In the twelfth part of Moving Pictures<\/i>, characters are stereotyped, Ginger confronts Victor, and Ankh-Morpork burns. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of stereotypes<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Oh lord.<\/p>\n
Typecast<\/b><\/p>\n
Without knowing the endgame for this book, I do<\/i> sometimes struggle to understand where some of this fits in with the greater narrative. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always an issue, of course, given the way that I read books for this site. In this case, though, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always know what Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to say. I sort of spoke of this before the last time we got some gags about the trolls\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 stereotypical behavior, though that was more about the implications of the metaphors he was writing. I bring that up because I can see a continuation of those ideas here, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious to know where this belongs in the story.<\/p>\n
At the opening of this section, while Victor is trying to decide how to confront Ginger about her sleepwalking, we get a fairly long sequence in which the trolls and the dwarfs speak openly about being typecast and stereotyped. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of good commentary here about this experience, one that can easily be extrapolated to marginalized populations in our own world. For instance:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now look here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Rock, his voice winding up like a pitcher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arm. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying is, is OK for trolls to be shown bashing people with clubs, is not OK to show trolls have finer feelings like squashy humans?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real<\/i>. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something many non-white actors complain about within the industry! When the dwarfs voice their concerns about stereotypes and misrepresentation, it also works as an analogy for real-world typecasting. But where does this fall within the text? If the power of Holy Wood compels people to an inflated sense of self-importance, does that mean that these characters, defending their right for fair representation, are merely being self-important? Are they acting of their own free will or are They compelling these characters to act this way?<\/p>\n
Shameless Promotion<\/b><\/p>\n
I ask this because it seems painfully (and hilariously) clear that Dibbler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desperation to raise revenue for his company is part of the absurdity that Holy Wood inspires in others. Sure, it makes sense that Dibbler, of all characters, would be willing to write an ad as crass as the one here. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what he does<\/i>, you know? But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s truly shameless in a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s egregious, even for someone like Dibbler:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not interfering,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Dibbler stolidly. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how that<\/i> could be considered interfering. I just polished it up here and there. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rather an improvement. Besides, Harga\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s All-You-Can-Gobble-For-A-Dollar is amazing value these days.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But the click is set hundreds of years ago!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d shouted Soll.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We-ell,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Dibbler. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I suppose someone could say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI wonder if the food at Harga\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House of Ribs will still be as good in hundreds of years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time\u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Utterly ridiculous. But it needs to be.<\/p>\n
Confrontation<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s undeniably disturbing to think about how Holy Wood is affecting these people, particularly Ginger. Earlier in this book, I got the sense that things were moving quickly, but I can now see how much of this is a slow burn. While the reader is quick to catch on to things, Ginger and Victor take two hundred and fifty pages to finally speak openly about what this place is doing to them. Victor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theory? The soul<\/i> of Holy Wood is controlling them.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the sort of soul of a place. It can be quite strong. It can be made<\/i> strong, by worship or love or hate, if it goes on long enough. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wondering if the spirit of a place can call to people. And animals, too. I mean, Holy Wood is a different sort of place, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? People act differently here. Everyone else, the most important things are gods or money or cattle. Here, the most important thing is to be important.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Unlike my slight confusion or uncertainty towards previous metaphors Pratchett has employed, Pratchett makes it clear that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing bad<\/i> about wanting to be important or popular. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this<\/i> place that amplifies them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wild\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ideas that make it easier for Them to enter the Discworld\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dimension.<\/p>\n
So how the hell do you stop something like this? Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say that Victor is successful in preventing Ginger from sleepwalking and trying to open the Door. (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do that, given that Gaspode couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop her.) Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to say that Holy Wood won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just get someone else to do it? How do you stop an entire machine as relentless as this one? Countless people are unwittingly complicit in this, and convincing each of them that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being controlled is an impossible task. Who else is aware of all of this? The resograph is increasing in frequency, Ankh-Morpork\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s likeness has been burned, and Blown Away<\/i> is nearly complete. There doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to be an end in sight. Why was it necessary for Dibbler to make Blown Away<\/i>? What haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I figured out???? TOO MANY THINGS.<\/p>\n
The original text contains use of the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mad.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ivu1bql0ntQ<\/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.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’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,\u00c2\u00a0I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
\n<\/a>– Please check out the\u00c2\u00a0MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the twelfth part of Moving Pictures, characters are stereotyped, Ginger confronts Victor, and Ankh-Morpork burns. 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-3353","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\/3353","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=3353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}