{"id":4978,"date":"2019-06-21T05:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4978"},"modified":"2019-06-19T07:00:09","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T14:00:09","slug":"mark-reads-unseen-academicals-part-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/06\/mark-reads-unseen-academicals-part-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Unseen Academicals&#8217;: Part 6"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the sixth part of <i>Unseen Academicals<\/i>, the chaotic football game begins and then ends with a shocking twist. 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>I have WORDS for all of you. WORDS.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There was laughter from the group behind him. Andy always got a laugh. It was the first thing you noticed, after the glint in his eye.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yeah, I hate Andy. A lot. Completely. In every possible way. I am certain that most of us could point to someone who is an exact version of this man. I definitely know a few! Maybe not so much these days, but when I was still in school, there were lots of them. These men were walking nightmares, but they always came with a group that was cruel and violent and ultimately defaulted to their horrific leader. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the thing: these men don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t operate alone. Who supports them? Protects them? Creates a space that allows them to go unpunished, without accountability? I feel like Pratchett is also deliberately addressing the sort of toxic masculinity that often goes hand-in-hand with sports fandoms. And look, that kinda stuff has turned a LOT of people off of following sports! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m definitely one of them! I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand the culture that surrounded them, and I got made fun of in ways that were very, very similar to what Andy does to Nutt here. Which is why I was so pleased that immediately after Andy tries to do that emasculating thing by saying that Nutt has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hands like a girl,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Nutt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s normal handshake nearly crushes Andy. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S WHAT HE DESERVES.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious about: it looks like Trev has more or less tolerated Andy, mostly because they both enjoy the same team. And perhaps it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a means of protecting himself. He tolerates Andy, knowing he has to be around him, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather not be on the receiving end of the guy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cruelty. That being said: he very, <i>very<\/i> quickly defends Nutt multiple times, and also pushes back on the kind of bullying Andy is used to getting away with. He even pushes back against Carter:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcComing down here, taking our jobs, yeah?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Carter.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLike, how often do you do a hand\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s turn?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Trev.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWell, I might want to one day.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Is it a full rejection? No, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ready to get rid of these \u00e2\u20ac\u0153friends,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d either, but I did admire that he did his best to make Nutt feel like he belongs. Of course, Nutt very quickly does something that sets him apart from literally everyone because of course he does. But he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know any better! Things were already odd because of Nutt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demonstration of his immense strength in the shove. (And lord, I would absolutely NOT have enjoyed a crowd like that. I get terribly claustrophobic in situations that are similar.) This whole thing was so chaotic\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand it was meant to be\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich is one way that Nutt acts as a constant. He is so <i>calm<\/i> during all of this, and he protects his friends from other people, and he is the purest fucking soul in the <i>Discworld<\/i> since\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what? Earlier versions of Carrot? (Actually, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d argue that Carrot is just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 literal? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s slightly different.) He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so goddamn sincere, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and he wants so badly to just be a part of everything, and he thought he actually was helping when he THREW THE BALL SO HARD THAT WHEN IT SCORED A GOAL IT SHATTERED THE SIXTY-FOOT GOAL POST. And that goal post was <i>one hundred and fifty yards away<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Okay, so. Clearly, Trev is not the only person here who is going to be very necessary to the inevitable football match in this book. I <i>do<\/i> wonder about that, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious what the wizards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 take is on the shattering goal post. Did any of them see it? Will they participate in multiple matches? Which team will try to recruit Trev or Nutt? Because after this display (as well as Trev\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skills with a tin can), I feel like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to see them both play.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to talk more about the game, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still freaking out over where this book went because I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T FUCKING GET IT. So, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a terrible congruence of men after the Stollop brothers catch up to Trev to confront him about the goal post, and then ANDY shows up, suspicious about a Dimmer and a Dolly \u00e2\u20ac\u0153holding hands\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n<p>Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n<p>Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>First, I have to laugh that the factor that causes Algernon to lash out is this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>As it happened, one very clever person was able to do the job, when Nutt turned to Algernon, the youngest Stollop, and said cheerfully, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcDo you know, sir, that your situation here is very similar to that described by Vonmausberger in his treatise on his experiment with rats?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>NUTT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 adorable, in a weird way? But then Algernon whacks Nutt with a club, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 okay, maybe I misinterpreted this, but I can see why I thought that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stitches\u00e2\u20ac\u009d were referring to the stitches of the sweater, not stitches that Nutt mysteriously hid beneath it. I think? Either way: how does a club make Nutt <i>bleed<\/i>? How did it STOP NUTT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S HEART? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not <i>actually<\/i> dead, is he? Nutt is a major character! This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happening, is it? As I read this, I tried to convince myself that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just mis-read something, but nope.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Trev knelt by the cooling body of the late Nutt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>YEAH. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT A JOKE. What the fuck??? How could Lady Sybil help? What am I missing here, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all????<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aGOXyH5bMH0<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markoshiro.com\/blog\/2019\/5\/7\/the-anger-is-a-gift-trade-paperback-is-out-today\">The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now OUT!<\/a>\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 sixth part of Unseen Academicals, the chaotic football game begins and then ends with a shocking twist. 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":[463,248,561],"class_list":["post-4978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-unseen-academicals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978","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=4978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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