In the sixteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay<\/i>, this book is too much, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m more certain than ever that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to love every City Watch book. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For talk of misogyny<\/b><\/p>\n
Industry<\/b><\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an advantage that Pratchett has in setting the\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0books in a sort of pre-industrial society like this. This section opens with a perfect demonstration of that. The candle factory is something that, up to this point, had not been seen in this universe, at least not to this scale. Therefore, Carrot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shock at the place makes sense, as does his reaction to Mr. Carry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s business practices. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to suggest that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no exploitation within the Discworld\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s existence. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely there, but\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0kind is absolutely new.<\/p>\n
Of course, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to examine this merely through that lens. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t divorce this narrative from the golems, who created a near-porcelain \u00e2\u20ac\u0153king\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the baker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s oven in order to save them. If that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the saddest commentary there is in this book, THEN I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THE OTHER SAD PARTS. (Seriously, is anyone else affected by the golem storyline as much as I am? Damn you, Pratchett. DAMN YOU.<\/p>\n
Anyway, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discuss Mr. Carry, because in this is Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most damning condemnation. It was obvious to me that Mr. Carry was eager to blame literally anyone and everything for what had happened, even if he was responsible for a portion of it. Men like him exist\u00c2\u00a0everywhere<\/i>, and they are often in control of a great deal of power. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that Pratchett intended this as a fierce excoriation of this kind of business practice, but you know what? It still works. Yes, Mr. Carry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s candle success is largely due to the fact that his golem refuses to stop working, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to accommodate the excess production. But is his business actually suffering? Is he losing business? Not really.<\/p>\n
See, he blames the poisoned candles on someone else. He blames the golem on someone else. He blames the presence of the vampire on someone else. He won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take accountability for a single second, and then he drops the\u00c2\u00a0worst<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read in a long time in a\u00c2\u00a0Discworld\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>book:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The candles killed two other people,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Carrot.<\/p>\n Carry started to panic again. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153An old lady and a baby in Cockbill Street.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Were they important?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Carry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Like Carrot, this was the exact point where I lost absolutely all sympathy I\u00c2\u00a0might<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0have had for Carry. Not that I had much to begin with, you know? But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how this man thinks, and you can see it everything he says. Certain people are worth respect and care, and others absolutely are not. Carry calculates that worth in everything he does, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he agreed to the golem and the poisoned candles.<\/p>\n He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0awful<\/i>.<\/p>\n Carrot<\/b>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prejudice<\/b><\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not doubting that Carrot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ingrained prejudices will be addressed at this point; Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been way too explicit about them so far. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m expecting that the \u00c2\u00a0text will have to resolve this because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually been a major subplot. Will Angua stay with Carrot if his behavior keeps pushing her away? Sometimes, I wish we could be in Cheri\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head more because I want to know\u00c2\u00a0her<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0reaction to the conversation she overhears. How does she feel when Carrot keeps insisting that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a burden, that he will always worry about her because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a girl in the field? Maybe\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is the reason she hides when the king golem attack. What if she believes what Carrot says about her? What if her relief comes from that instead of an innate fear of the situation?<\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m speculating, of course, since there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much in the text at all to support that. I did love that even though she was afraid, she rushed into battle against the king golem while screaming the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153most menacing dwarf battle-cry there is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a coward or incapable at\u00c2\u00a0all<\/i>. Unskilled? Probably. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not exactly a great warrior in terms of effectiveness!<\/p>\n Dorfl<\/b><\/p>\n MY HEART IS NOT BIG ENOUGH TO CONTAIN MY LOVE AND ADMIRATION FOR DORFL. IT SIMPLY ISN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T. Dorfl returns to be\u00c2\u00a0responsible<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all! They were part of the reason the king golem even exists, so I love that Dorfl comes to fight it and stop it from killing anyone else. (I assume that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Dorfl is trying to do.) Their fight is SO BRUTAL, and I felt like Dorfl had the upper hand right until the king sheered off the top of Dorfl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head. I was heartbroken. Gutted. And as soon as Dorfl \u00e2\u20ac\u0153died,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the dynamic of the fight changed dramatically. It was more about survival than anything else.<\/p>\n Well, until Carrot temporarily stunned it and then STARTED READING THE KING THEIR RIGHTS. BLESS YOUR HEART, CARROT. I thought\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0was the big moment, but Pratchett had one last surprise for me: DORFL COULD SURVIVE WITHOUT A CHEM IN THEIR HEAD. Not only that, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just let Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s words speak for themselves:<\/p>\n Time slowed. Nothing moved in the whole universe but Dorfl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fist.<\/p>\n It swung like a planet, without any apparent speed but with a drifting unstoppability.<\/p>\n And then the king\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expression changed. Just before the fist landed, it smiled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And given how many conflicting and confusing messages were in that golem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head, their behavior made perfect sense to me. How could the king create peace and teach freedom and rule and do all of this without contradicting itself? The king smiled because they were finally free. But hey, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all have a billion feelings once more:<\/p>\n WORDS IN THE HEART CAN NOT BE TAKEN<\/b>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Help me. H E L P<\/p>\n Art Brought Forth the Candle<\/b><\/p>\n THE ANSWER WAS RIGHT THERE ALL ALONG. GODDAMN IT. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, TERRY PRATCHETT. Always a million steps ahead of me!<\/p>\n It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lost on me that even after he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been more or less caught, Mr. Carry still couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just admit that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done something wrong. He continued to blame other people and whine about how \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had told him that he wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get caught, wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get in trouble, and that everything would be okay. Yeah, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy it. So who killed Mr. Carry? My guess is Dragon. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only person who could swoop in and out of a dark alley without being seen. Right?<\/p>\n The Truth<\/b><\/p>\n Well, Cheri knows who Angua really is. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through the most ironic means, of course, and now I wonder how much Cheri will acknowledge that her perception of werewolves is horribly flawed. (That seems to be a recurring theme in this book, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?) Angua saved her life without hesitation. Is that what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to take to change her mind?<\/p>\n Diane Duane is still offering a massive discount on the first 9 books in the\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0series just to this community, so please take advantage of this deal while you still can:<\/b><\/p>\n http:\/\/bit.ly\/markreadsYW<\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nGv5Z_JOF_o<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the sixteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay, this book is too much, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m more certain than ever that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to love every City Watch book. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld.<\/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":[517,463,248],"class_list":["post-3901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-feet-of-clay","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3901","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=3901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! 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 have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"