{"id":4436,"date":"2018-01-22T05:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4436"},"modified":"2018-01-21T14:15:56","modified_gmt":"2018-01-21T22:15:56","slug":"mark-reads-the-amazing-maurice-and-his-educated-rodents-chapter-10-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/01\/mark-reads-the-amazing-maurice-and-his-educated-rodents-chapter-10-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents’: Chapter 10, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first half of the tenth chapter of The Amazing Maurice, <\/i>I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T BELIEVE HOW MANY EMOTIONS I AM FEELING. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so much here! ALL THE TIME. This book never stops!<\/p>\n

Maurice<\/b><\/p>\n

His struggle with trying to manage having a conscience is just SO SATISFYING TO ME. I know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing surprising to state at this point, but chapter ten opens with a funny\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut still realistic\u00e2\u20ac\u201dview of what this experience might look like. Maurice has moved beyond his initial concerns and now struggles with what his future might look like. Does he help the other rats, or does he abandon it all to take care of himself? And how does that<\/i> future look? His plan to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153become\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a black cat who uses money to seem lucky is brilliant, but he also doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to think about all the steps he would need to take to get<\/i> to that point. Indeed, his current predicament is pretty bad as it is, you know?<\/p>\n

And then he finds the rats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 copy of Mr. Bunnsy<\/i>, and y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, that image ALONE was a lot to handle. Their book means SO MUCH TO THEM.<\/p>\n

Which is why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so upsetting that immediately after finding this book, the Rat King invades Maurice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind. I AM TERRIFIED OF THE RAT KING, OKAY. I am very nervous about seeing<\/i> it in the text??? I kind of don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to??? Look, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very easy, at this point, to assume the worst, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna be horrifying. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M NOT READY.<\/p>\n

Hamnpork<\/b><\/p>\n

HE WAS THE MOST UNLIKABLE OF THE RATS AND I CAN BARELY FATHOM HOW SAD I WAS ABOUT ALL OF THIS. His transformation is rapid, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also logical<\/i>. I believed it by the end, you know? After going through so much in such a short time, he came to understand not everything<\/i>, but that the world for the Changed rats was much different than the one he started in. He was still very much a rat when he died, but he inhabited a complicated space, too. He wanted to die as a rat did\u00e2\u20ac\u201din the darkness\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut he also died aware that the clan of rats that he belonged to had achieved many things that were previously impossible. His rescue alone<\/i> was revolutionary, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something that could have happened if they had remained rats. But his death is also a tragedy. How much more change would we have seen had he survived? Had he not gone through something so traumatic? Yes, he had lived a long life (for a rat), but there was still so much potential for him.<\/p>\n

And now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gone. AND NOW I HAVE FEELINGS ABOUT A RAT.<\/p>\n

Sardines<\/b><\/p>\n

RATS GIVING POLITICAL ADVICE TO ONE ANOTHER!!! How is this real?!?!? Again, Pratchett does a hell of a job building the rat community to give us such dense characterization, and I loved<\/i> Sardines\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s political advice for Darktan. His perspective touches on illusion and imagery, mostly concerning how Darktan can use these techniques to keep the other rats unified with one another. Darktan is not often as pragmatic as Sardines can be, which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to say that that pragmatism doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist. That whole bit in the midst of this chapter wherein Darktan speaks highly of Dangerous Beans is evidence that he can<\/i> think practically. He knows that Dangerous Beans can provide a perspective that the others lack, and that this perspective is necessary<\/i> to help the rats adjust to life as Changed beings.<\/p>\n

The Rat King<\/b><\/p>\n

Sorry, gotta come back to this again. I suspect that Pratchett invoked this term (a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rat king\u00e2\u20ac\u009d), but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to use it literally. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just<\/i> going to be a swarm of rats stuck together because of their tails. That wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really explain how this rat king is able to get in the heads of everyone. (But Keith! Keith can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hear him. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN.) And Keith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theory of the rat catchers creating a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153masterpiece\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in order to secure a spot in the city guild feels like a damn fine explanation, but that still makes me VERY WORRIED about what these kids (or the rats\/Maurice) are actually gonna find. If they can!!! Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, the Rat King APPEARS TO CONTROL MALICIA??? Is that actually happening, or is she just trying to make it seem<\/i> like she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being controlled?<\/p>\n

HELP ME.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/sbMKRiV-pXA<\/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":"