{"id":5065,"date":"2019-10-23T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5065"},"modified":"2019-10-20T13:10:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T20:10:51","slug":"mark-reads-snuff-part-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/10\/mark-reads-snuff-part-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Snuff&#8217;: Part 9"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the ninth part of <i>Snuff<\/i>, help. This was too much. 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 kidnapping of children<\/b><\/p>\n<p>EVERYTHING HAPPENED AT ONCE, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW<\/p>\n<p><b>Just ice<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready for this. I WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T READY FOR THIS. You can literally watch me on video read the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153goblin\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and see my brain take like ten second to catch up with what is actually happening in the text. I thought that this was going to be an examination of what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like to be a country policeman, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, it is! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore that element of the scene that opens this split. Vimes is struggling with someone who has an experience with being a policeman for <i>drastically<\/i> less time than him, that deals with crimes far less intense, but who is coming from a line of men who have done it before. So Feeney exists in a fascinating space, one that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like, say, Jiminy. And yet it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Feeney who Vimes is able to get through to, not the older, retired policeman who Vimes shares more similarities with. Of course, Vimes achieves a lot of this through sheer force of will, inspired not just by his own frustration over getting arrested, but by\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>Well.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The door to the lockup clanged open as Chief Constable Upshot skidded around to the rear of the squat little building. Something yelped and squealed and then Vimes, sitting peacefully inside, suddenly had goblins on his lap. In fact, it was only one goblin, but one goblin is more than sufficient at close quarters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, this species we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been hearing about but who has thus far been off the page (with the exception of Mr. Nutt) was a huge part of the mystery. One of them had had a claw removed or cut from their body, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>it<\/i>. So, my anticipation here was that Pratchett would continue to keep their presence in the country a secret. Something horrible was happening here, and it was why Vimes was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sent\u00e2\u20ac\u009d here. (I use that term loosely to describe Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence over this.) But I flat-out did not expect for a goblin themselves to come rushing into the narrative, to be able to speak, and to ask Vimes for help with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153just ice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It is such a bold move in terms of crafting this plot, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and immediately, this story just got a MASSIVE bolt of energy. We know for certain that there are goblins in the Shires. We know that something horrible is happening to them and that they need help. And now we know that Chief Constable Upshot knows what is going on, too!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>That detail is very important to this story, or at least I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m predicting it will be. Given what we learn in the following scene, I feel like Pratchett is building a story about <i>complicity<\/i>. What have the people here <i>allowed<\/i> to happen? What did they turn away from, even if they knew it was wrong? Even on a singular level, look at all the shit Upshot does to justify his disinterest and disgust in Stinky the goblin!!! He says goblins \u00e2\u20ac\u0153can give you horrible diseases,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he associates them with stealing, he believes a local bishop who sees them as horrible, offensive creations, and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even care that someone is definitely abusing them. So bravo on Vimes for just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 flat-out refusing to be arrested? He does this and tells Stinky to lead the way. JUST LIKE THAT. Someone came asking for help, and the first thing that Vimes did <i>was listen<\/i>. How long have the goblins needed that???<\/p>\n<p><b>Colonel Makepeace<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The way Makepeace\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s POV is written does make me think that Pratchett was deliberately writing about the notion of complicity, of what we allow in our society through inaction, ignorance, a combination of those things, or even malice. On a logistical front, this scene confirms that the magistrates ordered the arrest of Sam Vimes because he had sniffed too close to the truth. Is Jethro dead? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I suspect he is, or at the very least, the magistrates found a way to keep him out of the picture until Vimes is gone. But Makepeace\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narration is not one of active participation, at least not in the sense of how the other magistrates are part of this conspiracy. Indeed, much of his thoughts towards the others are antagonistic; he disagrees with them, he finds them morally repugnant, and in the end, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want any part of this. But even then, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a <i>hero<\/i>. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s someone who learned \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not to protest\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and to stay quiet in the background, all while some truly monstrous shit was going on. His silence was acceptance, was tolerance, was permission. Whatever Gravid did, he convinced all the magistrates to agree to it, and it must benefit them, because they are quite desperate to believe that what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing is legal. So yeah, it <i>did<\/i> feel significant that Makepeace finally vocalized an uncomfortable truth: Why haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any of them asked themselves if what they did was <i>right<\/i>?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>For the most part, the magistrates are a collection of the worst of the aristocracy, too, the kind of person you assume a super wealthy person is. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re predators and massive capitalists and gross and messy. Which does make me feel some type of way about how the only openly not-straight person in a while\u00e2\u20ac\u201dMiss Pickings\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis in this group. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Pratchett is intending to say anything about that, but I worry about the association of the two issues. Anyway, my point is that Pratchett does nothing here to exonerate anyone. Every time these magistrates try to defend themselves or cast themselves in a positive light, Makepeace is there to internally and (sometimes) externally point out how gross and hypocritical they are. And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and of course there was the\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 incident, a few years ago. Not good, that. Not good. Not good when little babies of any sort are taken away from mothers. Not good at all. And you all know it and it worries you, and well it should.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That feels like the answer. Did Gravid actually steal goblin babies away? For what possible purpose??? Is this what Stinky was asking justice for from Vimes? HOW MANY TIME HAS STINKY ASKED UPSHOT FOR HELP BUT HE REFUSED??? Is that what Makepeace is referring to when he says \u00e2\u20ac\u0153smuggling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Or did they <i>use<\/i> the goblins for smuggling???<\/p>\n<p>HELP ME, THIS IS SO VERY, VERY MUCH.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/N6PELgGOAFA<\/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 ninth part of Snuff, help. This was too much. 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-5065","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\/5065","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=5065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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