{"id":5009,"date":"2019-07-29T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5009"},"modified":"2019-07-29T13:11:20","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T20:11:20","slug":"mark-reads-unseen-academicals-part-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/07\/mark-reads-unseen-academicals-part-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Unseen Academicals&#8217;: Part 22"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the twenty-second part of <i>Unseen Academicals<\/i>, Trev learns just how bad things are going to be. 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 bullying.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I am full of dread, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really consider what will happen if Unseen Academicals loses. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still not sure that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>actually<\/i> going to happen, as I think the main characters are going to be very instrumental in all this working out. And Vetinari has always had a knack for choosing the right people to be involved in his\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. Schemes? Citywide manipulations? So he <i>has<\/i> to know what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>Right???<\/p>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the question asked of us by the end of this split, but prior to that, Trev goes on a JOURNEY. Trev fascinates me because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see him as cynical as someone like Glenda, but he <i>does<\/i> know what the world expects of him, particularly in light of the reputation of his father. And he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very, <i>very<\/i> aware of the world of Andy Shank. Or the Faces, for that matter. He knows exactly what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up against, but only to an extent. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why his conversation at the open of this split with Pepe was so interesting to me. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that Pepe is jaded, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a roughness around the edges in his characterization, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got an air that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much tougher than Glenda. (For comparison.) So, Trev <i>knows<\/i> something has gone wrong, but his focus is more on the immediate concern: there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an odd feel to the streets.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pepe who widens Trev\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perception of this. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just the vibe in the city; an entire <i>framework<\/i> might collapse. This is the first time\u00e2\u20ac\u201dif I recall correctly\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat anyone has mentioned that a failure of Unseen Academicals means a failure for Vetinari. Like I said, I also hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t viewed this struggle through that lens! But Pepe makes a great point:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like the Thieves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Guild, see. He had it easy with the Thieves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Guild. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because the Thieves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Guild is organized. Football aint organized. Just because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s won over the captains don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to meekly get into line after them.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And what we see after this is exactly what Pepe is referring to! But before we get to <i>that<\/i> chaos, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one particular line here that flattened me to the ground, and I really, really want to talk about it.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcIf you want to learn athletics very quickly, be born around here with a talent for design and maybe a few other little preferences.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Hi, this means what I think it means, right??? I find it easy to read Pepe as queer, not just because of the persona he puts on, but because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much in his character that textually and sub-textually represents much of the experience. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s someone who absolutely did not fit into the world he was born into, and he found community and meaning in an underground (SORRY, HAD TO MAKE THAT PUN) subculture. And when he says <i>this<\/i>? Holy shit, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my whole childhood! It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t design for me, but reading, and it was <i>not<\/i> a popular thing to be into when I was growing up. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I was literally the quiet bookworm as a kid who HID IN THE LIBRARY. And you better believe that I got <i>real<\/i> good at running! I was excellent at it! (And, I might add, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been very consistent with my long distance running lately; if you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw how much my time has improved since the start of the year!!!) But that last bit\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0153maybe a few other little preferences\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201djust feels like the biggest wink-wink, nudge-nudge. Even if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what was intended, I like that you can fill in the blank here: what preferences would make a person be perceived as so different that bullies would target them?<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, prediction: Pepe is making some sort of micromail thing that Trev can wear <i>under<\/i> his jersey and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna save his life. WATCH.<\/p>\n<p>From here, Pratchett takes Trev to the next character who helps shape Trev\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s view of the oncoming disaster. I said this on video, but I appreciated that Pratchett wrote this so that we see how Trev offers empathy to Carter. Despite that he is Very Unlikeable! Because being unlikable does not mean you deserve to be treated as he was treated by Andy. And Carter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sin in Andy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes? Simply <i>disagreeing<\/i> with him. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it! He got a beating for DISAGREEING with someone.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just the tip of the iceberg, though. When Trev <i>does<\/i> see Andy shortly after this, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that there is a large contingent of the football community that does <i>not<\/i> stand behind the captains. They want to send a message to Vetinari and the wizards, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty certain that Andy and his people are real happy that both Mr. Nutt and Trev will be at the game, too. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all seen as collateral damage in this war. It <i>is<\/i> a war to them, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? Or at least a battle for the identity of football. Andy absolutely hinges his identity on this subculture and his ability to move through it with power and violence. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all taken away from him? What life does Andy lead if he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use football to bully people?<\/p>\n<p>So this is indeed a battle of sorts, which is why I was so damn amused when Trev tried to explain it all to Mr. Nutt, and Glenda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response was just, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey, we should go tell Vetinari.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d First of all: I totally get why Mr. Nutt didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand this! He is often the most optimistic character when it comes to things that aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t himself or being an orc. Plus, I feel like Pratchett was contrasting book smarts with street smarts here. Mr. Nutt certainly learns by observation, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to discredit that part of him, but Trev has <i>lived<\/i> this culture for years. He knows it in a way that Mr. Nutt can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t!<\/p>\n<p>So, I guess they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all off to talk to Vetinari, which makes me happy because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten SO much Vetinari in this book. Also, I really want to end this by acknowledging how sincere and beautiful Mr. Nutt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s responses to Roz were. HE MEANS EVERYTHING HE SAYS, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO GREAT.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/UEylozbb1zU<\/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-second part of Unseen Academicals, Trev learns just how bad things are going to be. 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-5009","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\/5009","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=5009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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