In the eighteenth part of Monstrous Regiment<\/i>, this further spirals out of control. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
YEAH, I FORGOT ABOUT THE ZOMBIES IN THE DUNGEON. Oh my god, that was called out like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 200 pages ago??? One scene now has INCREDIBLE RELEVANCE to the present time, and I am messed up<\/i>. Oh, I love it so very much, though! Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Information<\/b><\/p>\n One thing I admired about this section was how Pratchett used gossip and casual talk as a means of gleaning information. Particularly, Polly and Igorina become chatty because they know that snippets of the truth will seep out of their conversations with the other women who work below the Keep. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Truth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a relative concept here because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much misinformation, prejudice, and bias at work. Yet within it all, the Ins-and-Outs are able to figure out a lot of shit that was a mystery before. (Though I love that the rumor that Vimes eats raw meat persisted through all of this. Bravo, Pratchett.) Time and time again, this novel has shown us that non-violent means are often the best way to achieve goals within this war, which is so damn fascinating to me. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this is a book about a war that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been going on FOREVER, and yet it has very few battle scenes within it??? AND IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT BORING AT ALL???\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Spite<\/b><\/p>\n I also just want to quickly say that I admire that Polly gets revenge in all these quiet, petty ways, like having Igorina put red items of clothing in with the whites and adding lots of starch to the soldiers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 clothing. SHE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S THE BEST.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Blouse<\/b><\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how this didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t occur to me until RIGHT THIS SECOND, but this character\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name is intentional, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? The fact that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s named after an article of clothing most folks would associate with women has<\/i> to be on purpose, right? Blouse continues to fascinate me because, like most of the characters in this book, he challenges what is expected of him and his gender. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that he does this consciously, of course; Blouse is just interested in certain things and enjoys them un-ironically. Plus, he has moments like this:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Had to do my own laundry back at HQ,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Blouse. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford a gel and the batman was a strict Nugganite and said it was girl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work. So I thought, well, it can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be hard, otherwise we wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave it to women.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n SIGH. So yeah, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read Blouse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s non-traditional interests as some big middle finger to gender binaries and expectations; he still accepts this division of labor, importance and respect. So, even if he might<\/i> exist outside the stereotypical idea of a soldier, does that make him revolutionary? Rather, I am beginning to see Blouse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior as an explanation of why Jackrum dislikes Blouse so much. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do soldiering \u00e2\u20ac\u0153right,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d so to speak, since Blouse enjoys being in disguise and fully commits to his character, despite that ALL THE WOMEN IN THE KEEP KNOW THAT HE IS JUST PRETENDING. And he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so good at these traditionally \u00e2\u20ac\u0153feminine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d chores and jobs that the other women don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even bother to stop Blouse from joyously completing his tasks. If Jackrum was around, I feel like he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rat out Blouse just out of principle<\/i>, you know?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Infiltration<\/b><\/p>\n With Polly leading the way\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyet another example of her manipulating the rupert\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe Ins-and-Outs head deep into the Keep, but in a roundabout, unplanned way. I think Polly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s growth as a leader is just as fascinating as any of the other developments in the cast of characters. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made me rethink her relationship to Jackrum, who I saw purely as antagonistic because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really like<\/i> them. But I think an argument could be made to paint Jackrum as, in a bizarre way, a mentor to Polly. He has helped teach her how to manipulate men to get what she wants. And who better to do that than a man who routinely portrays himself as a fool to his superiors so that he<\/i> can get what he wants? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicated, I admit, and I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that this gives me an affinity for Jackrum, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still there in the text, you know? Seriously, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s literally<\/i> there:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yessir!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Polly, well on the way to graduating from the Sergeant Jackrum School of Outright Rupert Management.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Anyway, the girls all come off as far more competent than Blouse throughout this, particularly sense Polly always knows just how to keep him thinking that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in charge and that she and the others are merely \u00e2\u20ac\u0153anticipating\u00e2\u20ac\u009d his guidance. Of which there is none, for the record. Half the time, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even realize what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all up to. Yet this quickly turns into a disaster as Pratchett throws multiple wrenches into their plan. First, the guards monitoring the lift have to be taken out. (Which Igorina is apparently quite good at!) Then, the lift breaks and they have to climb out of it and into some abandoned tunnels in the cellars of the Keep, which is where the next<\/i> problem presents itself. And it was one that was absolutely hinted at, yet I forgot it. There are zombies<\/i> in the cellars! REMEMBER, REG WAS SENT DOWN THERE TO DEAL WITH IT. Oh my god, I love that this was revealed to me AGES ago, but I just forgot it!<\/p>\n Unfortunately, escaping the zombies puts the group right into the hands of some of the enemy soldiers. Obviously, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more complicated in the text itself, but the result is the same: their attempt to sneak about the Keep was immediately ruined because they couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop arguing<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A mess.<\/p>\n The Duchess<\/b><\/p>\n I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T GET IT. I feel less<\/i> close to the answer now that the Duchess has\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what??? Possessed<\/i> Wazzer? Used her as a medium? Intervened in a way that makes it seem<\/i>like possession is happening? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, but it is completely disturbing. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a reason anymore to doubt Wazzer, and clearly something <\/i>is occurring here. The Duchess is real and guiding them to safety\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but why? <\/i>WHYI?! Who is she? WELP ME.<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/bkOP650oN2g<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\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 eighteenth part of Monstrous Regiment, this further spirals out of control. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld.<\/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-4601","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\/4601","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=4601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}