In the second half of the seventh chapter of Wintersmith<\/i>, Tiffany decides to help someone she does not want to help. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For talk of sex<\/b><\/p>\n
I knew that Annagramma would be a disaster, and yet, the events of this chapter were such a delightful (if at times frustrating) treat. And I say frustrating because Pratchett had set up this very thing ages ago, back when we first met Annagramma. She would inevitably have to discover that the things Mrs. Earwig taught her were impractical, mean, biased, and simply untrue in some cases, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only now<\/i> obvious to her. Well, somewhat. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not so sure she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entirely realized what a sham Mrs. Earwig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153magic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is, as she seems to still want to cling to some of it. But with this chapter, Pratchett manages to be both honest and<\/i> sympathetic towards Annagramma, even if sometimes it may be hard to want<\/i> to give her any sympathy.<\/p>\n
She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a child, though. A teenager, yes, but she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still young, she was taken in by someone who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have her best interests in mind, and this chapter details how Mrs. Earwig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preparation utterly failed Annagramma. Thus, I found myself willing to extend that sympathy towards her even if she is so loudly and aggressively wrong… well, pretty much every time she opens her mouth. (Which made that scene where Tiffany told her not<\/i> to open her mouth so very funny to me.) She arrives at Nanny Ogg\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house in a panic because, as I had suspected, her steading is expecting exactly<\/i> what they got from Miss Treason. And the detail about whitewashing the black cottage is just a tiny detail that makes this clear to us. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a visual<\/i> change in the cottage they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re used to, but the greater issue is that Annagramma is completely unprepared for any sort of real witchcraft. This part was so revealing:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And they keep on asking me to sort out stupid little problems, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a clue what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re about. And this morning there was this old man who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dead and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to lay him out and sit up with him tonight. Well, I mean, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so… yuk….\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For those of us who have been reading the entire Discworld<\/i> series up to this point (or who are at least familiar with the Tiffany Aching books), we know what an offensive and ignorant bit this is. Those \u00e2\u20ac\u0153little problems\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are the duty of a witch; they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re expected to assist their steading with a whole assortment of problems! And sitting with the dead… that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a custom in this part of the world. Customs are part of the stories that people tell themselves about the world, that allow us to live in a complicated and scary and unpredictable place, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so vital. But what I like about this is that even within the construction of Wintersmith<\/i>, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent a significant amount of time with Tiffany as she learns more about witchcraft with Miss Treason and Nanny Ogg. So even if this is your very first Discworld <\/i>book, this line still carries a ton of meaning. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brilliant!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So, why does Tiffany agree to help someone who is aggressively wrong all the time and who hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really been good to her all these years? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some interesting insight into this within the text itself, and I have a theory I spoke of on video. First, I wanted to talk about Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts on who Annagramma really was:<\/p>\n Inside there was this worried, frantic little face watching the world like a bunny watching a fox, and screaming at it in the hope that it would go away and not hurt her. And a meeting of witches, who were supposed to be clever, had handed her this steading that would be a hard job for anyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing how this one part made me re-think Annagramma. She is rude and cruel and mean, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think this excuses who she is or what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done. And look at Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior after this, as she accompanies Annagramma on her various duties and trains her, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the sense that Tiffany thought all was well. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that she understands that Annagramma is most likely lashing out due to fear. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s afraid of a world that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, and you can see that in how she reacts to a situation where she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel she has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153knowledge.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Granted, that knowledge is often fault or flat-out untrue, but it is still something she believes she possesses. Tiffany recognizes that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a dearth of real-world wisdom here, and she knows that these people need<\/i> help. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to need help regardless of Annagramma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to provide it. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that Tiffany felt compelled to step in because she knows that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what a witch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s duty is.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Which is sort of related to her theory as to why Granny Weatherwax put forth Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name as a possible successor to Miss Treason. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that on one level, Granny did<\/i> want to make Mrs. Earwig look bad. But Granny had to know that the people of Miss Treason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s steading did not deserve to be punished, so to speak, for the bad teaching of someone else. I bet Granny knew<\/i> that Tiffany would step up to the challenge. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the extra layer here! Granny teaches by example, but she also teaches by not saying or doing anything at all. She can provide<\/i> the means for someone to step up to the task at hand.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway! Just some thoughts. I loved getting to see Annagramma learning about what witches actually<\/i> do. Well… actually, now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve typed that, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m remembering that Annagramma mostly slept while Tiffany was the one who watched over Mr. Tissot. So, guess she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s learning some of the time? And it remains to be seen how much of what happens here will stick in her mind. Will she start defying Mrs. Earwig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s teaching? Will she incorporate what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s learned? Or is she going to extensively rely on Tiffany because she can<\/i>? Hell, is that even possible? Because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d also be worried that at some point, Tiffany would just refuse to do it. Would Annagramma then do what she needs to do? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know! There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153programming,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d so to speak, that needs to be undone in Annagramma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beliefs, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to happen in one sitting.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On top of that, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another wonderful moment in which Nanny Ogg does a little reprogramming of her own. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also clear that Pratchett is not going to make this easy for Tiffany at all. Because while I love Nanny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice and understand why she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given it, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s followed by a scene where someone else gives Tiffany completely<\/i> different advice. Before we get to Anoia, though, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about how Nanny advises Tiffany to deal with the Wintersmith. Unsurprisingly, Nanny is much more open and direct when it comes to desire and sex, so her advice naturally nudges Tiffany in that direction. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing wrong with being desired, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing wrong with feeling nice from the attention. Nanny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice feels practical: men are going to be interested in Tiffany because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a woman, and Nanny wants her to be prepared to be on the receiving end of that attention. She wants her to feel like she has agency, that she has power, and that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allowed to pursue men if she wants to. (I say that based on the line about the man with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good-looking bum\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on him.)<\/p>\n But I was also thinking of Nanny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice through the lens of Tiffany having to go through with this Dance. She has to play a part, right? She has to see this through to the end! So Nanny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice, which suggests that Tiffany give the Wintersmith a little bit of hope, to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kind but firm,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means that the Wintersmith will at least stay nice<\/i> during this. Hopefully? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how much that will work since the Wintersmith isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly human and probably won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t react as a human man will.<\/p>\n Which makes me think that Anoia also has a point. Anoia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appearance comes after Tiffany finally reads Roland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most recent letters, which were not written from the place that Tiffany assumed they were. But it is understandable why she experiences jealousy and frustration! So Anoia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice is to just outright reject the Wintersmith. And why not? Just say no, make it clear, entertain none of it, and they can have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153summer all year round like the hot countries do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Is that realistic? Probably not. Tiffany hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even figured out what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to do<\/i> as the Summer Lady, so how could she keep a perpetual summer around? But Anoia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice is appealing<\/i>. Just be done with it all, and wipe your hands clean! A cold turkey approach might work, but my gut feeling is that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to help here. However, both these pieces of advice are really valuable things for Tiffany to hear to help her deal with human<\/i> men who pursue her. I like that she gets to know that flirting is okay, that pursuit is okay, that sexual desire is okay, and so is just saying no and doing none of the above. I am still frightened of what either option will bring about for Tiffany, though, and I am 0% ready to see the Wintersmith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153man\u00e2\u20ac\u009d form. NO THANKS.<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/5hi-IPRmQhs<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – 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>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 second half of the seventh chapter of Wintersmith, Tiffany decides to help someone she does not want to help. 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-4872","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\/4872","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=4872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}