{"id":4357,"date":"2017-10-30T05:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4357"},"modified":"2017-10-29T09:53:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-29T16:53:51","slug":"mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-chapters-30-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2017\/10\/mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-chapters-30-31\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Science of Discworld’: Chapters 30 – 31"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters of The Science of Discworld<\/i>, we learn of the power of random chance. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

You know, I struggled with the idea of chance a lot when I was younger, namely because I was taught that everything<\/i> happened for a reason. That sort of determinism was a huge part of my upbringing. God always had a plan for me! And whether I cared about it or not, he<\/i> cared. Which is a strange thing to deal with when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also<\/i> told that there were certain things you had to do in order to avoid going to Hell. If God planned for me to end up in Heaven, then why did I need to do anything? The reverse was, of course, more horrifying: Had God doomed me to Hell by making me gay. Obviously, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that anymore, but when random chance affected my life, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think<\/i> of it as chance. I assumed it was all on purpose. I deserved<\/i> what happened to me because everything happened for a reason!<\/p>\n

Thankfully, I abandoned this line of thinking, and while negative twists of chance are frustrating, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because it sucks to realize that there are huge things in life out of our control. Since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m such an independent person, at least I can blame things that are my fault on myself! But when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s outside, external forces that I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have seen coming? OH, IT FUCKS ME UP. At the same time, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found empowerment in this. One of the main themes that you can pull from the Roundworld chapter here is that evolution isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a sentient, ordered process or being. It just happens<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s random. And selection happens without any real input from anything, too! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a god or a spirit sitting there deciding what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best or who deserves to live. The process is uncaring, and its biased only in the sense of what element is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153selected\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to live on.<\/p>\n

But that uncaring nature is exactly what feels freeing. If the universe doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about me \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if these forces are often random and meaningless \u00e2\u20ac\u201c then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a blank slate. I get to choose<\/i> what meaning anything has, and sometimes? That means I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m perfectly fine with it having no<\/i> meaning.<\/p>\n

I imagine that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also why the wizards are struggling so much with a world that lacks narrativium. Even I can admit that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much easier to want to believe that there is<\/i> meaning in everything. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing wrong with it! Thus, each new twist in the Project becomes frustrating because there seems to be no sense to it all. Species evolve, civilizations appear to be forming, THE CRABS ARE AT WAR, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. And then? All wiped out in a second by yet another<\/i> extinction. How is there any sense in that?<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not. Sort of the point, really. Shit just happens<\/i>. What I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious about is what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen when something resembling humanity starts to evolve. What the hell are the wizards going to do then<\/i>???<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/s2W7vK9oM7Q<\/p>\n

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

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"