to accepting Kit, though she did so from a distance. What if she outright rejected him? What if she believed he was Satanic or evil and started telling others? Duane gives us a piece of an answer:<\/p>\n
The thought of telling someone you loved that you were a wizard, and then discovering that he or she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t handle it and would have to have the memory removed, made Kit shudder.<\/p>\n
So, is there, like, a whole\u00c2\u00a0process<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0for this? Does a wizard have to file a complaint or request, or do other wizards get a notification about it? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fascinated by this choice because wizards are all about\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0lying to the world, and hiding this from someone feels like it would be a last resort. Yet wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t this also torment a wizard who couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t share their life with those they cared about? Look, if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind the metaphor analysis, you could read wizardry as a metaphor for sexuality, which is a frequent thing in the genre. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t control having wizardry, though admittedly this analogy falls apart because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no \u00e2\u20ac\u0153test\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to take to prove you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re gay or queer. Still, the point I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trying to make is that I distanced myself from those who could not accept me for who I am. Yes, it was a healthy choice, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not fun to sever friendships or family members. So how does\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0work for wizards?<\/p>\n
Darryl<\/b><\/p>\n
All this led me to Darryl, and I wondered what his life was like with his own parents or siblings, if he had any. At this point, we know so very little about him other than that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on Ordeal, he is autistic, and that something or someone is preventing him from finishing his Ordeal. Thus, I felt thrilled by the events in this chapter. Darryl is a mystery, and Ponch and Kit are on the case.<\/p>\n
And lord, is this a complex one. Without talking to Darryl, all they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got is a sense for what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening. Ponch in particular is the one to realize that the Lone One has been pursuing Darryl for a\u00c2\u00a0long\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>time, well before his Ordeal. But on top of that, Ponch keeps insisting that Darryl is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as if his consciousness is somewhere else. I loved the theory that he had retreated into his internal landscape because he was overstimulated, but what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested to see is how all of this\u00c2\u00a0also<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0relates to the Lone One. Is the Lone One going after Darryl\u00c2\u00a0because<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re autistic? Because they want Darryl to fail their Ordeal?<\/p>\n
And what does Ponch mean when he says the\u00c2\u00a0have<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153go the way he went.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Why do they need to track Darryl without shortcuts? Is there some meaning in that? I ask because an eight to ten mile hike through sand dunes is not an easy thing. I hope Kit has water in his claudication pocket.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ki5deCOG6N4<\/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 first half of the third chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Alone, Kit and Ponch try to track down Darryl. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards.\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":[523,510],"tags":[511],"class_list":["post-4050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-wizard-alone","category-young-wizards","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4050","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=4050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4050"}],"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":"