In the first part of the twelfth chapter of I Shall Wear Midnight<\/i>, Tiffany wakes up in the castle to a different atmosphere. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I gotta repeat what I said on video at the start of this, just because it feels so important to state: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m real<\/i> nervous that things seem to be taking a turn for the better this early in the book. Granted, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lots more left of this chapter alone, and the title has set me on edge, so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how other people in the castle will feel about Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence. I am certain<\/i> that the Duchess will be The Worst in the coming pages. But I must concede that, for the moment, Tiffany has now won over a number of people: Brian. Preston. Letitia. Roland. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to acknowledge that! She made huge strides with Letitia in the last chapter, and clearly, I was wrong. Roland was<\/i> willing to listen to his fiance\u00c3\u00a9, and it made a massive impression on him, so much so that this chapter opens with a number of gestures of kindness and consideration that we did not see from Roland before. Tiffany does NOT get in trouble for escaping; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given a fresh breakfast; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even offered a bath. By the time she arrives in Roland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s study, I had a sense that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d changed his mind about her. (And did he ever<\/i>, in more ways than one.)<\/p>\n
But before that happens, Pratchett gives us two pivotal scenes, both of which are intertwined with one another. I have to reference Roland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s monologue here, though, to explain what I think<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Pratchett intended. Later on, Roland finally explains why he grew apart from Tiffany, and apart from being gut-wrenching, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually a very heartfelt moment of kindness. He simply did not believe he was compatible with Tiffany and her mind. But you know who does<\/i> seem to be? Preston. When Tiffany heads down to the crypt to do the final ritual to help preserve the old Baron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body, look how quickly Preston picks up on what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t question her, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make her feel weird, and he even tries to bond with her over how he solved fowl crop in his granny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chickens. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right<\/i> on her level in a way that feels genuine and real, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even think Tiffany is aware of this. Which I get! She has such a natural rapport with Preston, and right now, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got so much else to focus on.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I am also fully admitting how much Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scene with Roland ripped my soul out of my body. It is one of the most vulnerable moments not just in I Shall Wear Midnight<\/i>, but the series as a whole. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two people being honest about how they feel towards one another, even if those parts don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really seem compatible. Roland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life was<\/i> different from everyone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, but that meant that it was also drastically different from Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, so much so that they did not share a common ground on which to grow a relationship. His view of her was poisoned by the spell Letitia cast and the subsequent presence of the Cunning Man. (WHO I STILL DO NOT BELIEVE IS GONE, AND I AM CONCERNED.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Which makes me wonder: is this what breaks the Cunning Man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hold on others? The closing of the book? Honesty<\/i>? Because both of these things combine to clear Roland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no longer blaming the witch for the problems in his life. Why? Well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d also argue that on top of it all, he chose to understand<\/i> Tiffany. He did this with Letitia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s help, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also what was always missing from the Cunning Man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s approach when he was human. He never sought to understand or empathize with the witch he fell in love with. What if he had? Would he have been so gravely injured? Would he have turned into the being he is now?<\/p>\n I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t answer that, but I can see that Roland feels\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, a lot more like himself. Finally!<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/ubeyvi97NBQ<\/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 first part of the twelfth chapter of I Shall Wear Midnight, Tiffany wakes up in the castle to a different atmosphere. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld.<\/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-5037","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\/5037","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=5037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}