{"id":4942,"date":"2019-05-08T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4942"},"modified":"2019-05-05T13:47:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-05T20:47:19","slug":"mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-iii-chapter-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/05\/mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-iii-chapter-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;The Science of Discworld III&#8217;: Chapter 11"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the eleventh chapter of <i>Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Watch<\/i>, the wizards decide that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had enough. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <i>The Science of Discworld III<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Yo, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d actually get a sampling of the 1,457 reasons why Darwin never came to write <i>The Origin of Species<\/i>, but here we are!!! However, it soon became apparent to me how deliberate this was. On the one hand, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just flat-out <i>funny<\/i>. The giant squid makes another appearance, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quickly becoming one of my favorite recurring jokes. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so much absurdity here, too! Stung to death by wasps. HIT BY A METEORITE. In which universe did the <i>Beagle<\/i> somehow make it to NORWAY??? No, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell me. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the ridiculousness nature of it all that matters, and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put this together sooner. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, which character in this bunch has been on the receiving end of seemingly perpetual waves of absurd plot twists? Which wizard knows what it is like to feel like you are a pawn of a god who is just doing as many things as possible to you in order to mess up your whole life?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhy not just take it for <i>granted<\/i> that someone is out to get you?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Rincewind. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I do. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother to work out the fine detail.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so OBVIOUS in hindsight that Rincewind would figure this out before anyone else. Of course!!! And not only is he used to this, he has a sense of <i>why<\/i> someone or something would behave this way:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSomething down there is frightened. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so frightened that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even going to let him get on the boat.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And he takes it one step futher:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThen if it was me, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that something\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got really worried,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Rincewind. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThey don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind if <i>The Ology<\/i> doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get written in just one universe, but they hate the idea of <i>The Origin<\/i> being written at <i>all<\/i>.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I know I give the wizards a harder time than most recurring characters, but this one twist made me appreciate how much this story is <i>uniquely<\/i> linked to Rincewind and what the wizards have experienced in these three <i>Science<\/i> books. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re officially considered part of the canon, but they absolutely fit within the larger stories being told, especially when it comes to characterization. Rincewind is the perfect character to shift the expectations and motivations of the entire bunch! And once he does, this chapter gains a spectacular amount of momentum. Ridcully realizes that someone is messing with HIS Roundworld, and he won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand for that!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think you can fight a whole universe, sir!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the prerogative of every life form, Mr. Stibbons!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And thus, this story changes. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just about changing minute details in Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. As pointed out by the text, every \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fix\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gives birth to a new set of problems to be fixed. By the time Ponder gets his nodality \u00e2\u20ac\u0153map\u00e2\u20ac\u009d up and running outside of the university, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear just how convoluted and fucked up Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s timelines in the multiverse are. The color coded nodes helped me understand what the wizards would have to do, versus what Hex could do. There are so many damn malignities just in getting Darwin <i>on<\/i> the <i>Beagle<\/i> and keeping him there. Once Ponder zooms out, so to speak, there are countless diversions that prevent <i>The Origin of Species<\/i> from existing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a framework: the wizards <i>are<\/i> going to be assigned tasks to bring Darwin back on track, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now a much bigger issue: Who or what is the intelligent force deliberately fucking up every timeline so that this book is never published in <i>any<\/i> universe? Who would be so terrified of it existing?? I genuinely don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know! Is it a force from Roundworld? Someone we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t met? I AM DEEPLY INVESTED IN THIS.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/TrxbCAbau9c<\/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 eleventh chapter of Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Watch, the wizards decide that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had enough. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Science of Discworld III.\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":[463,248,559],"class_list":["post-4942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-the-science-of-discworld-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4942","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=4942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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