{"id":5022,"date":"2019-08-19T05:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5022"},"modified":"2019-08-18T09:30:45","modified_gmt":"2019-08-18T16:30:45","slug":"mark-reads-i-shall-wear-midnight-chapter-4-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/08\/mark-reads-i-shall-wear-midnight-chapter-4-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;I Shall Wear Midnight&#8217;: Chapter 4, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the second half of the fourth chapter of <i>I Shall Wear Midnight<\/i>, I WAS NOT READY. 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 death<\/b><\/p>\n<p>HI, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BOOK!!! I full went into the second half of this chapter expecting that Tiffany would have an uncomfortable and terribly awkward run-in with Roland. I did not expect that this would be a touching and direct conversation about perception, mortality, and identity. Let me start first by saying that this is just beautifully written, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and there are so many stunning lines throughout this sequence. Like this, right at the start of the split:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>She had heard one of the villagers call him a creaking door that never slammed; he was getting worse now, and in her opinion it was not going to be very long before his life slammed shut.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great way to set the tone of this scene, as well as introduce us to what eventually follows: the Baron does not have much life left, but Tiffany has been instrumental in making his last days as painless as she can. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a challenge for her, not just because the magic of pain transferring is hard, but because of Miss Spruce. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, Miss Spruce reminded me so much of the sort of people and beliefs I was surrounded by while growing up. In particular, this part was TOO REAL:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We must be sure that we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get involved with dark and demonic forces. Better a little pain in this world than an eternity of suffering in the next!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m certain there are some of you who were raised in this mentality as well. For me, it was a means of enforcing a particular worldview, one which also meant that it was easier for my mother to control me and my brother. And I heard so frequently that our actions in this world would affect our eternity, and thus, it was <i>good<\/i> to suffer. If we resisted joy, if we gave ourselves over to the hope of Heaven, <i>then<\/i> we would be fine. But that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153little pain\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that Miss Spruce references is anything <i>but<\/i> little, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one thing Pratchett does a tremendous job of deconstructing. I appreciate any text that talks about the toll pain can take on the human body, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking of that in any number of contexts. Physical pain, chronic pain, the pain of depression and anxiety\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 all of it is real, and it is <i>exhausting<\/i>. Look how Pratchett writes the Baron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transformation as Tiffany does her work on him:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Taking away pain was dangerous, difficult, and very tiring, but there was, well, a wonderful compensation in seeing the gray face of the old man come back to life. There was already some pinkness to his skin, and it was fleshing out as more and more pain flowed out of him and through Tiffany and into the new little invisible ball floating above her right shoulder.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Does this cure him? No, but it gives him energy; it gives him a liveliness that he did not have moments before. And I think that matters! I see that as an explanation for what happens after this, too, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not <i>just<\/i> that. This whole conversation is so damn revealing, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and I <i>adored<\/i> it. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both so honest with one another, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s EARNED. And you know why?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Balance. It was all about balance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a balance between them, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating to see that. I see some of that based on what the Baron reveals here: that he misses Granny Aching, that Granny played a vital role in checking him with necessary honesty. It manifests in some more uncomfortable ways\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlike when the Baron says he thought that maybe Tiffany and Roland would have a more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153intimate arrangement\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut mostly? I love that he treats her like a contemporary, like a colleague, like someone worthy of respect and honesty, but not <i>cruelty<\/i>, and I do believe there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a massive difference between the two. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never honest to hurt her, and the same can be said of Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s treatment of him.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Still: I DID NOT EXPECT HIM TO BRING UP THE EVENTS OF <i>The Wee Free Men<\/i>. And why not? Knowing the end of the chapter, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear re-reading this that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aware of how little time is left. So he asks for the truth from Tiffany, and he gets it. Not just what happened between Tiffany and the Queen of the Fairies, but Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s resentment\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat mostly disappeared over time\u00e2\u20ac\u201dover not getting credit for rescuing Roland. I STILL CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T BELIEVE THIS IS ACTUALLY BEING ADDRESSED, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SO HAPPY!!! Oh my god, HER DAD told the Baron what actually happened??? This is blowing my mind, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Anyway, now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve recovered (just kidding, I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t), let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about WITCHES. The Baron, more so than perhaps the average person in the Chalk, understands the need for someone like Tiffany in the community. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt that at all! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that he gets it because of how he navigates paying Tiffany for her saving Roland. He knows that a witch doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get paid money, but rather in secondhand items. Still, Tiffany was technically <i>not<\/i> a witch when she saved Roland, so there is no moral objection possible for Tiffany to make. And really, as the Baron notes, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153take a burden off\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of his soul at the end of his life. That hands over all of this, and yet? I still thought it would come later, that at some point during the latter chapters of <i>I Shall Wear Midnight<\/i>, the Baron would pass.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Look how exquisitely Pratchett wrote this:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When the time comes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he began, and hesitated.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I will keep you company, sir, if you wish,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Tiffany.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>SHE KEEPS HER PROMISE. BECAUSE SHE IS KEEPING HIM COMPANY IN HIS FINAL MOMENTS OF LIFE. And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another incredible moment like this after Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demonstration of her ability to transfer fire through her body. We get another occurrence of the motif of a hare running through the fire, but this time, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attached to a particular memory that the Baron has. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say I fully understand the meaning of this part, both literal and metaphorical. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wondering, then, how much of this book is going to address the sight of a hare flinging itself into the fire. What does that mean? Is it about risk? Courage? Something else? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite know.<\/p>\n<p>Yet that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dilute the beautiful ending here. The Baron, overwhelmed with joy at being given this memory again by Tiffany, says:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No money that I could give you, Miss Tiffany Aching, who is the witch, could ever repay you for bringing back to me that wonderful vision. Which I shall remember until the day I\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it. He dies, suddenly, happily, completely. Death arrives and drops one hell of a cryptic line about it:<\/p>\n<p>MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THE CREDIT, OTHER FORCES ARE AT WORK.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Hi, no??? Seriously, what is coming to the Chalk? Is that what Death is referring to???<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Anyway: this chapter was GORGEOUS, and this was honestly an incredible scene to experience this. Bravo, Pratchett.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/KgIF0SolgJk<\/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 half of the fourth chapter of I Shall Wear Midnight, I WAS NOT READY. 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":[562,463,248],"class_list":["post-5022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-i-shall-wear-midnight","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5022","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=5022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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