{"id":4143,"date":"2017-03-30T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4143"},"modified":"2017-03-29T19:05:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T02:05:23","slug":"mark-reads-the-fifth-elephant-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2017\/03\/mark-reads-the-fifth-elephant-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Fifth Elephant’: Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third part of\u00c2\u00a0The Fifth Elephant<\/i>, Vimes does more research to prepare for his trip to Uberwald. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of xenophobia<\/b>.<\/p>\n

This honestly feels like the most richly detailed\u00c2\u00a0start<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to a\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0book, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m loving it. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DISCUSS.<\/p>\n

Dwarf Politics<\/b><\/p>\n

I sensed that Pratchett was deliberately drawing parallels to historical complaints and realities of immigration in the UK, and if he were alive today to hear the absolute trash that is\u00c2\u00a0thriving<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0in the public discourse, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d hate it. WHAT WORLD HAVE WE SLIPPED INTO. (The one we built for ourselves, of course.) Here, Vimes does his due diligence in talking to Corporal Littlebottom and Detritus\u00c2\u00a0before<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0they accompany him to Uberwald.<\/p>\n

And y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, THE INFORMATION REVEALED TO US. I do love thoughtful worldbuilding, and this book has done wonders to explain dwarfen culture\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s changed since we were first introduced to it. (Which was mostly in Carrot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first book, if I recall correctly. The fact that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s asking questions is a fantastic start because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, honestly? A lot of people travel internationally without doing any research at all. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak to non-American travelers (though on my recent trip, I met a lot people who swear there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a contingent of young British men who travel the world and ruin\u00c2\u00a0everything<\/i>), so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll stick with what I have seen time and time again: Americans are not trained to ask questions. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not! We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re taught an authoritarian style of history of the world, meaning that everything is told through a specific (American) lens, and we are not to question it. Thus, we show up to countries and are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d already, so we will demand things based on this terrible, terrible education.<\/p>\n

I have watched an American demand to know why he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go to Versailles free. Or another young man ask why they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t warn him in advance that he shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wear flip-flops. (Honest-to-gods, he wanted to be\u00c2\u00a0contacted in advance.<\/i>) Or there was the young woman who complained that her view of the Eiffel Tower from her hotel wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that great because it was cloudy one night so clearly the tower was bogus. Or there was the American I met in Oslo who said it was unfair that the McDonald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have American food. (!!!!!!!!!) Or the American I met in York who said that York wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cool because they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any skyscrapers. (WHAT THE FUCK I STILL DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T GET THIS ONE.)<\/p>\n

So lemme just say: thank you for trying to learn something\u00c2\u00a0first<\/i>, Sam Vimes. It does matter! As I said in the video for this section, I was treated distinctly different than a lot of Americans because I\u00c2\u00a0tried<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to speak French and always greeted people when I spoke with them. Yes, my French was terrible, but people appreciate it when you make an attempt!<\/p>\n

Anyway, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about DWARF IMMIGRANTS. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fascinated that the same sort discourse is pouring out of Ankh-Morpork that most of us have heard before. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that the only point of contention I have with this is the dichotomy that Pratchett sets up between those dwarfs who do assimilate \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who tend to be the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153liberal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ones, as Littlebottom puts it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that line is as clear cut in the immigrant communities I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lived in or been a part of. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually a decent amount of more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153liberal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d immigrants who fiercely want to maintain their own culture as a way of refusing to let themselves feel homogenized into the more dominant culture. That being said, I understood what Pratchett was trying to do here, and it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t detract from the point he was trying to make. In essence, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a\u00c2\u00a0huge<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0cultural divide both in Ankh-Morpork and within Uberwald, all based on this idea of cultural purity. Who is a\u00c2\u00a0real<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0dwarf? Who gets to decide that? Thus, a Low King who more or less supports on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153side\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or the other was\u00c2\u00a0always<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0going to cause controversy.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating to me because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting this through Littlebottom, who sought out her own happiness and freedom from a culture that told her she could dress a certain way or behave a certain way or demand to be referred in terms that respected her. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make her any less of a dwarf! Of course, that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t negate the complicated feelings she has. Look, I relate to this a lot as some who is Latinx by birth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c born to parents who were from different parts of Central America, a mixture of Mexican, Salvadore\u00c3\u00b1o, and Guatemalan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a transracial adoptee, my culture\u00c2\u00a0growing up<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is complicated. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very real part of immigrant communities, especially since my father was an undocumented immigrant. (Who promptly returned to Mexico once he found out my biological mother was pregnant. GREAT.) What would my life have been like if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been raised by him? Hell, my upbringing was complicated even without him! My initial foster parents were Latinx, and they spoke Spanish to my brother and I. By the time we got adopted and then started speaking, WE HAD ACCENTS. (You can still hear my brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s; mine is mostly gone.) So does that mean we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re less Latinx because of this? Because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to teach ourselves the sloppy Spanish that we do know? That our cultural practices were mostly born of the\u00c2\u00a0friends<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0we had as opposed to our own families?<\/p>\n

As you can see, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very complicated, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really pleased that thus far,\u00c2\u00a0The Fifth Elephant\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>is inspiring me to talk about it.<\/p>\n

Uberwald Certainty<\/b><\/p>\n

So, Lady Margolotta new Vimes would be sent. I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T GET IT. Okay, so she dated Vetinari long ago, I get\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>. But why keep tabs on who Ankh-Morpork would send as their ambassador? Why does it matter so much that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Vimes? When we got the point of view from Angua\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 actually, first of all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very, very obvious why she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go home. HER FAMILY IS INTENSE, OH MY GOD. But Serafine is\u00c2\u00a0furious<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0that Vimes is being sent. Not only is he an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153insult,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d apparently, but she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to like Sybil Ramkin at all. Wolfgang remarks at one point that Vimes might \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ruin everything,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which also confuses me. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got plans for him\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 which are to be chased by werewolves??? THIS SEEMS BAD, I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T TRUST THEM.<\/p>\n

Preparations<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure a lot of these smaller details matter in the lead up to Vimes and company leaving from Ankh-Morpork. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a\u00c2\u00a0lot<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0of information given to us from Carrot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversation with Vimes about what happened in the city overnight. The murder of a condom-producer provided a laugh or two, but the most significant detail was Angua\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disappearance. Did she head home first to beat everyone there? That was my initial thought because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, maybe she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want tos hock her parents with her arrival. At the same time, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0always<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0had anxiety about being a werewolf, especially while in a relationship. So maybe she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0going?<\/p>\n

Leonard<\/b><\/p>\n

I AM SO LOST. Lord Vetinari using Leonard to break ciphers? Makes perfect sense. Having Leonard create a way to cipher Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letters so they remain unbroken? Even more sense. But asking him to make them hard but not impossible to break is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 perplexing. So he\u00c2\u00a0wants<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0people to think they broke through the Patrician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s codes??? I suppose that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the sort of logic Vetinari is known for, but\u00c2\u00a0why<\/i>? What is he plotting?<\/p>\n

I know I made a big deal of this in the video, but: VETINARI WAS GENUINELY SHOCKED BY SOMETHING. Who expected that??? Margolotta was one step ahead of Vetinari, THIS IS A WORLD RECORD.<\/p>\n

So many pieces to this story already, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/youtu.be\/gtQp_kxCAhY?a<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

-\u00c2\u00a0In the very near future, these are going away. Please visit my new site that will act as a portal for all announcements<\/a>. If you’d rather not have to rely on checking a website regularly, sign up for my newsletter instead<\/a>! This will cover all news for Mark Reads, Mark Watches, and Mark’s fiction career.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"