{"id":4463,"date":"2018-02-21T05:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4463"},"modified":"2018-02-19T18:06:02","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T02:06:02","slug":"mark-reads-night-watch-part-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/02\/mark-reads-night-watch-part-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Night Watch’: Part 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh part of Night Watch<\/i>, Vimes further integrates himself into the Watch in order to change it. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of police brutality and corruption<\/b>.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll say this: Night Watch<\/i> is showing that it takes a whole lot<\/i> of work to undo police corruption. A LOT. Sam Vimes is just getting started, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and THIS FORCE IS A MESS. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not happy with Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence and his consistent interference in what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s considered \u00e2\u20ac\u0153normal.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You can see that initially in the reaction from Ned Coates, who layers on a lot of sarcasm when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s asked to give a receipt for those he caught violating curfew. I had to remind myself that curfew actually<\/i> existed during this point in Ankh-Morpork history. It is something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been used in our<\/i> world to try and counter certain social ills, and Pratchett absolutely makes reference to those things: Public drunkenness. Criminals. Sex workers.<\/p>\n

And I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite understand what Pratchett was doing by having Vimes seem so exuberant about taking the four curfew violators to the Unmentionables. What lesson would that<\/i> teach? Playing it by the rules seemed odd because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, some of the rules are fucked up, aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they? Why subject these people to<\/i> those rules? I understood this from the perspective of organizing the Watch members, but why use people like Miss Palm and Miss Battye?<\/p>\n

Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intent\u00e2\u20ac\u201dslowly bled into the page as I read this, and HOLY SHIT. He used the flaws of this system against itself. He exploited the rules by following them to a T, and in doing so, he has upset the existing order. It sure seems simple on the surface, though. He rejects all attempts at bribes. He asks for a receipt before dropping off his prisoners at the Cable Street location. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it! THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S LITERALLY WHAT HE DOES. yet in these two acts, he demonstrates the absurdity of this whole system. Bribes exist because the Watch knows they can take them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an unspoken arrangement that is so integrated into being a part of the Watch that EVERYONE is surprised when Vimes openly rejects a bribe.<\/p>\n

And look, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think this is particularly radical, but no one<\/i> should be making money off of this element of society. I have complicated (and mostly negative) thoughts on the existence of law enforcement within my country, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ridiculous to say that no one<\/i> should profit from crime. That goes for bribes, for private prisons, for the weaponization of precincts and police forces. Because as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen here in the US, once you allow people to make money from policing, policing will adapt to further its capitalistic interests. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inevitable. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happens because capitalism compels a higher profit margin, and as the Watch gets greedier, and the Ankh-Morpork dollar doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy as much\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 okay, now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting ahead of myself. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A TERRIBLE THING.<\/p>\n

Which is why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so clever that Vimes follows the rules in order to piss these people off. He exploits these men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s laziness and complicity, and OH LORD, ARE THEY EVER UPSET. Henry has probably never<\/i> been asked to prove his identity, least of all from someone else in the Watch. And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Captain Swing, who didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really bother me until he MEASURED DIFFERENT PARTS OF VIMES\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S HEAD WITH A PAIR OF CALIPERS. What the fuck<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all??? NO, THANK YOU, HARD PASS. The important thing, though, is that by sticking to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rules,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he got Swing and Henry to back down, meaning that Vimes got to release his prisoners without anything but a half dollar \u00e2\u20ac\u0153traveling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d expense. And how great was it that we got an entire section from Miss Palm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s view that showed us just how confusing this whole thing was for her? Vimes has only been in the past for a day, and everyone is losing their shit over him.<\/p>\n

(ALSO: I LOVE THAT SANDRA IS A REAL SEAMSTRESS. What a great joke that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t degrade any of the sex workers in the process. Which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take my word on that, obviously. I feel like Pratchett isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t being cruel about these women, but if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m missing something here, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely something I should talk about.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that surprising that the Unmentionables retaliated against Vimes, and it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t surprising that he was able to disarm both the men who came after him so quickly. Yet even then, Vimes showed compassion. He still took the unconscious one to Dr. Lawn to be taken care of. Which is more than I could say of\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, pretty much anyone else in the Watch, right?<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hope that changes.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/mko0H0sIneU<\/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":"