{"id":4867,"date":"2019-01-23T05:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4867"},"modified":"2019-01-21T09:22:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T17:22:08","slug":"mark-reads-wintersmith-chapter-6-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/01\/mark-reads-wintersmith-chapter-6-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Wintersmith&#8217;: Chapter 6, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the first half of the sixth chapter of <i>Wintersmith<\/i>, Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s birthday arrives, and she spends it fighting off the Wintersmith. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <i>Discworld<\/i>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something poetic in the notion of a birthday landing on the day in which Miss Treason passes out of this world. If anything, this reveal, which comes after the brilliant end to chapter five, only supports the notion that life goes on. Time presses forward, and there is work to do that no one else will do, regardless of deaths, births, birthdays, or anniversaries.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But from this, Pratchett builds on the notion that there is something deeply, deeply wrong in the Wintersmith. Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a surprise! We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve known that from the beginning, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that there is a more concrete example of its inhumanity, of how it imitates humans but can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever reach what we are. And I think that last part is important because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that the Wintersmith can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t behave like a human. Indeed, its infatuation with Tiffany <i>does<\/i> feel quite human, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? I bet a number of us could recount stories of people who have developed unhealthy attachments to other people like this. (I sure could.) But that obsession is still coming from someone who <i>is<\/i> inhuman, which is why Granny Weatherwax\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwho makes one HELL of an entrance, mind you\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmakes this distinction:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>\u00e2\u20ac\u009dIt!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/i> snapped Granny, rubbing her forehead. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an it, not a he! An it that thinks it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a he! Now give me your necklace!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even though Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s confrontation with the Wintersmith is short, its still mystifying. I feel like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a clue in the way that the Wintersmith spoke to her. She was right to pick up on it saying that she \u00e2\u20ac\u0153must be\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the one in the Dance. So&#8230; what did she <i>look<\/i> like to the Wintersmith during the Dance? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly a difference between the two states, or else why would the Wintersmith say this?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where is your power? Why are you dressed like this?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Wintersmith demanded. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is not as it should be.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What is the Wintersmith <i>talking<\/i> about? What did the Wintersmith see during the Dance??? Clearly, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a discrepancy here. But <i>why<\/i>?<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to be worried about in this book. Obviously, the Wintersmith is the most immediate threat. But Annagramma and Mrs. Earwig arrive so that Annagramma can officially be given Miss Treason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home. I genuinely don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how this is going to work, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Annagramma is nervous when she arrives\u00e2\u20ac\u201dunderstandably so!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m only <i>now<\/i> aware of a dynamic that might be a significant impediment to Annagramma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life as a witch. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, does Mrs. Earwig <i>believe<\/i> what she says? Or is it an act? Does she plan on teaching Annagramma what it means to be a witch privately while giving off an image to the public, or is that her through and through? Because if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the latter, then Annagramma really is going to be woefully unprepared for what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to happen, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Like, THIS IS GOING TO BE REALLY BAD. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen when Miss Treason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s old steading comes to her to help resolve disputes? Or if they need help delivering a child or a calf? What about all the day-to-day tasks that Tiffany helped complete? Does Annagramma know how to do <i>any<\/i> of them??? I had an idea while reading this, but&#8230; well, I thought <i>maybe<\/i> that Tiffany would help Annagramma, but Tiffany can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stick around here anymore, can she?<\/p>\n<p>See, this leads perfectly into the <i>other<\/i> thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m worried about. When Granny Weatherwax tells Tiffany that the horse necklace is drawing the Wintersmith to her, she also says this in regards to throwing it into the river:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It has to be your choice,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Granny. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it for you. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a small thing, and while you have it, it will be dangerous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, question for y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all that you obviously can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t answer because SPOILERS: Did Tiffany <i>really<\/i> want to give up that necklace? Or was her intent in tying it to a stick different than what was on the surface? Because if she gave it up <i>without<\/i> the intention to truly give it up, does that mean the Wintersmith will still try to give it back to her? Belief is so important on the Disc, so she <i>has<\/i> to believe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing, that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually meaningless, or else it will always be linked to her.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m real worried. I know a possible ending to this, and IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S STILL NOT COMFORTING IN ANY WAY.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9wDSIJu_ATY<\/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 sixth chapter of Wintersmith, Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s birthday arrives, and she spends it fighting off the Wintersmith. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld.<\/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-4867","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\/4867","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=4867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4867"}],"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! -->