In the fifteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Carpe Jugulum<\/i>, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe Pratchett has me interested in vampires again. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The Magpyrs<\/b><\/p>\n
SERIOUSLY THIS IS GENUINELY FASCINATING. Let me start with the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153modern\u00e2\u20ac\u009d vampires before we get into the glimpse of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153traditional\u00e2\u20ac\u009d vampires that Igor gives us. The idea that vampires have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153adapted\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to prolong their lives by shedding their stereotypical flaws is SO FUNNY TO ME, except that Pratchett finds a really creepy way to make this a reality. Like, yes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely hilarious that this is an honest-to-gods line in this book:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is Morbidia,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Vlad. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Although she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been calling herself Tracy lately, to be cool.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I cherish it. I really do. But the text swings from this moment to talk of how these vampires feed. Vlad\u00c2\u00a0insists<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0that Agnes has it all wrong, that she is full of misconceptions of how they get sustenance. Instead, he is certain that once she sees life in Escrow, the town they came from, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll agree that vampires and humans can live in peace.<\/p>\n
But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all a ruse, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? That peace is\u00c2\u00a0relative<\/i>. (Which is later referenced in the conversation that Granny and Oats have about religion.) To them, it looks like peace; could you say the same from the humans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 perspective? How is it peaceful to control people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s minds? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an act of violence, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, but these vampyres conveniently don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see it that way. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not even sure that they believe it, so much as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all posturing for Agnes. They want a world where they lord over everyone \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lesser\u00e2\u20ac\u009d than them. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want peace at all, unless you consider \u00e2\u20ac\u0153peace\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to mean that they never want anyone contradicting them\u00c2\u00a0ever<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Faith<\/b><\/p>\n
Of all books, \u00c2\u00a0didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0one to host a rather intense conversation about faith and religion. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an integral part of Oats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization, though, and his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dual\u00e2\u20ac\u009d mind is specifically because of his complicated experiences with Omnianism. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relevant to this book for a number of reasons. I said before that adaptation is a huge theme of\u00c2\u00a0Carpe Jugulum<\/i>, and I would argue that this long scene is evidence of that.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem that way at first. Granny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prodding of Oats felt a bit more like her chance to poke fun at his beliefs in that way Granny does. She sees silliness and she goes after it, usually in a quiet, biting way. Add to this the unfortunate history of Omnians and witches, and I really wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t surprised that Granny decided to say something. What\u00c2\u00a0did<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0surprise me was how intense and personal this got. VERY QUICKLY. It goes from light talk about a song to the heinous nature of ascribing sin to human beings:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no grays, only white that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got grubby. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m surprised you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what sin is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n OH, THE WAYS IN WHICH I LOVE THIS. You can blame my strict Christian upbringing and my conversion to Catholicism for my feelings on this, but Granny nails it on the head. It was one of a few things that, at the end of my schooling to become Catholic, I simply could not wrap my mind around. Granted, the Catholic church has a very specific and rigorous interpretation \u00c2\u00a0of sin, so that certainly plays a part in it. But original sin\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accept it. How could I be asked to be responsible for what two people did long, long ago? How was I expected to accept the deck stacked against me as\u00c2\u00a0fair<\/i>? In those moments, I felt like an object, a thing, a vessel in which hundreds of thousands of years of guilt had been poured into me, and it seemed so\u00c2\u00a0wrong<\/i>. Even worse, I was gay, and I knew it, and\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0sin was the most unforgivable of them all! Nevermind that I saw people do heinous things all the time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c many in the name of the Catholic church \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and yet, their sins weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t as bad as the one I held, which hurt\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, no one.<\/p>\n Anyway, getting off my soapbox, I loved that Granny got Oats to this part, then backed down herself: this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about telling people what the believe\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 as long as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they act decent.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I like that\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less about the content of a belief and more of what a person\u00c2\u00a0does<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0with that belief. How do they treat others? What laws do they enact or help to enact? Who is helped and who is ignored? In the end, Granny doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t turn to religion because she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel compelled to. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already got a hot water bottle, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. But just because Oats does \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or anyone else, for that matter \u00e2\u20ac\u201c doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make him less of a person. She just cares what he\u00c2\u00a0does<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0with that religion.<\/p>\n And Oats adapts. I guessed the ending scene once Oats started looking for dry twigs, but that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dilute how powerful it was to watch him realize that he could use his\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>copy of\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>the\u00c2\u00a0Book of Om<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0for something else: a great light.<\/p>\n Traditionalists<\/b><\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been firmly established that Igor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rebellion against the Magpyrs is\u00c2\u00a0because<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0they adapted. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s used to a certain kind of arrangement with his master, and the Count refuses to provide him with that. In one sense, Igor is a walking trope and\u00c2\u00a0he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proud of it<\/i>. He misses the days when the head vampire treated hunting humans like a fair sport. That is a strange sentence that I just typed, but you know what? THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S WHAT HE BELIEVES. I just love how much we learn about what the vampires\u00c2\u00a0used<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to be like before the Magpyrs changed everything. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 hyper aware of how trope-y they are??? And are totally cool with that!!! In fact,\u00c2\u00a0that I pride I spoke of extends to the work that the previous master did.<\/p>\n BUT ALSO I WANT TO NOT BE SERIOUS FOR A MOMENT BECAUSE SCRAPS IS MY FAVORITE AND WHAT A GREAT NAME AND I AM SURE THAT THEY\u00e2\u20ac\u2122RE A GOOD DOGGIE AND\u00c2\u00a0WHAT A GREAT SURPRISE IN THIS SECTION.<\/b>\u00c2\u00a0Sorry not sorry, I love dogs of ALL TYPES.<\/p>\n Anyway, one last thing:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Being killed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing to a vampire,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Nanny. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They always find a way of coming back. Everyone knows that, who knows anything about vampires. If they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not\u00c2\u00a0too<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0hard to kill and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all a bit of an adventure for people, well, like as not they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just stake him or chuck him in the river and go home. Then he has a nice restful decade or so, bein\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dead, and comes back from the grace and away he goes again. That way he never gets totally wiped out and the lads of the village get some healthy exercise.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This system is exactly what the Magpyrs want to avoid, namely the part where they die. The way Nanny describes this, it actually sounds a lot more pleasant, at least in comparison to what the Magpyrs want. I mean, getting hunted by vampires isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fun\u00c2\u00a0period<\/i>, but you know, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better than the system these new age vampyres have set up. In the end, it feels like they want power more than anything else. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what fuels them, what motivates them to dominate cities like Escrow and Lancre.<\/p>\n And I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to see how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get taken down.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SUqn2p4ffJY<\/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 fifteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Carpe Jugulum, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe Pratchett has me interested in vampires again. 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":[526,463,248],"class_list":["post-4126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-carpe-jugulum","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4126","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=4126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4126"}],"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":"