{"id":4873,"date":"2019-02-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4873"},"modified":"2019-01-27T08:03:30","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T16:03:30","slug":"mark-reads-wintersmith-chapter-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/02\/mark-reads-wintersmith-chapter-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Wintersmith&#8217;: Chapter 8"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the eighth chapter of <i>Wintersmith<\/i>, Tiffany makes an agreement and then receives her Thingy. 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>Oh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this book just keeps surprising me. What the hell is this going to become? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of my favorite questions to ask about a story, particularly one that has taken so many interesting turns. And I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore that this book opened with an ending, telling me where this was all heading, and it did not undermine the pacing or the excitement. SO LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TALK ABOUT THIS.<\/p>\n<p><b>A Framework<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Annagramma coming back to Tiffany to ask for help? Not all that surprising. And I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d wondered about that: How much of what Tiffany told her would actually stick? I feel like this chapter answers that: not a whole lot. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some awareness here, enough that Annagramma knew to come ask Tiffany. That means she <i>was<\/i> aware that Tiffany knew how this was <i>supposed<\/i> to go, even if she wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite ready to accept that. Still, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to ignore the frustration here! Annagramma shows up, reveals she messed up multiple things, and then insults farmers and peasants in the process.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at that point that this really got surprising for me. It was so easy for me to assume that Annagramma came from a certain background. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so arrogant and certain about the world, and she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have had any experience with the sort of things she insults. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an added complication and meaning to the fact that Annagramma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father works <i>for<\/i> a farmer and that her family is a lot poorer than I previously thought. (Which does make me wonder how Annagramma has been able to afford all the magical stuff she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s purchased. Where is that money coming from?) There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an element of self-hatred, or at least personal shame, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at work here. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t <i>want<\/i> to come from that background, and so she masks it with her behavior. She leads everyone to believe that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more well-off than she is, that she comes from a different culture and tradition. NO WONDER SHE IS SO RELUCTANT TO ASK FOR HELP. Look what she had to reveal in order to truly get assistance from Tiffany!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yet even in this, Pratchett gives us an important moment of self-reflection from Tiffany, too. Because as easy as it is for Tiffany to criticize Annagramma and Granny Weatherwax, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a part of this that directly addresses her own problems:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to be able to deal with it, sheep girl! Why take it on if you couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do it?<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Everyone needs help at some point in their lives. Everyone will most likely bite off more than they could chew. And Tiffany \u00e2\u20ac\u0153took on\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Dance, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she? Shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she be able to deal with it? Or deal with Annagramma either? So, as I suspected earlier, Tiffany agrees to help because she knows that in the end, the people of Annagramma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s steading will get hurt. She <i>has<\/i> to help because she knows it is wrong to allow this to happen without getting involved. And I do respect that line of thinking: this situation is <i>not<\/i> fair. Tiffany has enough to deal with on her own! Why should she be the one to help someone else with this mess?<\/p>\n<p>Well, because the mess is more complicated than that, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even more unfair that people should suffer because of it. We see that logic applied as Tiffany goes to all her fellow young witches and asks them to assist. Can they really sit by and let this happen if they have the means to help out? Look, I get <i>anyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/i> reluctance to want to help Annagramma! This chapter is full of VERY LEGITIMATE reasons to not want anything to do with her! She is mean and arrogant and sarcastic and she makes people feel awful about themselves and DO I NEED TO GO ON.<\/p>\n<p>But they all chose to help. AND I WANT TO SEE THOSE SCENES. These girls are basically going to re-educate Annagramma! And if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re successful, how much will Annagramma change???<\/p>\n<p><b>A Summer Lady<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The shift in this chapter from the Annagramma plot back to the Wintersmith felt jarring, but it was only an initial thing. There was no scene break here, so why did Tiffany suddenly feel compelled to call on the Wintersmith? Well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because of how Tiffany has reacted to Annagramma. She accepts that there <i>is<\/i> jealousy at work here, that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reason why someone could be envious of her. I read that as a confidence booster. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dealt with <i>so much<\/i> through the years, so hell yeah, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing! And thus, when she calls on the Wintersmith, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with a combination of the advice she was given by Nanny Ogg and Anoia: hope but firm. Rejection but not. And in treating the Wintersmith this way, she gets him to stop with the frosty messages, the iceberg likenesses, and the Wintersmith agrees to <i>only<\/i> snowflakes. (There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the tiny bit of hope.) Unfortunately, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still the whole turning into a man business, which I remain 100% unprepared for. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SCARED.)<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>However, it is also in this scene when the <i>actual<\/i> Summer Lady reaches out to Tiffany, and that interaction is&#8230; not so great? Tiffany pushes her away and in response, the Summer Lady sends the Cornucopia. At least, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m assuming the order of events is.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about as much as I understand this? I feel like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intentional! Tiffany, Nanny Ogg, Granny, the Feegles, You, <i>and<\/i> the Reader are all on the same page: WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS. Is it the item that Tiffany is supposed to use to bring about Spring? Why does she need it now? Does she <i>not<\/i>, but the Summer Lady sent it just to mess with Tiffany? Where the <i>hell<\/i> does the inside of that Cornucopia <i>go<\/i>? Is it just an endless space that produces an endless amount of things to consume? The only thing I <i>can<\/i> theorize is that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the story. Chaffinch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>Mythology<\/i> gives us a part of that story, but what I mean is that Tiffany has a part to play. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a brilliant bit at the start of the chapter about the importance of stories, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still interested in how much Tiffany will stick to that. Is she going to continue to subvert the story or accept what she is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153supposed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to do?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>WHAT ARE THEY GONNA DO WITH ALL THOSE CHICKENS???<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/giphy.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4876 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/giphy.gif\" alt=\"Animated GIF of a field of geese. The camera pans to the left and a young girl gestures at the field and says, &quot;Look at all these chickens.&quot;\" width=\"320\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/L6BYR1beicg<\/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 eighth chapter of Wintersmith, Tiffany makes an agreement and then receives her Thingy. 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-4873","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\/4873","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=4873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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