In the first part of Thud!<\/i>, Vimes is tasked with a new hire that is proving to be controversial. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For extensive discussion of various oppression, including racism, xenophobia, and homophobia<\/b><\/p>\n
HI, THIS BOOK WASTES NO TIME, RIGHT? Welcome, friends, to my 34th Discworld<\/i> book, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m realizing we are firmly in the realm of the longest-running series for my site. (I think we passed that around book 29 or 30!) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a goddamn treat to see these books grow and change, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with that in mind that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eager to see what Pratchett does with another Watch book. Thud!<\/i> opens with a thud, with a murder, and with a conflict that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been brewing for\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 wow. A long time. It is not surprising that the conflict between the dwarfs and the trolls has been a part of the Discworld<\/i> series for ages, and even here, Pratchett reminds us through the epigraphs that there is an animosity present between the two species that reaches back through the centuries.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But from that point, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re given a portrait of chaos and uncertainty. The news that Vimes is entertaining the Watch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first vampire hire has leaked, and it has not gone over well with portions of the city. Those portions are almost entirely human, and thus, Pratchett manages to nail a generalized metaphor for being a minority. The vampires are a literal<\/i> minority, but since they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also from Uberwald, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an undeniable aspect of xenophobia mixed up in all of this, one that even Vimes himself perpetuates in various ways. Granted, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a strict parallel, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Pratchett intended it to be. Vimes has very specific thoughts on vampires! Which he shares frequently! But within this section, dwarfs have thoughts on trolls. And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this combination of experience with prejudice, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fascinated with how this is going to be addressed. Even the first Epigraph suggests that the dwarf origin story didn’t<\/i> originally have anything against trolls in it, since it was added later. (THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A VERY REAL THING THAT HAS HAPPENED SO MANY TIMES IN OUR WORLD.) So, why are these characters biased against others? Why do they believe they are justified in their feelings on other species, and will this book challenge these thoughts?<\/p>\n It basically does right off the bat with Vimes, who is faced with the reality of the protests against the vampire hire (vamhire?) once Otto Chriek arrives to take photos of it for the Times<\/i>. This is absolutely the quickest a Discworld <\/i>book has gotten to sadness, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and I think a lot of us can recognize what Otto goes through. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve grown up in a world in which people protest my existence fairly regularly. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a tragic reality of humanity, you know? (And like so many things I am reading and watching lately, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far too relevant.) But out of everything here, I was drawn to this bit:<\/p>\n He looked funny, a joke, a music-hall vampire. It had never previously occurred to Vimes that, just possibly, the joke was on other people. Make them laugh, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not afraid.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I spoke on video about a recent conversation I had with another queer author, and we both commiserated the ways in which we have to make ourselves\u00e2\u20ac\u201dour bodies, our politics, our love lives, our sexuality\u00e2\u20ac\u201dpalatable to others. Constantly<\/i>. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been grating on me because I never know when I step into a room at one of these festivals or conferences if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to be treated like a human. And don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even get me started on the way I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m often fetishized or tokenized for being Latinx in these spaces. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sense that as long as I have no thorny edges, that as I long as I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t challenge the status quo, I am finally tolerated<\/i>. Which is not something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested in, generally speaking, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still that split-second when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in a room with strangers and have to decide whether or not I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to be a joke to people or whether I get to be myself.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So how is this going to play out with Sally? Vimes is, as I said, very open with his great dislike of vampires. Pratchett doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hide this part at all! He literally refuses to shake hands with a vampire. His internal monologue is a lot harsher than I expected. He speaks to the vampire representatives in Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office with a barely-controlled anger, you know? He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want there to be a vampire in the Watch, and if he hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fallen for the way that John Smith \u00e2\u20ac\u0153trapped\u00e2\u20ac\u009d him, I bet Vimes would not have entertained a vampire Watch member for as long as he could.<\/p>\n But what about Doreen??? See, I thought I knew how this was unfolding, but Doreen isn’t<\/i> a vampire? She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a human married to one who thinks that looking and behaving like one is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what? Why does she do that? I WANT TO KNOW A MILLION THINGS ABOUT HER, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. How will she fit into the greater themes of the novel?<\/p>\n And I have the same question about Angua, who is a different side to this story. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a violent relationship between werewolves and vampires in Uberwald, and Angua spends her scene in this opening section trying to resist her natural reaction to a vampire. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying, admittedly, but her reaction to Sally is very, very different to Vimes. Hell, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the same to the dwarf\/troll conflict either. Is she going to remain just as uncomfortable if Sally becomes a member of the Watch? Because at this point, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how Vimes could deny her the opportunity, you know? She is eager and qualified!<\/p>\n This is THE FIRST SECTION. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already so much going on!<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ammTSCaN9Io<\/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 part of Thud!, Vimes is tasked with a new hire that is proving to be controversial. Intrigued? 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