{"id":5147,"date":"2020-03-20T05:00:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5147"},"modified":"2020-03-16T10:44:57","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T17:44:57","slug":"mark-reads-raising-steam-part-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/03\/mark-reads-raising-steam-part-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Raising Steam’: Part 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the twelfth part of Raising Steam<\/i>, the dwarfs stage their attack, and Moist deals with the terrible ramifications. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of terrorism, police brutality<\/b><\/p>\n

I kept trying to brace myself for the inevitable horrors of the dwarf attack on the railway, and as it turns out, I could not have prepared myself for the sheer violence of it all. Like, I knew they believed that murder was the only effective means of spreading their message, and yet, I was still shocked when Moist and the goblins came upon those bodies. The dwarfs murdered nine workers while the workers were eating<\/i>. They literally waited for the most vulnerable moment to attack, and somehow, that just feels so much more cruel to me. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what this was: pure cruelty. They murdered people who had very little to do with their actual quarrel, who most likely didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know anything about delvers or grags, and they did so while these workers were far from their homes and their families.<\/p>\n

So, on some level, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very easy to understand Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anger. Pratchett draws a parallel here between Vimes and Moist, first by subtly referring to Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experience with the Summoning Dark, and then later directly referencing it in dialogue. The means by which Moist interacts with and accesses the darkness within him is through a strange, unnamed tea that one of the goblins give him. This tea isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the sole<\/i> reason for his reaction. Yes, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his rage. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also his fear: Moist was afraid of letting the goblins down. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that moment where they all look upon him expectantly as they await orders. Remember, Moist was basically given a taste of his own medicine in Of the Twilight the Darkness, who exaggerated Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s standing in order to get the other goblins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 trust. Moist doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to disappoint them, and so he not only lets them go, he lets himself<\/i> go.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I admit that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a very shocking moment, one I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I would have expected from Moist. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that means that there hasn’t<\/i> been a darkness in Moist prior to this. Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there have to be for him to have had such a cynical view of humanity most of his life? Moist used to be the kind of person who believed that all people basically deserved to be fooled if he could fool them. Killing dwarfs, though? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit of a stretch, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested to see how Pratchett will continue to deal with this. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like the act is not given weight within the narrative. Oh, no, Moist is IMMEDIATELY horrified by what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done, and he actually appears to have gone unconscious during the violent episode. When he comes to, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also an interesting line about Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s change:\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Amazing, what things we learn, that goblins can be people and you, Mister Damp, has a heart and crying because of death of men you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. World is full of miracle. Maybe I will see you singing in choir.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Of the Twilight the Darkness hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even known Moist that long, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s able to recognize just how much Moist has grown as a person. I love that this forces Moist to take a long look at this goblin and to recognize how little he knows not just about Of the Twilight the Darkness, but goblins in general. Is he developing feelings for them, too? How much is he challenged in his own ideas by the events that transpire around him? Because I bet if you gave other goblins a chance, Of the Twilight the Darkness would stop seeming like the exception to the rule.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
And for what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth, I do admire that we are watching Moist change in real time, much like we saw characters forced to re-examine their prejudices in Unseen Academicals<\/i>. Moist goes above and beyond that, though. He starts advocating<\/i> for the goblins. He does so at Fat Marie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when Marie tries to refuse to serve the goblins, and I love that he wields threats against these people in a way that is effective. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meaningful, you know? He sees how goblins are treated, and he does not disappoint them. I know Moist doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see himself as a leader, but I think he sells himself short, mostly because he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always have the highest opinion of his own self. But when the situation calls for it, Moist rises to the occasion. Maybe Of the Twilight the Darkness was exaggerating a bit, but there has to be a kernel of truth there, right?<\/p>\n
HEY SO LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TALK ABOUT THAT CONVERSATION WITH VIMES. Long, long ago, I brought up how I am usually really uncomfortable with depictions of law enforcement in fiction, especially in America. Yet I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been able to read much of this series without feeling triggered or deeply uncomfortable with how Pratchett portrays the Watch. Part of that is because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fantasy and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easier for me to put some distance between myself and the narrative. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a really weird moment here where Vimes is a bit more straightforward than I expected. He says:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The delvers are a vicious lot, a type of vermin that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d very much have liked to see dance to Mister Trooper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tune just to show them how justice should be done. But knowing that at least some of the buggers are out of the way must suffice for now. So, on a personal note, which I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll certainly deny if you repeat this to anyone<\/i>: well done.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, this came off as a bit too on-the-nose. I know Vimes has had violent thoughts before, and he has certainly struggled with what is ethical in the face of heinous crimes. But to openly admit to Moist that he was glad<\/i> that Moist killed those dwarfs? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that Vimes would outright admit that to another person, even if he was trying to offer some sort of respect to Moist. Why share something so deeply personal? Why admit that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like<\/i> to commit police brutality against the dwarfs, but since you couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re glad that Moist did<\/i>? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d believe this more if it was just an internal monologue or struggle, you know?<\/p>\n
Anyway, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll change my mind as I continue to read the book. This is still unfolding, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if there will be other unseen consequences of Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions. I do<\/i> think that the dwarfs don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Moist has done, and he ended up on the grags\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 list because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the public face of the railway. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be bumped up the queue once they find out? Right??? This is not going to go well. The unnamed dwarf who warns Moist of this list does so VERY boldly, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not afraid of being the messenger. The deep-downers are coming for those who are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153opposed to real dwarfinshness,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that covers practically every named character in Ankh-Morpork. So when do they stop? When the city and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leaders and figureheads are all dead? Even then, would that bring an end to this? Or do the grags imagine some sort of supremacist society where the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real\u00e2\u20ac\u009d dwarfs run everyhting? I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/r2PO4tl8dB0<\/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 twelfth part of Raising Steam, the dwarfs stage their attack, and Moist deals with the terrible ramifications. 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":[463,565,248],"class_list":["post-5147","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\/5147","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=5147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}