{"id":4547,"date":"2018-05-14T05:00:29","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4547"},"modified":"2018-04-30T07:17:58","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T14:17:58","slug":"mark-reads-the-wee-free-men-chapter-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/05\/mark-reads-the-wee-free-men-chapter-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;The Wee Free Men&#8217;: Chapter 13"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the thirteenth chapter of <i>The Wee Free Men<\/i>, Tiffany realizes what she needs to defeat the Queen. 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>Oh, Tiffany. You really <i>weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> alone.<\/p>\n<p>This is such a heavy, metaphorical choice for a resolution, but I love that Pratchett may have gotten kids to think about the history of where they live and who has been in their lives. Throughout <i>The Wee Free Men<\/i>, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten a sense for how isolated Tiffany has felt, and that plays directly into this climactic scene. She isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like other kids; she cannot connect with her younger brother; she feels like she was left out of the legacy that Granny Aching left behind. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a <i>wanderer<\/i> at the start of this book, aimless and confused and desperate for some sort of guidance. (And she certainly wanted that <i>from<\/i> Granny Aching, who mostly remained silent.) When she discovers that she <i>is<\/i> supposed to become a witch\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand I used the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153supposed to\u00e2\u20ac\u009d loosely\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit of resentment on her part. Why isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she a part of this? Why wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she mentored to become a witch? What is her place within this world?<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Land Under Wave\u00e2\u20ac\u009d answers that question in both the immediate sense and in a much more grandiose manner. Pratchett brings Tiffany to the lowest point of her life. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back in her own world, locked out of the Queen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s realm because the door was destroyed, and she left both her brother and the Feegle behind. She failed. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the Queen focuses on: all of Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failures. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just the obvious, either! This particular passage was a LOT:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I expect it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not your fault you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so cold and heartless,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the Queen. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably all to do with your parents. They probably never gave you enough time. And having Wentworth was a very cruel thing to do\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthey really should have been more careful. And they let you read too many books. It can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be good for a young brain, knowing words like <i>paradigm<\/i> and <i>eschatological<\/i>. It leads to behavior such as using your own brother as monster bait.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The Queen sighed. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sadly, that kind of thing happens all the time. I think you should be proud of not being worse than just deeply introverted and socially maladjusted.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of astonishing just how many things the Queen manages to insult and prod in just one paragraph, but THERE YOU GO. She hits on Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicated feelings towards her brother; the resentment she feels because he gets more attention; the awareness she has that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s different; the fact that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never be like anyone else. Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response, though, is of empowerment. Those very things that the Queen tries to insult her for are what make her unique, what makes her human, what makes her <i>important<\/i>. And in a stunning sequence, Tiffany becomes intimately aware of her place within a world that has existed long before she did. Now I get why this is set in the Chalk; in a purely physical sense, Tiffany walks among history every day. What do you think all that chalk is made of? As she sinks beneath the land into the dream-like world of the past, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given the confidence to realize her part in it all. Was it all just a dream? Who <i>cares<\/i>? The meaning isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t negated if it all happened in a dream world. She still <i>saw<\/i> Granny Aching, she was still reminded of the importance of being unequivocally herself, Thunder and Lightning still chased the Storm away, and:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Tiffany didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if what had just happened was a dream or had happened somewhere that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite <i>here<\/i> or had happened only in her head. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter. It had <i>happened<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>YES. I LOVE THIS. And while I <i>was<\/i> amused by the whole lawyers bit\u00e2\u20ac\u201despecially finally getting the backstory of the toad!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI did feel like it interrupted Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very important transformation. Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 she just stops talking (and isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even mentioned) once the lawyers show up. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little strange, but not enough to like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 ruin this for me? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just an odd pacing choice. NO MATTER, BECAUSE HOW GREAT IS THE BEST EPIPHANY OF THE WHOLE BOOK????<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>She swung a hand. The Queen tried to stop her, but she might as well have tried to stop a wheel of years. Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand caught her face and knocked her off her feet.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now I know why I never cried for Granny,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She has never left me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She leaned down, and centuries bent with her.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The secret is not to dream,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she whispered. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The secret is to wake up. Waking up is harder. I have woken up and I am real. I know where I come from and I know where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going. You cannot fool me anymore. Or touch me. Or anything that is mine.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>DID YOU HEAR THAT, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S THE SOUND OF THE BADASS ROCK N\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ROLL BACKING MUSIC THAT KICKS IN RIGHT AS TIFFANY FINISHES THIS. My instant reaction to this was pride. I was so <i>proud<\/i> of Tiffany and her journey, both because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so young (I WAS A MESS AT THIS AGE) and because it felt so <i>profound<\/i>. She knows she is a part of this grand history, but she also knows that she is important <i>now<\/i>. Her time on the Disc is vital <i>now<\/i>. And Tiffany rejects the Queen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power by filtering the world through herself and her own importance. I love that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153THIS IS ALL MINE, BACK THE FUCK OFF.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As Tiffany said, the Queen only knows control and nothing else. So Tiffany just refuses to let her control what is hers!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I was also touched that despite everything that has happened, despite how much misery the Queen caused, Tiffany still offered her pity. Normally, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a flattering thing, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>kind<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind in this case that Tiffany feels sorry for the Queen. Why? Well, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my theory: Tiffany knows what it feels like to be isolated and alone, even when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re surrounded by others. She just chose a different path.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M NOT READY FOR THIS LAST CHAPTER, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>vid<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>My YA contemporary debut, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markoshiro.com\/blog\/2017\/9\/22\/i-am-proud-to-announce-my-ya-contemporary-debut-anger-is-a-gift\">ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><strong>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 thirteenth chapter of The Wee Free Men, Tiffany realizes what she needs to defeat the Queen. 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":[463,248,543],"class_list":["post-4547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-the-wee-free-men"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547","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=4547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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