{"id":4964,"date":"2019-06-07T05:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4964"},"modified":"2019-06-04T18:37:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T01:37:40","slug":"mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-iii-chapter-25-afterthought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/06\/mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-iii-chapter-25-afterthought\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;The Science of Discworld III&#8217;: Chapter 25 \/ Afterthought"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the twenty-fifth and final chapter of <i>Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Watch<\/i>, watch and listen. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to finish <i>The Science of Discworld III<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>So, my gut reaction here, and I wanna make sure to note that this was written BEFORE: this chapter reminded me so much of the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Vincent and the Doctor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And yes!!! That aired years after this book was first published! But when Ridcully said he wanted to leave Darwin with at least one memory, this is not what I thought he meant. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subtle enough\u00e2\u20ac\u201despecially given the context of how this goes down\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat Darwin can slip back into his old life with just a <i>sense<\/i> that the implications of his work are right. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the gift given to him with this closing scene. Ridcully takes him to the place that is the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Temple of the Ascent of Man\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the universes where <i>The Ology<\/i> existed. That felt intentional, too, on Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part. Even if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not necessarily religious in the strictest sense, a well-curated museum <i>can<\/i> feel like a temple, and many of them are constructed in a manner that feels spiritual once you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re inside them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually recall the date of my first trip to the Natural History Museum in London; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been a few times over the years. But it was when the giant blue whale skeleton was hanging over the place, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if that places it within a certain date range or not. (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if it was always there.) But there <i>is<\/i> a beautiful sense of grandeur when you step inside that building, and I love that this is conveyed through the brief scene here. Not much is described about the museum itself, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s enough to ground the whole thing in a stunning reality: Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work was immensely influential to that place and to humanity as a whole. And so, while he looks upon the museum, the wizards tell him most of the truth of Roundworld. But this line, spoken by Ridcully at the start, is the most striking of them all:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8216;I would like you to know that because of you, humanity turned out to be fit enough to survive.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Does Darwin understand everything he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s told? Probably not. But the general meaning behind it all sticks, and he instead accepts a narrative that is context specific and meaningful: the wizards are like the ghosts in <i>A Christmas Carol<\/i>, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll soon wake from a dream and understand what he was struggling with on the entangled banks. Not only that, but Ridcully\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full plan comes to fruition when Darwin <i>asks<\/i> to have his memory erased. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to remember this entire experience. And it made so much sense to me! Darwin already suspected the truth of his work before this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dream,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and all this did was give him a subtle, subconscious nudge in the right direction. At least, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what this will feel like from his perspective, right?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And before this wrapped up on a rather sweet note, the Auditors make a final appearance, all so they can claim the uselessness of humanity by bringing up the worst of history that unfolds in the years after Darwin. The text is not in denial about the terrible wars, the terrible technology used <i>for<\/i> those wars, or the influence Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thinking had on these global conflicts. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicated, sure, but does that mean that the Auditors are right? Should all humans be wiped out because humanity makes so many mistakes?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The wizards don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe so. They believe the humans should still have every chance to survive, thrive, and progress. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a really optimistic note, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? We should have the chance to <i>be<\/i> better, even if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done THE WORST.<\/p>\n<p>While the previous chapter made it clear that Darwin is part of a philosophical argument that <i>Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Watch<\/i> is trying to make, the book ends with two very touching tributes to him. One is this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8216;Did you know they put his statue in the canteen, sir?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Ponder, a little shocked.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Did they? Good idea,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Ridcully brusquely. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThat way, <i>every<\/i> sensible person <i>sees<\/i> it.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Which is a nice joke about the wizards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 love of food and drink! But also, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not wrong. People do spend a lot of time in that specific place in EVERY museum, and thus, more people will see Darwin there than almost anywhere else. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fitting tribute in general, but this book has been a very specific one, too. Whatever take I might have on some of the details, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny the position that Darwin WAS instrumental in changing the world and humanity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s understanding of it. I learned so much cool shit about Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life, the time he lived in, his process, and the ramifications of his thinking. This book probably had the least number of sections I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really understand, and the Discworld section came to a satisfying end, too, and I found it much better paced than <i>The Science of Discworld II<\/i>. This was a great experience!<\/p>\n<p>But I am REALLY excited that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting back into the regular series. I feel like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the home stretch, you know? <i>Unseen Academicals<\/i> begins on Monday, and I have no clue what it is about. ONWARDS I GO.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/lH_l22-tteY<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markoshiro.com\/blog\/2019\/5\/7\/the-anger-is-a-gift-trade-paperback-is-out-today\">The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now OUT!<\/a>\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 twenty-fifth and final chapter of Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Watch, watch and listen. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to finish 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-4964","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\/4964","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=4964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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