{"id":4305,"date":"2017-09-06T05:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4305"},"modified":"2017-09-03T12:16:36","modified_gmt":"2017-09-03T19:16:36","slug":"mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-epigraphchapter-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2017\/09\/mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-epigraphchapter-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Science of Discworld’: Epigraph\/Chapter 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first chapter of The Science of Discworld<\/i>, HERE WE GO. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n

This is going to be very strange, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? I do enjoy a good challenge, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been lucky enough over the past eight years of Mark Does Stuff (HOW HAS IT BEEN EIGHT YEARS) that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten to review things that challenged me. Like, I remember how hard it was to write about Band of Brothers<\/i>, or the weird thing I did for The Princess Bride<\/i>. I realized pretty quickly into the introduction for this book that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to have to try something different in terms of how I think about reviewing this. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not used to a book addressing the reader or\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, outright telling me what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to do. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S WEIRD. DID THIS BOOK SPOIL ME.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m kidding, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m kidding! But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a level of meta required of me because The Science of Discworld <\/i>is framed in a way that acknowledges that it is a story. And books don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t usually do that, right? They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a story about these things, and here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna go. While it was easy to immerse myself in the actual first chapter, that was mostly because it was familiar<\/i>. I knew these characters, I knew this world, but I was not<\/i> used to the\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 science? Sort of?<\/p>\n

What I think will be fun about this is the blurring of the lines between the two ideas, especially since that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something Pratchett has been great at throughout these books anyway. Parody and social commentary sit alongside one another; satire of fantasy and actually<\/i> good fantasy stories exist in the same book. So why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153science\u00e2\u20ac\u009d within the Discworld? And as much as I find the wizards a bit stale these days, I actually think that this group of argumentative weirdos is well-suited for an exploration of scientific principals through the lens of Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sense of humor. Look at what little we get here, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and I just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 maybe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my love for The Princess Bride<\/i> and the way the film entertained me when I was younger. I find interruptions to be, like, the pinnacle of comedy. I REALLY DO. I love it when a person can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell a story or get to the point because someone else is asking the worst (or best???) questions imaginable, and if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this entire book? COUNT ME THE FUCK IN. And these characters are designed for that because THEY\u00e2\u20ac\u2122VE BEEN LIVING THAT EXACT DYNAMIC SINCE THE START OF THE SERIES.<\/p>\n

What I am unprepared for the most, however, will be\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, whatever the science parts are? COSMIC DISASTERS AND DINOSAURS, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Am I gonna learn things in front of y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all??? GIVE ME ALL THE KNOWLEDGE. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a cool idea because I have literally no idea what the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153science\u00e2\u20ac\u009d chapters will be like outside of the hints the authors gave me. So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 geography maybe? Travel? Will they be analyzing the possibility of certain things that have happened in Discworld<\/i>? Or telling tangential stories?<\/p>\n

This is gonna be real weird. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad each of you get to join me on this journey.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/DjNrKBp8NSY<\/p>\n

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

-\u00c2\u00a0Please visit my new site 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 my fiction releases.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"