{"id":4970,"date":"2019-06-12T05:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4970"},"modified":"2019-06-12T08:42:53","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T15:42:53","slug":"mark-reads-unseen-academicals-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/06\/mark-reads-unseen-academicals-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Unseen Academicals&#8217;: Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the second part of <i>Unseen Academicals<\/i>, Ponder discovers a new tradition, and Nutt tries to blend in. 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 discussion of bigotry<\/b><\/p>\n<p>HOLY SHIT.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Traditions<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, there are two HUGE reveals in this part and I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready for either of them? Granted, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m more thrilled by Nutt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization, but I wanted to open this by delving into the importance of what Pratchett has done here with the wizards.<\/p>\n<p>HE CHANGED THEM.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said this a few times before, and the text more or less confirms this later in this section: Unseen University is basically \u00e2\u20ac\u0153amiable, dynamic stagnation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Which is probably why Pratchett introduces the wizards in the midst of a tradition. The Megapode is based on something that occurred thousands of years earlier, and is repeated through imitation because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tradition. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just what the wizards <i>do<\/i>. And that certainly describes so much of their habits and behaviors! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s customary for wizards to eat multiple meals; to be a unique type of lazy; to bicker constantly, but especially when there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t time to bicker and Stibbons just needs one of them to make a decision. Over the course of these thirty-seven <i>Discworld <\/i>books, the wizards really have not changed. That works for the <i>Science<\/i> books more than anything else, but I tend to prefer huge character arcs, so I have found myself gravitating towards people like Tiffany, Vimes, Carrot, Angua, and Moist, who all have grown considerably in their respective books. (Seriously, Vimes ALONE has one of the most satisfying arcs in <i>Discworld<\/i>, and I hope there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another Vimes book before I reach the end.)<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yet in the middle of a paragraph\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnot even at the beginning of anything!!!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dPratchett drops the most significant change to the wizards EVER:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It had been tricky since the Dean had left, very tricky indeed. Whoever heard of a man resigning from UU? It was something that simply did not happen!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>WHAT??? <i>WHAT<\/i>??? As I theorized on video, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing this is why I <i>had<\/i> to read <i>The Science of Discworld III<\/i> before this book, as it would have been very confusing to see the Dean among the regular staff. But holy shit, not only did he leave, but he was <i>poached<\/i> by another university? Okay, maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the right term, as he appears to have found the ad for the position and went and interviewed of his own accord. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this was genuinely shocking to me! The Dean is just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been there! He has been a vital part of the dynamic of the wizards! Who else is gonna take some competitive thing way too seriously??? Oh my god, if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been around for the football tradition, he ABSOLUTELY would have become murderously competitive about it!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gone. Because of that, <i>other<\/i> characters have changed, too, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking specifically of the volatile state that Ridcully is in, who feels personally betrayed by what the Dean has done. Which is understandable! The wizards maintain a life that is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, amiably stagnated. They keep things the same because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what they do! So what the hell happens when someone so visible and integral just <i>leaves<\/i>? You might react as Ridcully does: he lashes out in anger, he frequently rants about what a traitor the Dean is, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an air of uncomfortable stillness around him.<\/p>\n<p>It seems the <i>perfect<\/i> thing to do is to create a large-scale distraction. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine something more fitting than the wizards trying to play a football match after NOT having done so for twenty years. Give or take, of course. I was also fascinated by the idea that football games are, by and large, banned in Ankh-Morpork. I mean, yes, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still happening in back alleys and out of sight of Vetinari and the Watch, but the intensity that surrounds them feels\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 weirdly realistic? While football is not necessarily as popular here in the States, it has always been HUGE in my life because I grew up within Latino communities that follow it religiously. I said on video that I even played as a forward for a semester in high school, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty familiar with the game. And yeah\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 people got <i>really<\/i> intense about their teams, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m seen matches devolve into brawls. More than once? Oh, way more than once, actually. It happened a lot? I feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a different attachment than American football does, and I imagine part of that is because the game itself operates so differently. Football has way more drama and tension because\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand this is my take\/perception\u00e2\u20ac\u201dso much more time passes between goals\/scoring. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen American football games with like ten touchdowns in them, and while that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exciting if your team is winning, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing like the first goal after 45 minutes of play.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway: the wizards are gonna be a hot mess, I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T WAIT.<\/p>\n<p><b>Nutt<\/b><\/p>\n<p>OH MY GOD, THE CLUES WERE TOTALLY THERE. Smeems\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weird reluctance around him??? The way he kept pausing and then saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6man.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Oh my god, NUTT IS A GOBLIN. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recall there being a major goblin in any of the previous books. Maybe only a mention? (There are gnolls, though, right? Which we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really seen much either, at least not since <i>The Truth<\/i>.) Either way, I love the reveal here, which challenged my assumption that Nutt was human. From this, Pratchett imbues Nutt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story with a lot of textual and subtextual detail to build his character out. His cleverness isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just funny; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sense of survival that runs through him. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just survival; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a powerful motif of the fear of failing to assimilate into a new culture. (Well, new relative to Nutt.) We learn that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a social stigma of sorts to working down in the vats and why that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s significant to Nutt. In short, after the horrible treatment he got in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153high country\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (which sounds like Uberwald, I think?), Nutt had already experienced the lowest of the low. There, in the candle vats, among many of the dispossessed, ignored, abandoned, and forgotten members of society, no one treated Nutt badly. As he puts it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>No, the dippers were no problem. He did his best for them when he could. Life itself had beaten them so hard that they had no strength left to beat up anyone else. That was helpful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Despite this, Pratchett puts so much discomfort into the text. Some of that is discomfort others feel towards Nutt, since as a goblin, his people have no written history from <i>their<\/i> perspective. Because others\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbe them humans or trolls or dwarfs\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwrote down the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153history\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the goblins, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allowed others to define the race on <i>their<\/i> terms, which means goblins are\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, they are not viewed kindly by <i>anyone<\/i>. It was only someone named Pastor Oats who rescued Nutt. From what, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not certain. Something happened between his time in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153high country\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and arriving in Ankh-Morpork, and I say that because I believe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what all the bolded parts are about. Someone <i>taught<\/i> Nutt how best to fit in when you are so undeniably different. An example:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Smile at people. Like them. Be helpful. Accumulate worth<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>And let me just tell you, as someone who has had to deal with being an outcast for being both Latinx and queer in spaces where those things are seen as negative qualities, this is <i>immensely<\/i> real and uncomfortable. Indeed, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that I was massively preoccupied with being likable and helpful because maybe then, people would \u00e2\u20ac\u0153overlook\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the other qualities. And when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got internalized shit like this brewing in your mind, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very easy to think that this is the only way to achieve worth. At the same time, I recognize that this is about <i>survival<\/i>. In that, I feel like Pratchett is borrowing from a very real phenomenon, one that I recognize because of how often I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to try and mask my queerness because I was in a hostile space. Which was often met with varying success, and I usually could not succeed at it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relevant in that Nutt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s philosophical outlook is about what he can do not just to fit in, but almost disappear. What behaviors will make it so that people momentarily forget he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a goblin? What things will allow him to directly counter stereotypes to keep himself safe and almost sterile?<\/p>\n<p>Holy shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SO INTO SEEING HOW THIS WILL PLAY OUT. Protect Nutt AT ALL COSTS.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/na4Rx94zguU<\/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 second part of Unseen Academicals, Ponder discovers a new tradition, and Nutt tries to blend in. 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":[463,248,561],"class_list":["post-4970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-unseen-academicals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4970","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=4970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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