{"id":3336,"date":"2015-04-22T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=3336"},"modified":"2015-04-19T15:29:27","modified_gmt":"2015-04-19T22:29:27","slug":"mark-reads-moving-pictures-part-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2015\/04\/mark-reads-moving-pictures-part-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Moving Pictures&#8217;: Part 9"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the ninth part of <i>Moving Pictures<\/i>, Victor gets closer to discovering the truth. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <i>Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><b style=\"line-height: 1.2rem;\">History<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I know that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been framing a lot of the references to Hollywood through a personal lens; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something I do often here because REASONS. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a huge historical basis for a great deal of the jokes and gags put here by Pratchett. There really <i>was<\/i> a rush to combine sound with the cinema experience, and early experiments usually involved live orchestras or sound production. Then there was the Vitaphone movies that Warner Bros picked up on, and that morphed into a number of different methods of projecting images <i>and<\/i> sound at the same time. (I was thinking about how you used to have to match a phongraph record and a film reel up with perfect timing and how y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all are like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 still doing similar shit with the Mark Watches videos. THE FUTURE IS NOW.)<\/p>\n<p>That same journey is unfolding here, though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot funnier. There are filthy-mouthed parrots. There are subtitles which are ACTUAL LETTERS PUT ON THE SET WHILE THE ACTING IS UNFOLDING. (That is one of the funniest visual gags in the whole book.) On top of all of this, Holy Wood, like Hollywood itself, grows exponentially alongside everything. I still have not figured out where this is heading, but just from a logistical standpoint? Holy Wood cannot grow perpetually. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible. So what happens when it outgrows its location?<\/p>\n<p><b>Bargaining<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s any meaningful social commentary in this gag, but Gaspode teaching Laddie how to bargain for better food? Goddamn, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so hilarious. I suppose that <i>that<\/i> is a theme we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen a few times throughout this book, and interestingly, Gaspode always seems to be behind teaching these people that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re worth more than they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting. Why is that? Why <i>him<\/i>? I suspect it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s related to the fact that Gaspode is a whole lot more observant than anyone gives him credit for.<\/p>\n<p><b>The Book<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also ENTIRELY transfixed by Gaspode and Victor trying to figure out the mystery of the book that is the answer to everything happening in Holy Wood. Despite that the reader knows a tad bit more than the characters, Pratchett designed this to unfold in a way that combines two separate dynamics. You can have a mystery where the reader and the protagonist are on the same page to build tension. Or you can have the ticking time bomb: the audience knows exactly what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen and derives tension from trying to determine when the protagonists are going to figure it all out. I see <i>both<\/i> of these aspects here in the story, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a <i>great<\/i> way for this book to feel suspenseful!<\/p>\n<p>So, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got the two of them getting <i>very<\/i> close to figuring out the whole Keeper of the Door shit. They are SO close, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. They see the road from the driftwood hut to the hill. They see nothing but trees on the hill. And then Laddie finds Ginger, passed out right outside THE doorway, collapsed from exhaustion. Why?<\/p>\n<p>Between two of them was an arched doorway, three times as high as Victor. It was sealed with a pair of pale gray doors, either of stone or of wood that had become as hard as stone over the years. One of them was slightly open, but had been prevented from opening further by the drifts of sand in front of it. Frantically scrabbled furrows had been dug deep in the sand. Ginger had been trying to shift it with her bare hands.<\/p>\n<p>JESUS, <i>WHY<\/i>? My gut tells me that the Holy Wood force compelled her to do this, and that worries me because IS THAT WHAT IT ULTIMATELY WANTS THEM ALL TO DO? Is it just trying to free itself? But then that confuses me because why build up Holy Wood, too? Why create this bustling, chaotic industry around the doorway? Do They <i>need<\/i> this environment?<\/p>\n<p><b>The <i>Other<\/i><\/b> <b>Book<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I was pleased to get back to the Librarian, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SO CONFUSED. He notices something in Victor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most recent film that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153worries\u00e2\u20ac\u009d him, and then storms up to Bezam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s projection room to remove a couple frames of the film. Okay, fine, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m with you. But this is what he took?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But all he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d wanted was a piece that showed the Sons galloping down from their mountain fastness, in single file, on identical camels.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dunno what he wanted that for,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he muttered, taking the lid off the glue pot. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It just shows a lot of rocks.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Which are probably Rock and Morry? Yes? Usually? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it! From there, the Librarian whisks himself to the maximum security shelves of the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s library (I LOVE THAT I GET TO TYPE \u00e2\u20ac\u0153MAXIMUM SECURITY SHELVES,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d BLESS THESE BOOKS SO MUCH) to get\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what????<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This was a book that had absorbed the sheer, graphite-gray evil of its subject matter.<\/p>\n<p>Its name was hacked in letters over the arch, lest men and apes forget.<\/p>\n<p>NECROTELICOMNICON.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I remember this being mentioned in older <i>Discworld<\/i> books, but I cannot recall what it does. Dead things? Dead people??? WHY? WHY DOES THE LIBRARIAN NEED THIS?<\/p>\n<p>The original text contains use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153whoring.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eiR1OxOGYpo<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K., and Ireland. <a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/tour-dates-appearances\/\" target=\"_blank\">Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a><br \/>\n&#8211; My <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/calendar\/embed?src=815s3sbr8clhdi9tn8k7r3tim4%40group.calendar.google.com&amp;ctz=America\/Los_Angeles\">Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0<b>My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0<i>The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0<i>Doctor Who<\/i>, and <i>Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane&#8217;s <i>Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.<br \/>\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/markdoesstuff\">Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;ve got a community page up that I&#8217;m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<br \/>\n&#8211; If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running,\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2013\/09\/help-keep-mark-does-stuff-running\/\">I&#8217;ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<br \/>\n<\/a>&#8211; Please check out the\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/markdoesstuff.com\/\">MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the ninth part of Moving Pictures, Victor gets closer to discovering 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-3336","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\/3336","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=3336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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