{"id":4654,"date":"2018-07-31T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2018-07-23T12:20:03","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T19:20:03","slug":"mark-re-reads-monstrous-regiment-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-re-reads-monstrous-regiment-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Re-Reads &#8216;Monstrous Regiment&#8217;: Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Good day again, <i>Discworld<\/i> friends! This week in particular is quite exciting, as I am preparing to leave for the UK to attend my third International <i>Discworld<\/i> convention. It was important to me that these re-reads get completed <i>before<\/i> the convention, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that this is actually happening. Anyway: onward into the Keep I go!<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><b>Part 16<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thing I Noticed #30: Lofty does not say a word at the opening of this section but just RAISES A GODDAMN MATCH and I am just&#8230; I know I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t reading this closely, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trying not to be <i>too<\/i> hard on myself, but IT WAS RIGHT THERE.<\/li>\n<li>So, certainly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pick up on this: How do you all take Jackrum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s line in response to Tonker admitting that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all women? He says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You are if I says you are!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A flawed joke? Misguided sense of protection? It stuck out to me now that I know what he knows, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how I feel about it. I wonder if part of it is that Jackrum is <i>trying<\/i> real hard not to care about the reveal. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly rude about it toward Maladict and Carborundum. I think <i>maybe<\/i> he is actually self-conscious about a lot of this stuff? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easier for him to do the whole tough love thing than talk about his feelings honestly. THIS IS JUST A THEORY. Because even the whole lioness thing reads differently in another way I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t considered until now. What if this is all an attempt to get attention off of <i>himself<\/i>?<\/li>\n<li>I also imagine that Jackrum was <i>hurt<\/i> by Polly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to leave. He likened himself as this great protector of his lads, and they were all abandoning him. Thus, another theory: that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit drunk when they go visit the sex workers in the military camp. Perhaps not just for the tooth worms or to trick Mrs. Smothers, but to dull the pain of rejection.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>I still think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fucked up that they stole all those women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clothing AND their cashbook. ESPECIALLY that part. And Jackrum feels a little out of control during a lot of this, and I wonder if <i>that<\/i> is related to the complicated feelings he has towards his battalion. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not very likable in this whole section, is he?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Part 17<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>And this section opens with Jackrum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certain declaration that he has no interest in wearing skirts, and oh my GOD, now I know why he says that. I am curious: exactly <i>where<\/i> does Jackrum go before he reveals himself later in the book? Does he just go sneaking and manipulating about until he figures out where to be?<\/li>\n<li>SCRITZ. OH MY GOD. THE DUCHESS TOLD HIM TO GO FIND HIS GRANDCHILD H E L P.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>So, what <i>is<\/i> the actual folk song? I feel like I completely missed a huge cultural moment during the scene with the explanation for the Cheesemongers.<\/li>\n<li>I just&#8230; the whole scene where they first enter the Keep is RIDICULOUS. Oh my god, the layers here. First of all, we know from earlier in the book that men disguised as washerwomen were able to get in, so you could read what happens here as the guards trying to be extra, extra careful, and unfortunately, they make a HORRIBLE mistake. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO FUCKING FUNNY OH MY GOD.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>The same goes for all of their initial interactions with Blouse. IT IS ASTOUNDING HOW CLUELESS HE IS. Seriously: #me.<\/li>\n<li>Thing I Noticed #31: Wazzer is not wrong. Zlobenia does not invade, and the Duchess saw to it. Nuggan is indeed dead, killed by the lack of belief caused by&#8230; well, probably a lot of factors, but here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my take: the Abominations ruined the people of Borogravia. They got so absurd, regressive, and harmful that the people of that country just couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe in that god anymore. Nuggan provided nothing for them but spite, anger, confusion, and pain. Why believe in Nuggan if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case?<\/li>\n<li>But the Duchess&#8230; well, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one young woman who believes in her so fiercely that she gave her life. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredible to see that transformation happen slowly over the course of <i>Monstrous Regiment<\/i>, and then it ramps up once they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the Keep. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where Wazzer needed to be!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Part 18<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>So, one thing that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve taken away from the comments on the final review is this notion that Polly is not necessarily an unreliable narrator, but a flawed one. We see things through her eyes, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s routinely wrong about the world around her. At the start of this section, she is convinced that the Duchess is messing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153with the heads of people like Wazzer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And I get why she thinks that! At this point, she still thinks (mostly) that Wazzer is imagining all this. But, as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll come to discover, this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a delusion, an overactive imagination, or a mental illness. The Duchess is real and <i>has<\/i> been speaking to Wazzer the entire time.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>I almost can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that one of Blouse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life goals was to have an article of clothing named after him, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so beautifully fitting for his character, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>So, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a HUGE thing that I missed here that I assumed would get \u00e2\u20ac\u0153answered\u00e2\u20ac\u009d later, but the answer is right here. I kinda confused the zombies in the Keep that Vimes had sent Reg to deal with as the SAME soldier zombies that the Duchess raises. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re two separate events, aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they? I get why I made this mistake, though, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that obvious the first time around, but holy shit, the Duchess really DID need Wazzer to be in the Keep. But oh my god, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so creepy because EVEN AFTER THEY HAVE DIED, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still committed to being anti-Zlobenian. I guess it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in their blood?<\/li>\n<li>Wait, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any of that. Their bones? That works better.<\/li>\n<li>There are many flawed perspectives in this book, which&#8230; again, it feels like some weird cosmic coincidence that <i>this<\/i> would be the book I so grossly misinterpreted. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about how perspective can change the slightest thing into an entirely new story. So, Tonker fits into that <i>super<\/i> well. She is justifiably uninterested in all things involving the Duchess and Nuggan. Thus, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t question her rejection of Wazzer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possession, despite that the evidence is right there, they all witnessed it, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s practically impossible to deny. But Tonker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe lens she has to view the world\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbiases her in this regard. