In the first half of the sixth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Alone<\/i>, I WAS NOT READY. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I EVEN GUESSED THAT NITA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DREAMS HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH DARRYL AND I WAS STILL SHOCKED BY THIS. Oh my god, this whole scene is just so\u00c2\u00a0good<\/i>, and I wish I could just say that and abandon this review so I could then rush off to read the second half of this chapter. I WANT TO DO IT SO BADLY. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT NITA WILL TELL KIT.<\/p>\n
But seriously, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about this dream, since it reveals a whole more about what Darryl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been going through. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna start specifically with the first thing that Darryl says out loud:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so sad,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the clown said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wish you wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Which could be read both as Darryl wishing Nita wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so sad, but also as a\u00c2\u00a0request<\/i>. Even Nita realizes that the pain she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been radiating has affected Darryl, who is overstimulated as it is by what the Lone One has been doing to him. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say she shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0feel<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0pain, of course, but somehow, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been transported to\u00c2\u00a0his<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0world, a place he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s constructed in order to deal with the Lone One and the world outside. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that incredible moment where Darryl shows her, for a brief flash, what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like to experience the world as he does. Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t an awful thing by itself, and Darryl communicates that, too:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Nita was splashed with a quick flicker-rush of images and sounds: dawns and sunsets running confusedly together, people rushing hither and yon, daily life like something that flogged you with too much light and color and detail and noise, speech that read as shouting\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 everything tangled in a rush of painful, hard-to-manage perception. But for the clown the painw as welcome, a lifeline of sorts.\u00c2\u00a0Things aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t perfect, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve hung on this long because I knew something was coming. And now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrived, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>not\u00c2\u00a0going away without a fight \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/i><\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredible, and I love that Duane doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that everything is terrible all of the time. However, I was\u00c2\u00a0crushed<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0by the fact that this all came upon Darryl without the sort of introduction that Nita and Kit got. Maybe even the Powers That Be are unprepared to deal with an autistic kid properly, because they sure as hell didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even tell Darryl that he was a wizard. As far as I could tell, he just thought that this was his life, not that it was part of a whole\u00c2\u00a0thing<\/i>, you know? He makes no mention of the Oath at any point in this conversation. He wears a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mask\u00e2\u20ac\u009d while talking to Nita, and once he sheds it (IN THE SADDEST WAY POSSIBLE,\u00c2\u00a0HELP<\/i>), the two of them begin to speak more plainly to each other. This particular exchange is what unnerved me the most:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Being out and about in a world full of cool people is the best part of being a wizard.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She swallowed. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Or just a person.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Am I a wizard?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, a little sadly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now, I initially read that as Darryl being confused by the very idea of it. He couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0possibly<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0be a wizard! Except that I think that the sadness Duane notes is meant to be a statement of inadequacy. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good enough, does he? Is there no one in his life assuring him that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s MORE than good enough? (Is that who the Shadows might be?) The fact that Darryl was already isolated from others and then given an Ordeal that would isolate him further seems so terribly unfair. And yet, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s risen to the occasion, trying his hardest to persist, to enjoy his wizardry as he discovers it, to fight the Lone Power through his ingenious method of deceiving It.<\/p>\n
I also just want him to get\u00c2\u00a0help<\/i>. This conversation was so thrilling to me because finally, he got to tell someone else a little bit of what he was going through, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big deal to me. Ah, what is Nita gonna say to Kit? How are they gonna approach him the next time? I WANT MORE, RIGHT NOW.<\/p>\n
vid<\/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 first half of the sixth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Alone, I WAS NOT READY. 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":[513,511],"class_list":["post-4063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-wizard-alone","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063","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=4063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}