{"id":5050,"date":"2019-10-04T05:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5050"},"modified":"2019-09-29T13:12:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T20:12:44","slug":"mark-reads-snuff-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/10\/mark-reads-snuff-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Snuff&#8217;: Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the first part of <i>Snuff<\/i>, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for a holiday. 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 general talk of oppression, poverty<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Hello, <i>Discworld <\/i>book #39!!! (Thirty-nine? HOW?) Fresh off the (relatively) recent experience of <i>Unseen Academicals<\/i> (which, like <i>Moving Pictures<\/i>, felt like the most surprising <i>Discworld<\/i> experience for me), I am now back in Ankh-Morpork! Well, there <i>was<\/i> that brief journey in the last book, but I feel safe in saying that at least one large portion of this book\u00e2\u20ac\u201dany of the scenes with Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwill be focused there. Aside from that, though, the opening of this book let me know that I am absolutely not at all ready for where this journey is going to take me.<\/p>\n<p>Because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>literally<\/i> a journey, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know where Sam Vimes, Lady Sybil, and their son are going.<\/p>\n<p>So, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back up. First of all, <i>Snuff<\/i> already has me interested because I feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a natural progression after <i>Unseen Academicals<\/i> for Pratchett to explore goblins in greater detail. I know that was a big point of discussion for a lot of y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all in the comments during the read of the book; even I noticed that goblins hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been mentioned all that much in the series prior to <i>Academicals<\/i>. Which is perfectly fine! One thing that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a huge delight for me in reading the <i>Discworld<\/i> books in publication order is the experience of watching Pratchett expand the world more and more. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brought in so many new species and characters in a way that felt natural to me, and I count this among that. (I also imagine longtime fans might feel differently, but I find myself largely more forgiving and understanding of changes in canon because of how I read books, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a separate point that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really relevant here.)<\/p>\n<p>Thus, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got an introduction here where Vetinari and Drumknott are reading papers from Pastor Mightily Oats\u00e2\u20ac\u201doh, how much he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s changed from his initial introduction!!!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dabout goblins. Sympathetic papers about goblins, I might add, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that Oats is trying to not only understand who the goblins are, but how they ended up in the social position they are currently in. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a struggle here, namely in that, unlike practically <i>all<\/i> of the other races\/species, the goblins occupy a space that makes them undesirable in a very specific way:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Predators respect other predators, do they not? They may perhaps even respect the prey: the lion may lie down with the lamb, even if only the lion is likely to get up again, but the lion will not lie down with the rat. Vermin, Drumknott, an entire race reduced to vermin!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s here that Pratchett is making a distinction between what we saw of Mr. Nutt in <i>Unseen Academicals<\/i>, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a FASCINATING way to talk about things like being a model minority or even hypervisibility. They are not exact metaphorical matches, and I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t presume that Pratchett was necessarily intending to write about these same issues. The goblins exist in like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 an <i>under<\/i> underclass here. Though I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think there are many or any of them <i>in<\/i> Ankh-Morpork right now? If so, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually know where they are. Even then, I am still so impressed with the writing about them. LIKE THIS:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<i>Let it be said here that those who live their lives where life hangs by less than a thread understand the dreadful algebra of necessity, which has no mercy and when necessity presses in extremis, well, that is when the women need to make the unggue pot called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153soul of tears,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the most beautiful of all the pots, carved with little flowers and washed with tears.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is both immensely specific in a cultural sense, explain one particular unggue pot, but I felt this sentiment SO much, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. My mind went immediately to what it was like to be in poverty, and how I spent so much of my younger days having to do immensely complicated math (of the literal and moral sense) in order to make it week-to-week. At this point, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know a whole lot of the goblins and what sort of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dreadful crimes have been laid at their door,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t <i>need<\/i> to know that now. Pratchett has established that they will most likely be important to the events of <i>Snuff<\/i> while also giving us a sense of where they exist in the hierarchy of the Disc.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And meanwhile, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another plot brewing, and I hope y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all are DELIGHTED by how much the opening pages of this book freaked me out. I misread all the stuff about Vimes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153leaving\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as this being a PERMANENT leave, and lord, I was upset??? HOW CAN YOU FORCE VIMES TO LEAVE THE WATCH??? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, like, who the man <i>is<\/i>. And now he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s retiring? Look, I get <i>why<\/i> I believed this, and let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all delight in this: the idea of Vimes <i>actually<\/i> going on holiday is so fucked up to me that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even consider this a possibility, despite that it is way more likely. BUT THIS IS WHO VIMES IS. The man has repeatedly shown that unless his family takes him elsewhere, he is a Watchman more than anything else. (I also want to definitively state that one thing that is just as undeniable about Vimes is that he loves Lady Sybil and he loves his son. I have ZERO doubt about that. Even if the text didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t definitively state it like it does in this chapter, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d still know that with all my heart.)<\/p>\n<p>So! <i>Snuff<\/i> is about a Vimes family holiday! Well, we know that the family is <i>not<\/i> going to the seaside (much to Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disappointment), and that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153countryside\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is not his prime choice, either. It was Sybil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to go there, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know quite where that is. Beyond Sto Lat? Farther? Probably not, as the home gets fresh produce from Lady Sybil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s estate, so it can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be TOO far, right? Vimes is also expecting something to happen while on holiday, and I am guessing that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he kept his badge with him instead of turning it in to Vetinari. Well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also an emotional step; if he keeps the badge, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not <i>really<\/i> off-duty, is he? His badge is always within reach! So he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>technically<\/i> still working.<\/p>\n<p>But the end of this split suggests\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reading too much into this, but the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wink-wink, nudge-nudge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d about Vimes between Vetinari and Drumknott is suspicious. What \u00e2\u20ac\u0153big\u00e2\u20ac\u009d battle is Vetinari thinking of? Why is it so wonderfully coincidental that Lady Sybil suggested the trip to the countryside? Why is it a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fortunate circumstance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that Vimes is on his way to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Hall,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which I assume is a reference to Ramkin Hall? And does all of this have to do with the discussion of smuggling, particularly smuggling\/theft that the <i>rich<\/i> are carrying out in Ankh-Morpork? AHHHH I NEED TO KNOW MORE.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/PEmJJuYDyJo<\/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 first part of Snuff, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for a holiday. 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":[463,563,248],"class_list":["post-5050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-snuff","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050","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=5050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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