In the second chapter of I Shall Wear Midnight <\/i>, Tiffany must deal with a nightmarish situation as the witch of the Chalk. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For extended discussion of abuse, misogyny, death of a child, violence.<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going into the rest of this book believing that this tonal change in the Tiffany series is intentional, that Pratchett is showing us that as Tiffany grows as a witch, she increasingly must deal with messier and messier situations. Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to suggest that there were not dark moments of human interaction in past books with her; I think she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always dealt with things that were complicated, messy, and terrible.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But I also don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a stretch to suggest that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rough Music\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is one of the more difficult chapters to read in the Discworld<\/i> series. Pratchett is mostly unflinching in his portrayal of the tragedy of the Petty family, and even that<\/i> feels intentional. I keep thinking of how open and truthful Tiffany is with her father about what it means to be a witch, and I think you can see that same openness between Pratchett and the reader, too. I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gratuitous, and despite that I recognize how triggering this all could have been, I was not triggered myself. As an abuse survivor, I recognized a lot of familiar patterns in Mr. Petty, in his wife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempt to hide the signs, and in the rage that he directed towards his daughter. Of course, my experience and take isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the same reaction others will have, but this worked for me because while Pratchett told this story truthfully, he painted the perpetrator as the real villain here. Through Tiffany, he does not mince words:<\/p>\n His hands had closed automatically into fists because he had always been a man who thought with them. Soon he would try to use them; she knew it, because it was easier to punch than think. Mr. Petty had punched his way through life.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to large avoid repeating the details of what Mr. Petty did because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to re-traumatize anyone else, but I did want to quote this one particular line (which mentions the abuse and<\/i> blood) because it digs in to both the misogynist double standard at work and Mr. Petty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disgusting penchant for violence:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are you trying to tell me that she was too young for a bit of romance, but old enough to be beaten so hard that she bled from places where no one should bleed?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mr. Petty alternatively viewed his daughter as both a child and an adult, each time to serve his own needs and his own flawed ideas about her and her body. This reminded me of those fathers who see their daughter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body as being their<\/i> property, and thus, they feel obligated to doing what they want with them. This whole situation is enraging and saddening, and Tiffany meets it with the proper coldness and rage. (And I say that knowing that she is definitely holding back.) There is no<\/i> sympathy for Mr. Petty in this text at all. There is a little bit later where Mr. Aching gives Tiffany some context for how he may have become the way he did\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich is a factor in how abuse becomes a cyclical thing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut the blame is all placed properly on Mr. Petty. Seriously, this part alone was scathing:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Run away to where they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never heard of you, and then run a bit farther, just to be on the safe side, because I will not be able to stop them, do you understand? Personally, I could not care less what happens to your miserable frame, but I do not wish to see good people get turned into bad people by doing a murder, so you just leg it across the fields and I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember which way you went.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Gods, look at how she frames this! She makes it crystal clear that she truly does not give one fuck about Mr. Petty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fate; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more concerned about what the incoming mob might due and how that will affect them. I also loved this part.<\/p>\n Tiffany could feel only coldness in her heart.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not good enough, Mr. Petty, not good enough at all. Go away and become a better person and then, maybe, when you come back as a changed man, people here might find it in their hearts to say hello to you, or at least to nod.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Another author might have written this to make it seem like the path to forgiveness or acceptance was much shorter or easier to accomplish. But not here, and certainly not from a character like Tiffany. Saying you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sorry is just not good enough<\/i>. And even becoming a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d person? That might not be good enough either!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By the time Mr. Petty makes the foolish decision to try and strike Tiffany, though, it was obvious that none of what Tiffany was saying was sticking. The man was still seeing himself as the victim, first of drink and then of witches. He could not accept for a moment that he was just terrible and had done a terrible thing. Which was in a long line of terrible, terrible things! So there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something poetically beautiful in the fact that Tiffany gave Mr. Petty all<\/i> of the pain that his daughter felt, that she took from her after the assault, and that this<\/i> is what convinces him to leave in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153animal fear.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (I just wanna state this here for possible fun next year: There is a completely coincidental similarity between this passage and the one that follows it AND my next book. Just for a moment, they both overlap, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all I will say for now because SPOILERS.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From this point, Pratchett moves to a sequence that I really, really<\/i> enjoyed, even if the subject matter was upsetting at times. I remarked on video that I was pleasantly surprised that Tiffany was so open with her father, and I still feel that way. In prior books, most characters sort of danced around the fact that Tiffany was a witch, occasionally addressing it directly. But the long conversation that these two have is so OPEN. Sure, there are awkward moments where Mr. Aching dances around a truth, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another line where Tiffany debates telling her father about the truth of magic, but otherwise? This is all a genuine attempt on the part of Mr. Aching to understand why it is that Tiffany is doing any<\/i> of this. He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t assume that taking care of the Petty family fell under the purview of being a witch. But Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s justification is a brilliant summary of what witches have meant across the Discworld<\/i> series:\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153People around here are okay when it comes to food and the occasional bunch of flowers, but they are not around when things get a little on the messy side. Witches notice these things. Oh, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a certain amount of whizzing about, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true enough, but mostly it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only to get quickly to somewhere there is a mess.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Look, human existence is<\/i> inherently messy, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen, time and time again, how the witches have made it their mission to address those messes. This reminds me of Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s training earlier in the series, first with Miss Tick, then Miss Level and Miss Treason, and how often she fought against the reality of having to deal with life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s messiness. But now<\/i> look at her. She does it because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to do. She is the Chalk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s witch. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no friction there; the end of the previous chapter addressed this. And I think you can see it here, too, when Rob refers to Tiffany as the Feegles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hag.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tiffany has complicated thoughts on her role, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean she shirks her responsibilities.<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/DBFG_qa36Lk<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now OUT!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the second chapter of I Shall Wear Midnight , Tiffany must deal with a nightmarish situation as the witch of the Chalk. Intrigued? 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