In the seventh part of Moving Pictures<\/i>, Victor and Ginger have a bizarre and upsetting experience on set, and it brings them closer to the truth. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of racial stereotypes and Islamophobia, and misogyny.<\/b><\/p>\n
Holy shit. Holy shit<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I feel pretty comfortable in stating that the first half of this section was designed to be really fucking unnerving. At this point, I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious that Pratchett is aware of genre tropes and stereotypes because so many of his jokes and premises are based on subverting them or satirizing them. Indeed, most of Moving Pictures<\/i> wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the sort of depth of criticism it does unless Pratchett was able to turn this shit on its head. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily make this a joyous experience; the pervasive stereotypes about ambiguously Arab characters on display here aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fun. At the same time, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re built into the fabric of a lot of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153classic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Western films, sometimes deliberately so, often unknowingly.<\/p>\n
So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got complicated feelings on it. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start by saying that satire about these sort of things \u00e2\u20ac\u201c racial stereotypes or harmful, thoughtless tropes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is always a difficult thing to pull off. One of the major hurdles any writer, but particularly a white writer in this context, has to overcome is the delivery. Does the satire work to discredit and criticize these archetypes and structures? Can the reader tell what is being satirized? Is it clear that the text is criticizing something? I think<\/i> that this largely accomplishes that. The framing of everything here positions the behaviors of those in Holy Wood as absurd and inappropriate. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re meant to look upon these people as acting in ridiculous ways, no?<\/p>\n
If we accept that, then Dibbler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior can easily be viewed in a negative sense. We know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case with his treatment of Silverfish, especially since Gaspode outright confirms what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening:<\/p>\n
In the middle of all this were Dibbler and Silverfish, arguing. Dibbler had his harm around Silverfish\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A dead giveaway, is that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said a voice from the level of Victor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knees. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It means some poor bugger is about to be taken to the cleaners.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a stretch to suggest that once Dibbler begins to share details of Shadowe of the Desert<\/i>, we are supposed to critically upon him. From the use of scantily clad slave girls (represented by Ginger), to the camels, to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dozens of guys with bedsheets on their heads,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear to me that Dibbler is utilizing the kind of tropes and stereotypes that allow him to communicate clear sides in his adventure epic. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed<\/i> to be horribly offensive as far as I can tell because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the culture of Holy Wood accepts and condones. Which is a little strange once you put it in the context of the Discworld because I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how race or racism might function within this universe. Are their stereotypical stories told about Klatchians or Ephebians or Djel that are popular in the Discworld, but unfairly represent those cultures? If not, then how did Dibbler even begin to get these ideas?<\/p>\n
That could be easily explained by Them, the things giving everyone in Holy Wood their Ideas. And shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, that<\/i> aspect of this book has gotten a million times creepier, too! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad enough that They are essentially invading the minds of these people and making them act things out against their will. Everything thus far has been a lot more subtle than you might expect, but when Ginger and Victor practically become unconscious while acting??? THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT SUBTLE AT ALL. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scary and thankfully, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s represented in the text that way. Well, okay, the whole bit about stars in the eyes is kind of funny to me, but still<\/i>. This is upsetting:<\/p>\n
And Victor awoke. It was like rising slowly out of a pink cloud, or a magnificent dream which, try as you might, drains out of your mind as the daylight shuffles in, leaving a terrible sense of loss; nothing, you know instinctively, nothing you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to experience for the rest of the day is going to be one half as good as that dream.<\/p>\n
He blinked. The images faded away. He was aware of an ache in his muscles, as if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d recently been exerting himself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through this that Victor begins to take Gaspode seriously, at least seriously enough that he no longer questions the hints that Gaspode has been giving him about Holy Wood. While this is all through Victor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective, Ginger also experiences the same disconnect from reality, which deeply upsets her. But what can they do<\/i>? They both want<\/i> to stop this phenomenon, and yet there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no clear path for either of them. On top of the fact that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re missing pieces of the puzzle, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got someone like Dibbler constantly hounding them to be a part of the chaos of Holy Wood, which leaves little chance for them to separate themselves from this horrifying machine. How do they fight a force that more or less compels them not<\/i> to fight?<\/p>\n
THIS IS SO INTERESTING TO ME, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2WPvOWjer4E<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K., and Ireland. Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often. My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>– Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a> I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
\n<\/a>– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the seventh part of Moving Pictures, Victor and Ginger have a bizarre and upsetting experience on set, and it brings them closer to the truth. 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":[463,493,248],"class_list":["post-3331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-moving-pictures","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}