{"id":4599,"date":"2018-07-03T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4599"},"modified":"2018-07-01T08:40:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T15:40:10","slug":"mark-reads-monstrous-regiment-part-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-reads-monstrous-regiment-part-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Monstrous Regiment’: Part 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventeenth part of Monstrous Regiment<\/i>, Polly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempt at infiltration does not go as planned. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of cissexism, misogyny<\/b><\/p>\n

I could see someone finding all of this hilarious and unexpected\u00e2\u20ac\u201da neat way to reverse expectations and build irony through the soldiers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reactions to the Ins-and-Outs getting to dress as women instead of being in disguise. (Which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re technically doing, too? THIS IS A LOT.) At the same time, I feel like that part of the humor relies on a gender binary and a fairly upsetting notion of what it means to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pass.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Unintended, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure, and in the context of this story, I get why<\/i> this happens. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also cis, so my reading of this is superficial at best<\/i>, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like there is a monolithic interpretation of this either.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s humor, though, in the irony, in the fact that Blouse had no problem getting into the Keep, but all these women were embarrassingly questioned. Again, on a surface level, so much of what is transpiring in Monstrous Regiment<\/i> is an examination of what roles are expected of people. Jackrum refuses to disguise himself as a woman because it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit his idea of who he is supposed to be. Then, he bristles when the women demand to know why all of Jackrum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soldiers are called the Ins-and-Outs. Despite that all these women have already been in this war, he still sees them as delicate, as unable to handle dirty jokes, as unable to have anything to do with sex. I suspect that this is also<\/i> the reason he is so brutally uncomfortable with Wazzer. Would he react the same way if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d received that same information from a boy<\/i>?<\/p>\n

Probably not. AND LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TAKE A MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT THAT BECAUSE WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH THE DUCHESS<\/i>??? We know gods can be real, and we know that belief fuels their existence. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a strangeness to Wazzer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s belief because I no longer have any doubt that someone\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmaybe not the Duchess, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll admit\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis talking to her. She is providing details that are too specific and<\/i> that freak Jackrum out for this all to be a delusion or some odd mistake. So why<\/i>? Why is The Duchess being so specific? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in Scritz and why does it upset Jackrum? What does this<\/i> mean?:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Been praying, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcave yer?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Mrs. Enid kindly.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, just listening,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Wazzer.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nuggan talks to you, does he?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No. Nuggan is dead, Mrs. Enid,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Wazzer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WHAT THE FUCK<\/i>. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I guess? Is that because no one actually<\/i> believes in Nuggan, but they do<\/i> believe in the Duchess? Oh god, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not right at all, am I? I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why does she cry?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The prayers. They hurt her.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW WHAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GOING ON. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m utterly intrigued<\/i> by this. I think it was easy to dismiss Wazzer prior to these developments. Tonker and Polly certainly did! This repressive religion feels primed to be resisted against. But what if there really is<\/i> something else at work here? How does that affect the people of Borogravia if the Duchess really did want to help them, but she simply can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
On top of that, I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have a grasp on the directionMonstrous Regiment<\/i> is going to take. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping that Polly locates Paul soon, but what about this impending invasion? Or Wazzer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subplot involving The Duchess? How much are these part of the main story, too, but I simply can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how they connect? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a more immediate concern, of course, that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ignoring: exactly what are these characters going to do now that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve infiltrated the Keep? Where do they go next?<\/p>\n
I have so many questions, NONE ARE BEING ANSWERED.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/n0qEUEgLtPA<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the seventeenth part of Monstrous Regiment, Polly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempt at infiltration does not go as planned. 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":[463,545,248],"class_list":["post-4599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-monstrous-regiment","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599","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=4599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}