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bias that <i>protects<\/i> her! (And Lofty, by extension.) She is wary around Wazzer because nothing good ever came of the Duchess in Tonker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. Even knowing what really happened with the Duchess, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bring myself to criticize Tonker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s take on all this. I can acknowledge that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have all the information, but she also wants so badly to escape any more abuse and disappointment. So she rejects religion, and she rejects the state. They hold no meaning to her, and I imagine they probably never will.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Part 19<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I actually got kinda sad reading the moment where Polly and Blouse apologized to one another for letting the other down. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tough moment because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a pervasive sense of <i>defeat<\/i> that hangs over the scene, as they all know that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably no escape for any of them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>So, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another Wrigglesworth comment! This one is a little more substantive but still confusing. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153same thing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that happened <i>to<\/i> Wrigglesworth? That line about being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153very good at choosing curtains\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <i>feels<\/i> like confirmation that he is gay or queer, though, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something associated with those of us who are gay or queer men. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to be good decorators or exceed at fashion, which has deeply disappointed me most of my life because I WISH I WAS GOOD AT THESE THINGS. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not! And I would love to be stereotypical in that regard! (I am not one of those queer men who believe that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153living up to stereotypes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d actually harms us. THOSE PEOPLE ARE TERRIBLE.) Anyway, there was lots of conversation about this in the comments, so I just wanted to bring up these two details.<\/li>\n<li>One of the most powerful lines in the book: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This war isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t staying on battlefields.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the literal interpretation, of course, as the affects of war are now bleeding back into all the towns and villages away from the war zone. But you could also read this as a something a bit more metaphorical. You might be able to build a case that these young women have been fighting a war this whole time, one to change the world around them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>I just want to say: BOOOOO, LORD RUST. BOOOOOOOOOOO.<\/li>\n<li>Rust\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intervening disaster here <i>feels<\/i> a lot like imperialism, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? I get why Ankh-Morpork sided with Zlobenia, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very fascinating to me how certain Rust is that he can make the orders that he does <i>and<\/i> expect them to be followed, despite that he is neither Zlobenian nor Borogravian.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Blouse is so utterly fantastic and supportive from pretty much this point on, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a delight again to read him saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would not exchange them for any six men you could offer me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d MY HEART IS BURSTING WITH AFFECTION.<\/li>\n<li>Bless Vimes for giving Polly the sign she needed to just royally fuck everything up. Well, Polly and the others.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Lofty blew up the door, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and I STILL DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T REALIZE IT WAS HER SETTING FIRES. What the FUCK. It took Tonker saying that every place she worked at burned down for me to understand. LORD.<\/li>\n<li>So, this went over my head, and I actually <i>still<\/i> don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it. What is meant by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153middle gears\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? (In reference to Tonker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bit about the Gray House.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Part 20<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This re-read is illuminating because I can see moments that influenced me to interpret things that would come later a certain way. My review of the final part of <i>Monstrous Regiment<\/i> was affected in part by the dejected reaction that the lads give once they hear that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all \u00e2\u20ac\u0153back in the war.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This book does a fine job explaining why war is terrible, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an <i>emotional<\/i> component to it that Pratchett adds. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s related to the war not being on the battlefields anymore. These young women have not been in the war itself for very long, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re <i>exhausted<\/i>. How do the other soldiers feel? The same or <i>worse<\/i>, I imagine. Yet Moldvitz speaks of war with a twinkle in his eye and a joy in his voice, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of disturbing, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? These soldiers only know this life, and yes, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made significant strides to take back the Keep, but do any of them want this conflict to just be <i>over<\/i>?<\/li>\n<li>Jesus, I missed a pun, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I? Igorina says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But <i>no<\/i>, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re afraid I might touch their privates.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A FUCKING PUN, OH MY GOD.<\/li>\n<li>I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember, but who told de Worde that the Ins-and-Outs got captured? Vimes, right?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Thing I Noticed #32: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the trouble about the good guys and the bad guys! They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all guys!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A SCREAM NEARLY ERUPTED FROM ME ON THIS FLIGHT. Oh god.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Ahem: BOOOOOOO, CAPTAIN STRAPPI, BOOOOOOOOOOO<\/li>\n<li>Whew, that moment when the general tries to discount Clogston by suggesting that perhaps lunch was not had&#8230; WHEW IT MAKES ME HEATED.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Strappi insists that the <i>major<\/i> asked him to investigate Jackrum. Only one major is ever named: Chloe. So why did she send Strappi after Jackrum? (If my guess is correct.)<\/li>\n<li>Oh lord, Kzupi was the first major clue of what was going on: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To be frank, the problem here is not that you are women. As such, that is. But you persist in <i>maintaining<\/i> that you are. You see? We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d WHICH IS LITERALLY DESCRIBING MOST OF THEM. I just!!!! IT WAS RIGHT THERE!!!<\/li>\n<li>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know, now, that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not a hero. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just someone who wanted to be one.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d HELP ME, THIS IS TOO EMOTIONAL.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Oh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I AM SO READY TO READ THE NEXT SECTION IN PARTICULAR. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s go!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Good day again, Discworld friends! This week in particular is quite exciting, as I am preparing to leave for the UK to attend my third International Discworld convention. It was important to me that these re-reads get completed before the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-re-reads-monstrous-regiment-part-4\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/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-4654","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\/4654","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=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4654"}],"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! -->