{"id":4860,"date":"2019-01-18T05:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4860"},"modified":"2019-01-13T17:14:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T01:14:55","slug":"mark-reads-wintersmith-chapter-5-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/01\/mark-reads-wintersmith-chapter-5-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Wintersmith&#8217;: Chapter 5, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the first half of the fifth chapter of <i>Wintersmith<\/i>, Miss Treason has her funeral. 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 extensive talk of death.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This is&#8230; a lot.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The witches started arriving around four o\u00e2\u20ac\u2122clock, and Tiffany went out into the clearing to do air traffic control.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This joke is so good and I just wanna sit here for an hour staring at it, but there are MANY OTHER THINGS we must discuss. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not surprised that at no point does the Wintersmith seem to show up during Miss Treason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funeral. And why would he? During an argument of witches? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just asking for trouble, and there was already enough as it was during this. As Granny Weatherwax had said she would do, Tiffany is suggested as the successor to Miss Treason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cottage. Now, in trying to think about this like Granny Weatherwax would, I gotta say: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Granny ever expected Tiffany to be a serious contender. In fact, I bet she had another reason for doing this. One, it keeps Tiffany on her toes, but it also forces the other witches to make their case, too. They can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just accept that Annagramma gets it because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re older; they have to argue about it. Though I wonder if this was also because Granny <i>wanted<\/i> to give Tiffany a little boost to her self-esteem as a way to help her without directly helping her, you know? That feels like a <i>very<\/i> Granny Weatherwax thing to do.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interesting, though. I just wanted to pointed out what <i>else<\/i> this act exposes: Annagramma. Because at no point does she congratulate Tiffany, not even in that fake, conciliatory way where you do it just to seem polite. Annagramma doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about politeness at all, and so all she does is badger Tiffany about whether she wants the cottage and tell her that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153completely unacceptable\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that she was even nominated. When&#8230; well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not, is it? And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I mean by a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153boost.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tiffany knows she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done much more powerful and important witching than Annagramma has or probably ever will do, at least as long as Annagramma still learns under Mrs. Earwig. Maybe this is an unintended side effect, but I kinda liked the idea that it was<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It also brings up a point that Tiffany will make almost immediately afterward to Miss Tick, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one I talked about in the last review. How do you fill the shoes of someone like Miss Treason? I wrote of it in regards to Tiffany, and more specifically for Petulia, but now that I know that Annagramma IS getting the cottage&#8230; oh lord. HOW? How is she going to manage this? Mrs. Earwig has taught Annagramma to avoid all the things that witches generally do and which Miss Treason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s steading has come to depend on her for. Sure, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something to be said for this dependent relationship and the expectations that are being placed on Annagramma, who is very young. Like, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots that the people of the surrounding villages could probably do for themselves instead of relying on Miss Treason?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at stake here, nor is it the main issue. After the funeral ends, this book goes to a very sad and touching place, and I <i>love<\/i> the tonal change. The funeral was Miss Treason and her fellow witches putting on a show, and what a show it was. THERE WAS SO MUCH THEFT. Like, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an expected reality of this culture and everyone just accepts it? No wonder Miss Treason had Tiffany get so many sausages! Once everyone has gone, all the extra items around the cottage have been given to their respective witches, and the last of the food (that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s) is taken, the mask comes off, and a new ceremony begins. Pratchett imbues the text with an unnerving energy as Tiffany does what needs to be done around the cottage to prepare for Miss Treason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death. Even typing that&#8230; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to wrap my mind around it. Miss Treason knows pretty much <i>exactly<\/i> when she is going to die, and she treats it (mostly) like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just an appointment she needs to keep. Which&#8230; is not inaccurate, now that I think about it. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got an appointment with Death! But even normal things\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlike the stopping of the loom\u00e2\u20ac\u201dare given a new meaning here. There is the dread of the unspoken and the unseen here. Is Miss Treason <i>really<\/i> going to die? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Tiffany is wondering, along with a ton of other things. Is she just <i>not<\/i> going to talk about it? But Miss Treason says nothing, so Tiffany goes about her business. (Which includes, I should note, writing down information for Annagramma about her new steading, which is both kind and practical and 100% something Annagramma would never do if the situation were reversed.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And then&#8230; lord. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sad just reading this over again, and I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even finished the chapter! Surely the second half of this will destroy me even more! But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a starkness to the way Miss Treason speaks to Tiffany, admitting that she never really <i>talked<\/i> with her student, that she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t teach her enough, that she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a chance to explore love and romance. Fuck, that last one is <i>gut-wrenching<\/i>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was always too busy to pay attention to young men,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Miss Treason. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They were always for later and then later was too late.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8230; I was not ready to read that. I admittedly have a deep fear of my own mortality, which means I generally hate waiting for things? (Which is strange because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also a deeply patient person.) Why wait when there might not <i>be<\/i> any time later? At the end of her 113 years, Miss Treason admits that she chose to focus on one aspect of her life to the detriment of another. (Assuming, of course, that she at one time <i>was<\/i> interested in pursuing romance or sex; if not, then that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really make this sad, you know?) But of everything she says, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the summary of her steading that hit me the hardest:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, my silly people. Anything they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand is magic. They think I can see into their hears, but no witch can do that. Not without surgery, at least. No magic is needed to read their little minds, though. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve known them since they were babes. I remember when their grandparents were babes! They think they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so grown-up! But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still no better than babies in the sandpit, squabbling over mud pies. I see their lies and excuses and fears. They never grow up, not really. They never look up and open their eyes. They stay children their whole lives.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll miss you,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Tiffany.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ha! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m the wicked ol\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 witch, girl. They feared me, and did what they were told! They feared joke skulls and silly stories. I chose fear. I knew they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never love me for telling \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem the truth, so I made certain of their fear.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier in the book, Tiffany asked Miss Treason why she would want to seem so awful, and she just said that she had her reasons. Well, I believe those reasons were just spelled out. It was the only way Miss Treason thought she could help them: to feed into that fear, to guarantee it stayed, and to ride it out until the very end. So why tell Tiffany this? Why the honesty? Well, why <i>not<\/i>? Why not tell the truth to someone you respect, who has done you right as a student and maybe even a friend?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I now can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get out of my head, though. What if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point of having Annagramma take over? What if someone who hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t grown up herself suddenly has to watch over people who, in their own way, <i>also<\/i> haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t grown up? That sounds like&#8230; a disaster? But maybe something good will come of it. Maybe they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll grow together???<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/9bg59__kv7Y<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markoshiro.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/19\/the-anger-is-a-gift-paperback-edition-is-out-may-7-2019\">The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now up for pre-order!<\/a> It comes out on May 7, 2019.\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 first half of the fifth chapter of Wintersmith, Miss Treason has her funeral. 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":[463,248,556],"class_list":["post-4860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-wintersmith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860","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=4860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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