In the sixteenth part of Night Watch<\/i>, Vimes and Carcer make their next moves. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that this part came days after I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d read the last one, as it would have been a bit of tonal whiplash to go from the deeply disturbing discovery in Cable Street to some of the more funny moments of this blockade. Given space and time, I do see Pratchett poking fun at some of the more absurd elements of protesting, like the language of revolution. And it makes sense that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do that! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his style, yes, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a way for Vimes to use his wisdom. He knows that what Reg Shoe is aiming for us never going to work because Vimes has had the luxury of living a future timeline. Therefore, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s detached from some of the political meaning of these moments. Young Vimes, however, is more easily caught up. WHICH I DEEPLY RELATE TO. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so easy in your teen years and your early twenties to feel swept up in the joy of change and protest. Rey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role here, is not so much about disillusionment\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhe hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had time to get to that point\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut about the reality of how complicated protesting can be. Getting a group of strangers to agree with one another? GOOD LUCK, SIR.<\/p>\n
And then, Pratchett cuts over to Major Mountjoy-Standfast, and oh boy, does this ever get DEEPLY SERIOUS. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a jarring transition, though. (And really, in hindsight, none of this is. How does this man segue from such variable tones with ease? WRITING, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.) The Major and his men are perplexed and bewildered by fighting in Ankh-Morpork\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s streets and alleys, and their distinct disadvantage is why they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re losing. Which is why Sergeant Carcer can arrive and manipulate them as he does. See, this is about obedience and authority. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about order<\/i>. Those are the things the soldiers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 represent (or at least desire in some sense), and this is what Carcer appeals to. He frames Treacle Mine Road (and, by extension, Vimes) as rebels, as natural enemies, as rabble rousers who just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t respect law and order!<\/p>\n
What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredible to me is that Major and Captain Wrangle are more or less aware that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being manipulated<\/i>:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But that man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an evil bastard! You know the sort. The kind that joins up for the pillaging? The kind you have to end up hanging as an example to the men?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And yet, they still accept Carcer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s information. They still plot this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153surgical strike\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to deal with the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rebels\u00e2\u20ac\u009d once and for all. Never once do they consider why it is that they have the same goal as a homicidal monster.<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always good to see who aligns themselves with your goals.<\/p>\n So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what the hell<\/i> happens next? I keep saying this, but it continues to be such an important question for Night Watch<\/i>. Even Vimes wonders the same thing!<\/p>\n Maybe the monks were right. Changing history is like damming a river. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find its way around.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s whole decision was based on his desire to prevent<\/i> as much death and destruction as possible, to use his knowledge of this massacre to re-route history, timeline be damned. But if this surgical strike is going to happen anyway, was any of this worth it? Well, perhaps because Young Vimes gets to watch himself be brave and courageous and moral, this is<\/i> worth it. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t this what he needed to grow up into the man he is now?<\/p>\n But, again: is that enough? Is that enough if everyone still dies, if people still suffer all over again?<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/rEB1jydUX0o<\/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":" In the sixteenth part of Night Watch, Vimes and Carcer make their next moves. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[463,541,248],"class_list":["post-4489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-night-watch","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}