{"id":4735,"date":"2018-10-16T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4735"},"modified":"2018-10-14T17:28:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T00:28:08","slug":"mark-reads-going-postal-chapter-5-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/10\/mark-reads-going-postal-chapter-5-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Going Postal’: Chapter 5, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first half of the fifth chapter of Going Postal<\/i>, Groat worries; Horsefry worries even more; and Moist goes on a journey of discovery. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For brief talk of anxiety<\/b><\/p>\n

Groat<\/b><\/p>\n

I said this on video, but Groat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long monologue is kinda like how my anxiety works. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll think something might be bad, and soon after that, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gone down a logical path that involves everyone I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever known being so greatly disappointed in me that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll want to perish just from the shame of it all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very much a mental and emotional avalanche on my part, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to develop techniques to counter these sort of spirals. (Mostly it involves me imagining positive outcomes.) I know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably not what Pratchett intended here, but I still found it to be something I could point to at another time to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey, this is sort of how my brain works at any given time of the day! ISN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T IT FUN.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Groat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worry over his probational period as Senior Postman had one really, really important detail that I am reading as foreshadowing for what happened later in the chapter:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He can try walking the Walk,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No one can argue if he walks the Walk.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He did it, right?<\/p>\n
Crispin Horsefry<\/b><\/p>\n
You know, for a paranoid crook, Horsefry is abundantly organized, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he? I still find it funny that he noted down every<\/i> single way that these men cheated out the system, and his logic is weirdly sensible? Now they know all the tracks that need to be covered! Of course, in the wrong hands, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a list of countless crimes, so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
But I found this entire scene\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich subtly switches from Crispin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s POV over to Gilt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto be a creepy examination of Reacher Gilt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character more than Crispin Horsefry. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a smaller part in this, and Gilt knows that. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sense of supremacy that pervades Gilt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts, and he sees himself as above everything happening around him. Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t surprising\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI noted before that he was very<\/i> clever, and it still worries me as he tries to take on Vetinari. (Only a little bit, and only because of who will be collateral damage when this is all over. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt that Vetinari will come out on top, but who else will have to pay the price?) Gilt and people like him believe they have the answer to the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problems, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mask on a greater issue: they believe they deserve what they steal from others simply because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve taken it. And I can see the arrogance all over this character! Look how willingly he thinks about killing Horsefry because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s both annoying AND a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lesser\u00e2\u20ac\u009d person than Gilt is. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an hierarchy of humanity within Gilt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s system of belief, and he sits firmly at the top of it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
I really do feel like Gilt, in part, is a satirical reference to Ayn Rand and objectivism, and there are just too many little details for this to all be a coincidence. Gilt is openly selfish and proud of it; he believes government and publicly-owned organizations are a scam; he is hypnotic in his ability to convince others that his way of thinking about the world isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just right, but a moral imperative. His theft of the clacks system feels perfectly in-line with the libertarian thought that often goes hand-in-hand with Ayn Rand fans. Everything worth existing should be owned, and that owner should always profit off of it, no matter who is harmed by that act.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
THIS CHARACTER IS VERY REAL, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The Vision<\/b><\/p>\n
It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t until Moist began to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153see\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the letters that I began to formulate a theory about what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually happening at the post office. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still not sure I have enough pieces yet, so I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think this fits everything. Plus, I went into this expecting that Moist would find the people that live on the roof, and another secret of Groat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s would be discovered. BUT OH LORD, THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS AT ALL. Even if this is not the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Walk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that Groat referred to earlier, I still believe that what Moist experienced was something akin to a test.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
If I accept that the letters are so desperate to be delivered and read, then it makes sense to me that they can collectively create a glimpse of an ideal situation. The glory days of the post office that Moist sees are folded over actual reality, and it reveals how all the previous postmasters died: they were unable to handle the two realities existing at once. One misstepped and plunged down the stairs. Another had walked out into a balcony that simply wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there. And the other had experienced the pure horror of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ghost\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of a memory walking through their own body, and that had scared them to death.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
So why? Why did this happen? Why is the past folded over the present? Well, I think Moist \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seeing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the letters and realizing they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re practically alive is the key. These letters were created with the belief that they would be sent and then read. Well, on the Disc, belief is a powerful force, and it makes an unsettling sense that these letters, all abandoned together, have manifested some odd powers. (The whispering is them, right???) So, what if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to find the right person to deliver them and return the post office to its former glory???<\/p>\n
If that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case, then the next question is: Why Moist? What makes him unique, so much so that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only postmaster to survive this experience? Well, I have to go back to Groat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anxious monologue. Because he notes that Moist ACTUALLY DELIVERED A LETTER. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be willing to bet that EVERY past postmaster found the fifth floor WITHOUT delivering any mail. Moist has an advantage, right? And maybe, just maybe, the letters wanted to test Moist just a little bit more.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
I also can accept that this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a test\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think the letters are sentient, for the record\u00e2\u20ac\u201dso there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still something cool in this. If not a test, this scene works as a testament to Moist. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s someone who has always<\/i> existed in two realities at once. He has to in order to pull off the many, many cons he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s completed in his lifetime. Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that take seeing one world laid over another one? And perhaps that<\/i> is one of the reasons Vetinari chose him. I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put it past Vetinari to know everything going on in the post office, you know?<\/p>\n
Ah, I need more. THIS BOOK IS SO GREAT.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/fxdj3We5BOw<\/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 first half of the fifth chapter of Going Postal, Groat worries; Horsefry worries even more; and Moist goes on a journey of discovery. 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":[553,463,248],"class_list":["post-4735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-going-postal","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735","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=4735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}