{"id":4991,"date":"2019-07-05T05:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4991"},"modified":"2019-06-30T05:23:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T12:23:54","slug":"mark-reads-unseen-academicals-part-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/07\/mark-reads-unseen-academicals-part-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Unseen Academicals&#8217;: Part 12"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the twelfth part of <i>Unseen Academicals<\/i>, Glenda has second thoughts, and Mr. Nutt proves himself worthy in new ways. 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 brief discussion of poverty and food issues<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This book continues to surprise me. I thought it was gonna be about sports and football and not much else. YEAH. NOT AT ALL. And the twisting journey of this book has addressed so many interesting and entertaining things that I also did not expect. The fashion industry! Being the crab in the bucket! Trauma! Redemption! And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say this because I think the football parts are boring or uninteresting, because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a lovely variation in the stories being told here, which I have grown to love about a lot of the later <i>Discworld<\/i> books. Anyway, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chat!<\/p>\n<p><b>Second Thoughts<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Oh, I just <i>adored<\/i> how both Juliet and Glenda reconsidered their most recent experience and their behavior. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through this that we come to see just how close the two of them are. I mean, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mostly seen this through Glenda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like a mother figure to Juliet, and we see that behavior manifest over and over again. At the opening of this split, she imparts the importance of sticking with the Night Kitchen job. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certain. Dependable. Good, hard work. It makes you <i>worthy<\/i>. And obviously, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore the parallels to what Nutt believes! Glenda isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure that being a fashion model makes you worthy at all; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real\u00e2\u20ac\u009d job. But is that <i>fair?<\/i> Is that an accurate look at what this means to Juliet?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Look, I was pretty shocked when Juliet told Glenda that she was going to stay at the Night Kitchen. On a craft level, I love it when characters defy their archetypes. Up to this point, Glenda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perception of Juliet has made her seem one specific way: she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that smart, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vulnerable,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prone to daydreaming. Do you expect an emotional monologue about friendship and job security from someone like that? But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what she does, and it proves that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been paying attention this whole time. I did enjoy that immediately, Glenda was like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, shit, have I gotten this wrong?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Juliet has such a responsible response to this, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shake Madame\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last words: Glenda is about to start thinking. Is she going to change her mind about all of this? Is she going to relent and help Juliet explore this side of her? AH, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know! I feel like it would be a good way to counter the toxic financial environment that Juliet mentions here, too. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have her own money and not lose it to her father and her father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s friends. Right? Oh, I genuinely don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where this is going to go!<\/p>\n<p><b>Mr. Nutt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Worth<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just me, but Mr. Nutt seems to be getting a tad more confident and assertive. Just a bit! I mean, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always willing to defend his friends, and I was not surprised at how quick he was to protect Trev from Andy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempt on his life. Which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 holy shit, Andy is just demonstrably the worst, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he? He was going to kill Trev. And for what? Pride? Ego? Because he knew he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get away with it? So yeah, I was real pleased with Nutt nearly crushing Andy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand. I knew Nutt was ridiculously strong, so that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily surprise me. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the scenes in Glang\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shop and afterwards that felt more revealing to me. Again: I knew that Nutt had the ability to pick up information quickly, so him knowing Dwarfish? Totally believable and only momentarily surprising. Glang\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of instinctual reaction to Nutt? At this point, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just accepting that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not going to get this until it is spelled out to me. But holy shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, noticing that Trev stole one of Glang\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knives?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>You know, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that this was Nutt looking out for Trev, too. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that the context is different. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want his friend to get in trouble! But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d also argue that Nutt is obsessed with both worth and not being noticed by the wrong people. The Ladyship\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s values are cemented in his mind, and theft would <i>definitely<\/i> get them noticed by the wrong people. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also Wrong; Nutt has a clear view of morality in his mind, and this definitely should not have happened. (Though I do want to note that Nutt does say that he understands why Trev did this.)<\/p>\n<p>But truly, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one super important thing I need to comment on here.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>However, most men don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look up into the astonished faces of two birdlike women who were standing, no, <i>perching<\/i> on the roof. They screeched <i>Awk! Awk!<\/i> and flew up into the darkness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As if this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t already too much to deal with, this is Mr. Nutt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response!!!<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcOh, those? They work for Ladyship. They are there for protection.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhose?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Trev.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcDo not worry about them.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>HI, YEAH, GONNA IMMEDIATELY WORRY ABOUT THEM. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re there to protect <i>others<\/i> from Nutt, right? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just accepting that this is the case, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Which means I have to accept that Nutt is potentially very, very dangerous, so much so that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what they are!!! Bird women??? Harpies? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BOOK.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I did want to end on something a little more serious, if only because I related SO MUCH to Glenda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to serving at the banquet. I count myself as one of those people who, because they grew up poor and have dealt with poverty and homelessness off and on, cannot leave food on a plate. Anything put there? I will eat it all, even if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not hungry. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve recently gotten better at taking leftovers away from restaurants, but at no point will that food ever be wasted.) So yeah, I totally get why Glenda doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the patience for serving people of higher classes. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the same issues around food! Something costing a dollar a pound is meaningless, whereas to people like Glenda, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inconceivable that she would put something like that on her plate and NOT eat all of it.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still unprepared and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all your fault.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/-eUuuPcRVDk<\/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 twelfth part of Unseen Academicals, Glenda has second thoughts, and Mr. Nutt proves himself worthy in new ways. 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-4991","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\/4991","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=4991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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