{"id":4881,"date":"2019-02-11T05:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4881"},"modified":"2019-02-10T17:15:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T01:15:22","slug":"mark-reads-wintersmith-chapter-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/02\/mark-reads-wintersmith-chapter-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Wintersmith&#8217;: Chapter 12"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the twelfth and penultimate chapter of <i>Wintersmith<\/i>, OH NO. 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 brief mention of abuse, manipulation<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The question I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still obsessed with: is the first chapter of this book exactly what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen in the last chapter? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recall Roland being a part of it, so how will his role affect what happens to Tiffany? Did I just miss all the hints about Roland and the Underworld??? I GENUINELY DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW. Actually, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just jump into this:<\/p>\n<p><b>Roland<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There is a lot of story left to happen here, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just over fifty pages in which it needs to unfold. Roland isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even <i>in<\/i> the Underworld by the end of this chapter; hell, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only training to survive there in chapter twelve! TRAINING. Over the course of this chapter, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all that happens: the Feegles do their best to prepare Roland to fight, after learning that this is his experience with fighting:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And ye know how tae fight?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read the <i>Manual of Swordmanship<\/i> all the way through!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an endearing answer, but it also speaks to the fact that Roland, due to his circumstances, has had to experience much of the world through books. Well, ever since his father became sick, that is. (He definitely had an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experience\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when he and Tiffany first met.) His time in the Tower has prepared him in a unique way, and I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be surprised if his cunning abilities that he used to avoid and annoy his aunts were re-purposed here. What if <i>that<\/i> made him perfect to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rescue\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Lady? But all I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got is speculation. I figure the Feegles can get Roland into the Underworld\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat kind of travel is easy for them\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut we there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little information in the text about what exactly he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll face.<\/p>\n<p>So the Feegles have to make the best of a situation that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one giant unknown, and that means training Roland as rapidly as they can. A lot of these scenes are incredibly funny, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just as tense. Why? Because <i>what if this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough<\/i>? Is it enough to want to help Tiffany? Or will Roland need more than that? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know! As far as the story goes, it just needs a Hero. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no one way to be a Hero, right? And I believe Granny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s take on all this, that these people just have to play their part in a story that has a veritable life of its own. But even Roland believes in it to some extent! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s able to relate his rescue to the story of Orpheo, to the metaphors for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the annual return of summer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He knows stories and metaphors have <i>power<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Still, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cool to see Roland train, and it was even cooler to see him both get better\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlike when he chopped the Feegle soldier in two\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<i>and<\/i> stand up to his Aunt Danuta. For the entirety of this book, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s listened to his aunts threaten and begrudge him through a door, one he refuses to open. So I found it intensely meaningful that here, in the midst of his training, he yanks the door open and threatens Aunt Danuta right back. Not only that, but he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow Danuta to get in a manipulative word:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How dare you! Your dear mother\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is dead!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d shouted Roland, and slammed the door.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This was so satisfying to me, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to fare in the Underworld, but I love that Roland gets his own arc in this story. That matters a whole lot to me, especially as someone who was on the receiving end of abuse from multiple adults while I was a child.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Tiffany<\/b><\/p>\n<p>So, while all this is happening, Tiffany keeps living. It such a great choice for the story because Pratchett has created a story that fits in so well with previous ones about the witches. The world may descend into chaos, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still work to be done. If Roland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s confrontation with Danuta is my favorite of his scenes in this chapter, then Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own exchange with her mother is my favorite of hers. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both scenes in which kids are honest with adults, no matter how the adults might potentially feel about it. Here, Tiffany tells her mother that she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just do some magic to clean the floor. You <i>still<\/i> have to do the hard work. And this bit is THE BEST:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I thought you just had to wave your hands about,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she mumbled nervously.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That works,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Tiffany, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but only if you wave them about on the floor with a scrubbing brush.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But I feel like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another angle to this. Busy work is also a GREAT distraction. Tiffany talks about how this kind of busy work can help you give \u00e2\u20ac\u0153your thoughts time to line up and settle down.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Look, SAME. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how I feel about chores and errands, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one thing I do to deal with anxiety or with writers block. Tiffany spends most of this chapter entirely in her head, trying to think about the Wintersmith while NOT thinking about him. Because what else can she do? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mostly just waiting around until something important happens. Had she actually hidden from the Wintersmith? Or had she just delayed the inevitable?<\/p>\n<p>I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I saw the discarding of Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s necklace as something else. I mean, I get why I thought what I did about it; I was trying to predict where this was going, and I believed that Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicated feelings over the Wintersmith could have affected her when she tossed the silver horse. But holy shit, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reappearance here is just CHILLING. (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pun FIGHT ME.) I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d forgotten about the necklace, but because Pratchett had assigned so much importance to it, I knew the <i>second<\/i> she touched it, that the Wintersmith would arrive.<\/p>\n<p>Oh god, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re right up to the first chapter, aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we? HELP<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/P2ueLk1xB0M<\/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 twelfth and penultimate chapter of Wintersmith, OH NO. 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-4881","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\/4881","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=4881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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