{"id":4893,"date":"2019-02-27T05:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4893"},"modified":"2019-02-24T08:20:45","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T16:20:45","slug":"mark-reads-making-money-chapter-3-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/02\/mark-reads-making-money-chapter-3-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Making Money&#8217;: Chapter 3, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the first half of the third chapter of <i>Making Money<\/i>, Moist meets Hubert, gets a demonstration, and turns down an offer. 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>This book is already too much, what the hell???<\/p>\n<p><b>Hubert<\/b><\/p>\n<p>So, Hubert is basically the mad scientist trope except he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t <i>know<\/i> that he fulfills this trope? I suppose that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an accurate interpretation of him, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also important to note that Hubert spends so much time in the cellar of the bank that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, much of anything happening in the outside world. He is singularly focused on what he has created and perfecting it. In that sense, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like a more disorganized Mr. Bent, right? Both of them have such an intense focus on the things they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re interested in! They just approach their interests differently.<\/p>\n<p>And Hubert\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interest is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Glooper. It is a device that is both impossible to describe and weirdly sensible? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if Pratchett was referencing something in the real world, but it reminded me of a computer or computational power. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statistics and probability, rendered through complicated glassware, flasks, reservoirs, and buckets. Well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 sort of? Since we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the exact details of the Glooper, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to tell what parts are just Hubert winging it and which are based on real formulas or measurements or anything. (And knowing Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writing, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that Hubert has no real clue what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll still end up accurately predicting the future <i>anyway<\/i>.)<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Once we moved away from the Glooper itself, though, things started to make more sense. Namely:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What relation is Hubert to the current chairman?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nephew,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Bent. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How did you\u00e2\u20ac\u201d?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As is often the case with super rich families, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of nepotism. And this feels like a confirmation that Hubert is allowed to do what he does solely because he is part of the Lavish family. He might be eccentric to the rest of the family, but having the prestige of a last name like that, connected to old money, means that you get away with a whole lot more things than the rest of us do. So, is Hubert just the acceptable black sheep in the family? How is his device going to <i>actually<\/i> affect the story?<\/p>\n<p><b>Mr. Bent<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I imagine Mr. Bent would be offended by the comparison to Hubert, but I do see a commonality between them. The first half of this chapter continues to give us more examples of his complete devotion to the bank, as well as Bent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uncanny ability to compute large sums in his mind. While I can see how Bent could be an antagonistic force as Moist tries to bring about changes in the bank\u00e2\u20ac\u201doh, Moist is definitely going to help out!!!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI also recognize that, as far as I can tell, he <i>enjoys<\/i> what he does. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost a sense of pleasure in Bent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s words as he talks about math or his policies. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>certainly<\/i> pride in the way he speaks of his time working late in the evenings or while on holiday. And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anything inherently wrong with that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what he loves, and while I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why he pursued that, I accept that this is who he is.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Con<\/b><\/p>\n<p>So, I initially thought that the Big Cabbage scene was Moist, since it sounded like his sort of grifting and conning. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly a separate person, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m latching on to one detail over everything else: the newspaper that this man picked up. Because isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there a photo of Moist in the paper now? How much you wanna bet that this man <i>knows<\/i> Moist? (WHY DO HIS TEETH COMMUNICATE, WHAT THE HELL.)<\/p>\n<p><b>Back at the Office<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Oh, there are so many fascinating details planted in the scene where Moist returns to the Post Office. First of all, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some great info on the Lavish family, and I cannot fucking believe I JUST GOT THE PUN\/REFERENCE IN THEIR LAST NAME. Oh my god, a LAVISH lifestyle. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a writer, I swear.) Anyway, the brief and jarring history that we get here is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, it basically confirms exactly what I thought they were like? Clearly Topsy is the best. (Though I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious about her side of the family and what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re like.) The rest are walking nightmares who have gotten everything they have wanted in life and who become enraged when they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Also: lots of familial legal suits??? Oh god, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re totally a super rich family, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re probably going to be obnoxious.<\/p>\n<p>Miss Dearheart is on her way back. WHAT DID SHE DISCOVER. The chapter header did not lie: that note is OMINOUS.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Vetinari <i>again<\/i>. I mentioned this on video, but seriously, have we ever gotten this much of Vetinari this early? It makes for a great joke because he keeps showing up to pester Moist. I feel like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sign of just how much he wants Moist to do as he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being asked, though. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never been <i>this<\/i> persistent, you know? And despite that Moist signs the documents stating that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll remain with the Post Office, I am sure something will change his mind. Will it be an external force? Will Vetinari have to try again, or will circumstance push Moist in that direction?<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/OjEjZbA3KUg<\/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 third chapter of Making Money, Moist meets Hubert, gets a demonstration, and turns down an offer. 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-4893","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\/4893","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=4893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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