{"id":5176,"date":"2020-05-06T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5176"},"modified":"2020-05-03T16:43:33","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T23:43:33","slug":"mark-reads-the-shepherds-crown-chapter-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/05\/mark-reads-the-shepherds-crown-chapter-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;The Shepherd&#8217;s Crown&#8217;: Chapter 7"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the seventh chapter of <i>The Shepherd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crown<\/i>, Tiffany deals with a confrontation and has an epiphany; the Queen of the Elves finds out that she was told the truth. 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>You get to watch this finally click in the video below, but: Mrs. Earwig projects her own flaws on to everyone else. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to be frustrated about when it comes to her character, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that unwillingness to give herself some constructive criticism that gets under my skin. Has she even <i>once<\/i> considered that maybe she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the wrong? That she has the wrong approach? That the perspective of another person might actually help her become a better person?<\/p>\n<p>I actually believe she hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t EVER. That she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gone through life believing she is at the peak of human excellence and superiority. If she was such a fantastic witch, why didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Granny ever recognize her for that? Ah, because <i>other people<\/i> are stubborn and foolish. But not Mrs. Earwig! Never her!<\/p>\n<p>Pratchett smartly constructs her confrontation with Tiffany so that it is easy to see why Mrs. Earwig is so damn rude. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the name calling and the refusal to see Tiffany as a woman, only a girl. The age part in particular isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just grating to Tiffany; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how Mrs. Earwig demonstrates that she sees Tiffany as inherently incompetent. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a <i>child<\/i>, not an adult. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a few years since the last Tiffany Aching book.) There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a possible point buried deep within Mrs. Earwig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s resentment, but she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t possess the kindness or tact to <i>actually<\/i> say that she has more experience as a witch\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsince she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been one longer\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to provide help. No, Mrs. Earwig doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153help\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at all. She just wants what she wants. The request for Esme Weatherwax\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s steading isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t an act of charity; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a selfish desire based in entitlement.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And then she drops this bullshit:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying you are a bad person, my dear. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cope, and people are talking about it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Obviously, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the insult there; Mrs. Earwig probably <i>does<\/i> think Tiffany is a bad person. Which is ironic, given that Tiffany later says that she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite think of Mrs. Earwig as a bad soul, despite that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got SO VERY MANY toxic traits. The irony!!! But again, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the difference between these two characters. The person who <i>actually<\/i> isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t coping with Granny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death? IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S MRS. EARWIG. Like, the GALL of saying that Tiffany can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cope when she has dealt with such MONSTROUS things SINCE SHE WAS A LITERAL CHILD is offensive to me. Did Mrs. Earwig defeat the Queen of the Elves? The Hiver? The Wintersmith? WHO DID ALL OF THAT?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This gets me so heated. But I can tell it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to! Mrs. Earwig projects all of this onto Tiffany even though Tiffany has shown herself more than capable. So I was real happy that two things came of this. First, Tiffany tells her off. THIS WAS DEEPLY SATISFYING. Deeply! Tiffany very sharply gets to the heart of the matter: Mrs. Earwig is only a witch when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not messy. That motif comes back from previous books, too. Mrs. Earwig doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like getting her hands dirty. (There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a metaphor for you, Mrs. Earwig!) But unlike Mrs. Earwig, Tiffany is willing to introspect, to consider the words of someone else, and she comes to an important conclusion: She really <i>is<\/i> doing too much. The past chapter helped her get to this point, too, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore that, but I still loved that this additional epiphany happened here:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But the banging of the door as punctuation caused Tiffany to think and she thought suddenly, I want to do it my way. Not how the other witches think it should be done. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be Granny Weatherwax for them. I can only be me, Tiffany Aching.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Which I feel is related to Mrs. Earwig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s claim that things have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153always\u00e2\u20ac\u009d been done a certain way. Except&#8230; <i>have<\/i> they? And if so, is the mere existence of a tradition enough to justify it continuing? Truly, if any of you have ever been harmed or frustrated by a tradition and had that excuse thrown at you, you KNOW how angering it is. WHO CARES IF WE HAVE ALWAYS DONE IT ONE WAY. We have the beautiful option to <i>choose<\/i> what we want to do every day! Why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we just <i>choose<\/i> a new way?<\/p>\n<p>So Tiffany does. She starts small by invoking the Feegles to help her do an old gentleman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s laundry, something that is both hilarious to me and revolting to them. Except for Daft Wullie, who appears to have ingested soap? Either way: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a change. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something <i>new<\/i>. What will Tiffany choose to do differently in the future? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited to find out, since this now suggests a new possibility: Tiffany won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to choose which steading to manage. If she can reduce her daily workload through new techniques and an apprentice, she can still run both.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe?<\/p>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still the <i>tiny<\/i> problem of the invasion by the elves, though. Tiny problem. Totally not a big deal. JUST KIDDING, IT MAKES ME VERY NERVOUS. That being said&#8230; wow, I genuinely don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where this plot is going aside from the very general invasion? The elves are now in the Discworld, but Of the Lathe the Swarf has twisted this story into an unexpected way. First of all: he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lying. The elves discover the existence of the railway and the Iron Horse, which puts them into a state of panic. Well, most of them; not the Queen or Peaseblossom. Which still makes me wonder what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on with Peaseblossom. What is he planning? I had entertained VERY briefly the idea that maybe he and Or the Lathe the Swarf were working together because they BOTH disliked the Queen, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that that fits here anymore. So, let me adapt this theory: I think Of the Lathe the Swarf\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attack on Peaseblossom is going to further humiliate the Queen. Even though they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re now in this world, nothing is going as it really should. So&#8230; Peaseblossom is going to use that against her to try to take her place? Maybe?<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M TRYING, OKAY.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/4ATvLgsZOO0<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9781250169211\">You can now pre-order my second YA novel, <i>Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a><br \/>\n&#8211; Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/EachOfUsADesertPreorder\">If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>&#8211; 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 seventh chapter of The Shepherd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crown, Tiffany deals with a confrontation and has an epiphany; the Queen of the Elves finds out that she was told the truth. 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":[463,248,567],"class_list":["post-5176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-the-shepherds-crown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5176","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=5176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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