{"id":4755,"date":"2018-11-01T05:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T12:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4755"},"modified":"2018-10-28T19:36:59","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T02:36:59","slug":"mark-reads-going-postal-chapter-7a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/11\/mark-reads-going-postal-chapter-7a\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Going Postal&#8217;: Chapter 7A"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the weird seventh chapter of <i>Going Postal<\/i>, Moist makes a delivery, and then decides to cause a little bit of trouble. 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><b>Trigger Warning: For discussion of transphobia<\/b><\/p>\n<p>My Kindle version of this book has the red cover and OH MY GOD, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S FROM THE SCENE IN THIS CHAPTER. And what an opening, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Post haste, indeed. But I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s indicative of Moist as a character, but only who he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become since Vetinari gave him this bizarre second chance. I do believe that he remains motivated by the idea that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an escape for him at the end of this. He certainly makes reference to that once he realizes that Mr. Pump did not bother to follow him to Sto Lat. So, escape <i>might<\/i> be possible, but aside from stealing the paper, is he actually <i>working<\/i> towards that? See, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not so sure he is anymore! I think the <i>idea<\/i> of escape is more attractive than the reality. Because if Moist truly wants to find a way out of this, why did he suffer great personal harm to deliver mail to Sto Lat himself? He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to do that, or set up a temporary postmaster in Sto Lat, or take a full mail bag <i>back<\/i>, or any of these things.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m coming to think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another angle here that I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t appreciated before. Moist is competitive, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he? And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this aspect of him that compels him to view limitations as challenges. When he is told something is impossible or absurd, he seems to see that as a bet almost. For someone who has been defrauded and conning people for most of their life, it does make sense that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d continue to try to pull off bigger and bigger challenges for his own satisfaction. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think this is the <i>only<\/i> way to interpret his character by any means, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m loving just how complicated Moist is. The reason I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m focusing on this is because Moist finally begins to see the clacks system as something to compete with in a very direct sense. He notices the inoperative towers on the way to Sto Lat; he sees the increase of workers on his way back, which I suspect is because the lunchtime edition of the <i>Times<\/i>; Gilt most likely realized that his scheme is costing him because people have turned on the clacks when a genuine competitor arrived. Look at how willing the mayor of Sto Lat was to immediately turn on the clacks! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the start of something <i>huge<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and I feel pretty certain we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to see more and more ramifications of Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions in the context of the clacks.<\/p>\n<p>Well, we see it in other ways, too. Holy shit, Miss Maccalariat, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Even if it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t intentional, it was hard not to see her complaints through modern eyes, given that the issue of access to bathrooms has become such a visible controversy throughout the world. Miss Maccalariat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complaints are absurd because golems are most certainly not cleaning the bathroom so that they can later commit the sort of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hanky-panky\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she refers to. There is, unsurprisingly, no evidence that what she claims happens is actually happening, which is why I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but think of this same phenomenon happening to trans people. Of course, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that this matches up perfectly with what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on now, and that one line about Miss Maccalariat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mustache felt a little cruel. But I thought I would bring it up because the similarity felt striking to me.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I also feel just a little bit satisfied that while reading this, I realized how much Stanley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pin appreciation fit perfectly as an exploration of stamp collecting, a hobby that mirrors what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen of Stanley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love. So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very, very fitting that Moist gives Stanley a position that <i>rewards<\/i> his behavior, that allows him to head up a department that needs an attention to detail and someone who has a vast knowledge of stamps. I mean, I also feel like Moist does this to get Stanley out of his way? I think both things are true, that this position is perfect for Stanley, but also keeps him busy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So, we end this chapter with a few hints at the future. First of all, I feel like Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s forgery of a letter from Reacher Gilt is not going to work out exactly like Moist wants. Oh, I expect he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get the table, but I also think Gilt is going to find out that Moist has conned someone using his name. Which will be&#8230; fun. Chaotic! Then, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Smoking Gnu (I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T DEAL WITH HOW CLEVER THIS IS), and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very interested why someone wants Moist to know exactly when the Pseudopolis clacks line is gonna go down. That implies they work for Gilt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s company, and it confirms to Moist that the lines go down at scheduled times. But does this person also know that the post office hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t delivered to Pseudopolis yet? It feels like a nudge in that direction: Go deliver mail there, Moist! The opportunity has arisen! Oh gods, what if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Vetinari??? I would totally believe that.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mister Gryle. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not so sure that my guess that Gryle is an assassin is right anymore; I assumed the black cloak was a hint, but now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doubting that. He did research on Moist for Gilt, and perhaps Gryle is going to be the one who discovers the forged letter at the restaurant. (Maybe???) So, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a private investigator who ALSO is cool with committing arson? Argh, maybe Gryle IS an assassin. Either way, the big confirmation here is that Gilt already knows Moist is moving in on his business, and he wants no competition at all.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>THE WAR IS COMING.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/6hVgWhawlzg<\/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 weird seventh chapter of Going Postal, Moist makes a delivery, and then decides to cause a little bit of trouble. 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-4755","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\/4755","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=4755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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