In the first half of the eighth chapter of The Amazing Maurice<\/i>, Maurice has second thoughts. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
YESSSSS, THE GROWTH OF MAURICE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S CONSCIENCE, THIS IS GREAT. I mean, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening alongside that other<\/i> voice, which I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even comment on last time, but I SHOULD HAVE BECAUSE WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING? Why did it say Maurice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice was wrong<\/i>? I assume now that it was a reference to him being Changed, but how would this thing<\/i> even know that? And why is it living in that horrible place full of rats and suffering??? Because I recall that Maurice thought that something or someone was hiding among the boxes in that room, and it can read their minds<\/i>? ALL OF THEM, FOR THE RECORD. I made the same mistake as Maurice and assumed that this was only happening to him. Why would anyone else experience it??? That made no sense, right?<\/p>\n
WRONG. SO WRONG. And of course, this is just what I needed on top of everything else: another mystery<\/i>. That being said, I feel like I maybe do<\/i> have enough to put this together. The whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rat coursing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing would absolutely explain why the rat catchers are hoarding rats. The more of them that they have, the more fights they can stage and the more intense those fights might be. Admittedly, this is a complicated means of achieving that, and the whole theft of food bit is mystifying and enraging. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re starving people so they can gamble on rats, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve artificially created a situation where the people of Bad Blintz have to LITERALLY RATION THEIR FOOD. And for what? A monopoly on rats? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so CRUEL.<\/p>\n
So Maurice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempts at either self-interest or neutrality struck me as cruel as well, and I loved that the book framed the text in a similar manner. Granted, I totally understood his instantaneous need to GET THE FUCK OUT OF THAT ROOM. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not lost on me, though, that upon escaping, Maurice is covered in filth. It felt metaphorical as well as literal. If he was going to choose to save himself, he was going to get a little dirty along the way. And one he coincidentally runs into Darktan, Peaches, and Dangerous Beans, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let him off the hook, either. (Well, poor little Dangerous Beans can only see the good in Maurice and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to notice that Maurice was trying to escape.) Darktan is subtly sarcastic at first, as was Peaches, and then OH LORD, DOES HE EVER LET IT RIP.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care a ferret\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shrlt<\/i> for humans!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d snapped Darktan. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But those rat catchers took Hamnpork off in a cage! You saw that room, cat! You saw the rats crammed in cages! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the rat catchers<\/i> who are stealing the food! Sardines says there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sacks and sacks of of food!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Maurice does not come to his sense of his own accord. He has to be shamed<\/i> into considering others. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a necessary part of the story, though, because as I said earlier, Maurice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inaction is offensive to the rats. After all, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it Maurice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fault they even came<\/i> to Bad Blintz? They all wanted to quit, to explore what it means to be part of a Clan\u00c2\u00a0 on an island separate from humans and keekees<\/i>. Yet Maurice pressured them into one more con, and LOOK WHAT HAPPENED. Maurice ignored all the red flags, and he pushed them to keep on keepin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on, and NOW EVERYTHING IS A NIGHTMARE. So, Maurice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uncaring, disinterested nature really doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work for the rats anymore, does it? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no money to be made here, no fears to exploit. The rat catchers have Hamnpork and WHO KNOWS HOW MANY OTHERS.<\/p>\n
As if this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t upsetting enough, Dangerous Beans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s epiphany about the Changed rats was WAY TOO MUCH FOR ME. How does Pratchett keep giving me emotions about rats??? I did not wake up today expecting this, but HERE WE ARE, FRIENDS. Oh my god, when it came right down to it, that Voice and the fear turned all the rats into rats. They weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to transcend their programming, so to speak, even if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so very different every other time. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a similar struggle to Hamnpork and Maurice, who are both fighting against their natures. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I never realized until now how similar Hamnpork and Maurice are. HELP, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TOO REAL.<\/p>\n
But this whole book is. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way more real than I expected for a parody of a fairy tale. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why life is so complicated: because of thinking. Because of that voice in our heads that tells us what to do or what not to do. Because we live in a world with other people who are just as complicated as we are, and because the first step we need to take in making this a livable place is to accept<\/i> that other people live here, too. A little empathy can go a long way, and Maurice continues to struggle with that emotion, given that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never experienced it until he ate Additives the rat, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d already been Changed. This is his life now, and life is hard<\/i>.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/dAiyaiWcaiM<\/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":"
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