{"id":4887,"date":"2019-02-20T05:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4887"},"modified":"2019-02-17T11:33:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T19:33:37","slug":"mark-reads-making-money-chapter-1-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/02\/mark-reads-making-money-chapter-1-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Making Money&#8217;: Chapter 1, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the second half of the first chapter of <i>Making Money<\/i>, Vetinari nudges Moist in a new direction. 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>Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I love that the main motivating factor for Moist at this point is BOREDOM. Even better: <i>this is not a ludicrous idea for someone like Moist von Lipwig<\/i>. This is something we saw in the midst of <i>Going Postal<\/i>, and it was one of the reasons he almost strayed from the path that Vetinari had put him on. The life of doing good wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t challenging Moist anymore. It had no thrill! He eventually found that fun again towards the end of the novel in his battle with Gilt over the Grand Trunk and the clacks.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But what about <i>now<\/i>? The portrait of the Post Office that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re given in the pages of this chapter is one of beautiful efficiency. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, he <i>did<\/i> it. He turned the Post Office into a place that works, undeniably so, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now mired in the sheer organizational nightmare of it all. There are meetings. Memos. Documents. Pensions and wages and taxes and regulations and codes, and all of it has made lives demonstrably better, and Moist is just flat-out BORED.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Everything was all so&#8230; worthy. And it was stifling.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But that word is almost underselling what this experience is like for Moist. Pratchett doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny the great social worth of the Post Office, but he also draws his humor from the very real onslaught of bureaucracy and management. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever worked in any sort of position like this, then you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re familiar with much of what we see here. There are the minutes that look \u00e2\u20ac\u0153more like hours\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; there are the mugs with mind-numbing sayings on them and the people who genuinely find them to be amusing; there are the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153acres\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of words you have to read; there are the routine aspects of your job that become routine before you even realize they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done so.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In short: everything in Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life is safe and orderly and expected, and it is enraging to someone like him.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And Vetinari <i>knows<\/i> that. Why do you think he offered Gilt the chance to do exactly what he is offering Moist? Why would a thief like these men find these puzzles so tantalizing? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the <i>danger<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the risk. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the sheer impossibility of the task ahead of them that keeps them ticking. Vetinari clearly wanted to plant the idea of something dangerous and exciting in Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind in the first meeting in this chapter. But what happens <i>here<\/i>? This is BARELY subtle, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Vetinari flat-out tells Moist that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s restless, that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153life has lost its flavor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for him, that what he has to offer will provide \u00e2\u20ac\u0153powerful and dangerous enemies, with every day presenting fresh challenges. Someone may even try to kill you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>This is all music to Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ears!!! Who cares if he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how to run a bunk? Seriously, I know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a joke, but the man has stole from so many of them that he probably <i>does<\/i> know more about them than he realizes. (He knows enough to use the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153usury.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Well, he uses the wrong one first, and I am not going to stop groaning at that goddamn pun.) I also feel like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a possible subtle reason for Vetinari choosing Moist for this. Like we saw in <i>Going Postal<\/i>, events helped show Moist that what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done throughout his life had actually hurt people. Did he really do penance or was he truly held accountable for how much he stolen from all those banks? What of the lives he ruined that way? So there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a poetic justice at work here, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m saying that with the assumption that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reason no one trusts the banks. Right? Vetinari says:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There have been too many failures. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re stuck in the mud, they live in the past, they are hypnotized by class and wealth, they think gold is important.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot accusations thrown at the bank, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt them at all. So, how is it that the banks became socially associated with the upper class? I feel like Mr. Bent\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwho I was convinced was a different clerk we had met in <i>Going Postal<\/i>, so my bad in feeling like I knew who he was\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis a possible answer to that. He has a <i>very<\/i> particular sense to him, you know? Does that extend to who he wants as a customer? I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking ahead here, but these recent <i>Discworld<\/i> books have been rather heavy on social commentary, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m actually itching for Pratchett to talk about class and finances, even if class in the UK is very different than it is here. All we know is that corruption is at the heart of the bank, and the only example truly given to us is Sir Joshua Lavish, who was using the bank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apartment to cheat on his wife. Which&#8230; seriously, I imagine Lavish felt he was <i>owed<\/i> that space, right? The fact that he did it with such regularity is damning, as is the location. So if that man was chairman of the bank, who else is in charge? Is Mr. Bent just like them, or while he be more amenable to changes?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Because I do not doubt that Moist will make HUGE changes to this place, and I clearly believe he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to accept Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offer. The man is lockpicking his own desk and deliberately trying to break into the Post Office <i>for entertainment<\/i>. He needs this just as Vetinari needs the bank to run better.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So, one other thing: Did Miss Dearheart find a golem buried in that parcel of land she is leasing? That has to be it! And it sounds like the golem isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a typical one, either. I AM VERY EAGER TO FIND OUT MORE.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/iGJaRB_iIQM<\/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 second half of the first chapter of Making Money, Vetinari nudges Moist in a new direction. 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":[558,463,248],"class_list":["post-4887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-making-money","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887","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=4887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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