In the seventh part of Raising Steam<\/i>, Moist helps push the railway closer to completion. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I love that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re now deep in the third book for Moist von Lipwig, and Pratchett is still willing to give us scenes where Moist just does his thing<\/i>. Even though he is not a criminal anymore in a literal sense, he is still one at heart. And what better person to deal with aristocrats and the absurdly rich, who are criminals of a different sort? Like the situations with post office and the bank, Lord Vetinari knew<\/i> that Moist would be ideal for the negotiation of the land rights for the railway. The men who own the land that the railway would need access to would never give up such things from the goodness of their hearts or because they believe in the public good. Seriously, how do you think most of them got<\/i> to be rich? And while there are usually exceptions to the rule, Vetinari is aware of how lucrative this industry is already proving to be. Thus: people will want to make money off of it. Who else knows how to squeeze as much money as possible out of things?<\/p>\n
Moist von Lipwig.<\/p>\n
But Vetinari is not ready to claim victory just yet; there are simply too many things that could go wrong. The railway to Sto Lat, the first stop, hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been constructed; there are countless contracts to draw up, negotiate, and finalize; and Stimnel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prototype needs a working model that can do as he promised. So, I get why Vetinari lights a metaphorical flame under Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arse here. Moist can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t slack or treat this as complete now that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worked something out between the Ankh-Morpork government and Harry King. Oh no, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just begun. Moist knows this game, though! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he plays it by offering more than he knows is possible. I mean, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt that Simnel can meet the demands Moist will set forth, but still! Moist is gambling, and lord, does he love gambling with possibility. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a possibility that he is watching become reality with every passing day. Seriously, I love the way that Pratchett writes about Harry King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s compound:<\/p>\n
Moist looked around the fiery hellhole that was the ironworks. In the satanic air he could just about tell the golems from the human workers in their leather overalls, because the golems were the ones walking around holding pieces of red-hot iron in their bare hands. The furnaces illuminated the grey sky, and always and forever the clanging went on. And the pile of fresh new rails got bigger and bigger.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Like the Iron Girder, this all feels like it has a life of its own, as if it is a breathing thing that can no longer be controlled. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coming to the world, and the best Moist and Vetinari can do is find the reins and ride it out. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I feel Moist is doing! All these little pieces\u00e2\u20ac\u201dHarry King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s compound, SImnel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workers, the surveyors, the landowners, and many other groups\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfit into a larger picture. To borrow a term from the text, Moist is the grease that helps this all slide together with as little friction as possible. One way he does this is best demonstrated by his negotiation with Lord Underdale.<\/p>\n
I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so pleasing to see Moist in his element. Here, someone thinks they are smarter and more clever than Moist, that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got all the power and leverage, that they deal they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re cutting is a steal. Underdale thinks of Moist as a fool throughout this, but of course, Moist is like twenty steps ahead of Underdale. Not only does he not drink a drop of alcohol, he STEALS it all and negotiates a contract that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll actually benefit the railway in the long run. (Admittedly, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out how that is so. Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it be frustrating to transmit all that ore AND Underdale for free?)<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to come of the competing railway! It was only a matter of time before one cropped up, but this was sooner than I expected. Surely, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a design. And how could they have received land rights without an actual working locomotive?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The only other bit I wanted to comment on was the section from the POV of Bedwyr Beddsson. What we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seeing in many of these scenes is how a community is struggling with extremism. Clearly, Bedwyr was initially sympathetic to the grags, so much so that his wife had to beg him to start rejecting their outreach. (And it is interesting to me that they are<\/i> doing that sort of recruiting. Are they aware of how small their numbers are? Or are they convinced they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re larger?) Again, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an interesting conversation here that touches on the notion of assimilation and change. At heart: Is a dwarf still a dwarf if they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t practice the same cultural norms as others? What actually quantifies a dwarf? Their appearance? Their traditions? Their heart?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Bedwyr eventually comes around and not only rejects the dwarfs, but he actually helps when a clacks tower near him is attacked. I love what this represents, too: Bedwyr refuses to be complicit and actively fights against the grags are doing.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important development, but this also reveals that there are STILL grags willing to hurt others in support of their ideology. The Low King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s declaration didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop them at all.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/5N02DaJcvX0<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– You can now pre-order my second YA novel, Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>
\n– 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 seventh part of Raising Steam, Moist helps push the railway closer to completion. 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":[463,565,248],"class_list":["post-5141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-raising-steam","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5141","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=5141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}