In the eleventh part of Monstrous Regiment<\/i>, Polly gets to know one of her fellow recruits while Jackrum plots for his own gain. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of abuse, warfare<\/b>.<\/p>\n
I still have no real sense for where Monstrous Regiment<\/i> is leading me. At this point, it could<\/i> be about the eventual arrival at the front lines, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not even sure they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to make it. What if the Zlobenians get them first? What if de Worde\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intrusion sets them on a different path? The only real<\/i> story that I need resolved, however, is Polly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s search for Paul. But we have no clues regarding that either!<\/p>\n
Instead, Pratchett continues to chip away at\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, fucking everything<\/i>. Polly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey is not necessarily a coming-of-age, nor is it an epiphany about how terrible people can be during wartime. She knew that long before the events of Monstrous Regiment<\/i> kicked into gear. Indeed, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a large part of why she was motivated to leave home, dress up as a boy, and go find Paul. She wants to get him out<\/i> of this mess. And yet, Pratchett doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore the opportunity to address multiple facets of war.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Like, for example, the reasons people leave home and sign up for the military in the first place. There are certainly plenty of folks who do so out of a sense of duty and nationalism, who feel as it is a moral choice to make to support their country. Others might be compelled due to religious reasons, and I bet that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case for a lot of Borogravians. How many signed up because The Duchess told them to? Because it was considered a holy act? In the case of Tonker and Lofty, though, the military, despite being horrifically flawed and dangerous, was the better option<\/i> compared to where they came from. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get much detail about The Girls\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Working School, but what Tonker does<\/i> tell Polly is enough to get a picture of just how repressive, violent, and toxic that place was. Which is not to suggest that there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> a toxicity in the military! I think Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done a fine job showing us how bad it can be, and LET JACKRUM BE THE MOST EXTREME EXAMPLE. The Girls\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Working School is just an example of how gender norms can be uphold in vicious and hurtful ways. And if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true what Tonker says about Wazzer\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. No wonder<\/i> she sticks so faithfully to her religion! As someone who clung to religion due to an abusive upbringing, HI HELLO, I RELATE TO A STORY, ZERO PEOPLE ARE SURPRISED.<\/p>\n So, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about Jackrum. As I said on video, the second that someone starts referring to themselves in the third person, you know<\/i> it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over. Sadly, this is actually the least<\/i> awful thing about this conniving, manipulative man. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frightening that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so open<\/i> about the fact that he moves people around like pawns, but he also knows that he can get away with it. And for those people who are aware of his persona\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well:<\/p>\n Once again Polly had the definite feeling that Jackrum was enjoying this, just as he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seemed pleased when she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d argued about the uniform. He wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a bully like Strappi\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhe treated Igorina and Wazzer with something approaching fatherly concern\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut with Polly and Maladict and Tonker he pushed all the time, wanting you to push back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And she tries, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. She really does! But Jackrum knows that the majority of soldiers are, as he puts it, trained to the point of unquestioning obedience. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the things that unnerved me about my father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s military service and why, even at a young age, I refused all his attempts to get me to sign up for the Army. He told me stories of being ordered to do things he completely disagreed with, and when I asked him why he did them, his reply was always the same: because he was told to. He called it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153discipline,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and he said it built \u00e2\u20ac\u0153character.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n That was not a character I wanted to become.<\/p>\n Thus, I wonder if de Worde is going to have a larger affect on these people than he intended to. His appearance again<\/i> was a surprise, but I feel like Pratchett is using him to lead these people to the truth. (Eh? Eh? Get it???) Again, de Worde tries<\/i> to tell the recruits that their perception of the war is a fabrication, but he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite get to do it. (That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s partially due to Maladict\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coffee needs, which I understand because I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drink coffee the entire week I was recording the audiobook for Anger Is A Gift<\/i>. I TURNED INTO HIM, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.) However, my impression at the end of the scene is that these people want<\/i> to know what de Worde has seen. And if he tells them that Borogravia has basically lost the war, how the hell is Jackrum going to react to that?<\/p>\n vid<\/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 eleventh part of Monstrous Regiment, Polly gets to know one of her fellow recruits while Jackrum plots for his own gain. Intrigued? 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