{"id":4578,"date":"2018-06-19T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4578"},"modified":"2018-06-17T20:55:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T03:55:01","slug":"mark-reads-monstrous-regiment-part-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/06\/mark-reads-monstrous-regiment-part-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Monstrous Regiment&#8217;: Part 12"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the twelfth part of <i>Monstrous Regiment<\/i>, Polly convinces Blouse to lie to de Worde to get what they need, and it goes just as chaotically as expected. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <i>Discworld<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I know there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been no interruption for all of you, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been WEEKS since I read the last part of <i>Monstrous Regiment<\/i>, so this was a real treat to return to. EVERYTHING IS SO WEIRD <b>WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BOOK ABOUT<\/b>. Well, I <i>do<\/i> know what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about: the absurdity of war and obedience, the dedication of Polly in finding her brother, the tragedy of violence. But unlike a lot of the recent <i>Discworld<\/i> books, <i>Monstrous Regiment<\/i> has an angular, chaotic shape. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s structure is not traditional, as it tends to jump from one sequence to another with a building sense of dread because we are so uncertain what the whole thing is supposed to be. Indeed, one of the main aspects of this section is to finally reveal the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153truth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to these characters and <i>sort of<\/i> to the reader. Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 we all anticipated that Borogravia was losing the war, right? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a surprise at all. Hell, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a surprise to Polly either! But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been unsaid; danced around; ignored.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the presence of de Worde that pushes Polly to then push Jackrum to finally <i>say<\/i> it: they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re losing. Yet from there, the truth now in the open, these characters DOUBLE DOWN on lying by painting an absolutely <i>ridiculous<\/i> portrait for De Worde. Who, for the record, is CLEARLY AWARE THAT HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S PROBABLY BEING LIED TO. So there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an irony Pratchett leans on throughout this: Polly wanted to see if de Worde\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own lies would reveal the truth, yet the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153truth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is far more obvious from <i>Jackrum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/i> lies. Is Blouse truly one of the best lieutenants ever? Oh, no, and de Worde calls him out in his own way almost immediately. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO OBVIOUSLY NOT TRUE. So what does Jackrum do?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Immediately lies <i>again<\/i>. I can tell a great deal of what he does here is due to resentment. Jackrum <i>despises<\/i> Blouse and wishes he was in charge, and thus, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got to be a lot of fun for him to portray Blouse as he does here. Jackrum himself tries to go for the dutiful soldier angle in terms of how he portrays himself, which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t <i>precisely<\/i> a lie. He is dutiful? I guess? Blouse, however, is <i>not<\/i> the powerhouse lieutenant that Jackrum makes him out to be, but you know what? NEITHER IS JACKRUM. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s survived as long as he has because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shrewd and violent, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s won this war or that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even possible at this point. Yet Jackrum has deluded himself into believing this, hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he? It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t <i>matter<\/i> what truth he is told by others who do know what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about. Jackrum would much rather believe a lie because it suits him. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather believe that Borogravia was invaded rather than the other way around. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a much more comfortable reality, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to suggest that the reality that de Worde sells is necessarily any better either! This is a case of two dueling truths, and de Worde\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s paper\u00e2\u20ac\u201despecially that cartoon\u00e2\u20ac\u201dpresents a reality that sells <i>best<\/i>. Is it true? Well, there are truths built <i>into<\/i> it, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an accurate depiction of what Polly did. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s metaphor and satire wrapped up in de Worde\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cartoon, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t <i>feel<\/i> right to Polly because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a pawn, a piece of a new story, that appears for Ankh-Morpork\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s consumption. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>weird<\/i>! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strange to have context stripped away or altered for the sake of something else.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all part of the complex commentary that Pratchett has crafted here. The people of Borogravia can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fathom anyone viewing their country as the Zlobenians or the Ankh-Morporkians do, and not just with respect to the political cartoon. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that amazing sequence where Blouse wonders aloud if the clacks system should be updated, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a perfect demonstration of how someone <i>not<\/i> within a certain mind-frame can often have the best idea on how to improve said mind-frame or system. But THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S THE POINT. Blouse and ESPECIALLY Jackrum are so caught up in this war that it is unfathomable to them that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another solution to their problem. As de Worde says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Would you agree that sometimes a country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s system is so out of date that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only the outsiders that can see the need for wholesale change?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Not <i>yet<\/i> at least.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And then, on top of it all: there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now the very-real threat of Maladict reverting to his true self. WHICH IS GREAT. SOMETHING WE DEFINITELY NEEDED.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>What the hell is this book<\/i>?<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZqZwmSYyAf0<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>My YA contemporary debut, <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/AngerIsAGift\">ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><strong>If you&#8217;d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, <a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/ey636\">sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the twelfth part of Monstrous Regiment, Polly convinces Blouse to lie to de Worde to get what they need, and it goes just as chaotically as expected. 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":[463,545,248],"class_list":["post-4578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-monstrous-regiment","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578","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=4578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The path to wp-cache-phase1.php in wp-content/advanced-cache.php must be fixed! -->