{"id":5034,"date":"2019-09-11T05:00:36","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5034"},"modified":"2019-09-08T19:59:47","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T02:59:47","slug":"mark-reads-i-shall-wear-midnight-chapter-10-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/09\/mark-reads-i-shall-wear-midnight-chapter-10-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;I Shall Wear Midnight&#8217;: Chapter 10, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the first part of the tenth chapter of <i>I Shall Wear Midnight<\/i>, the ramifications of Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions leave her in a tough spot. 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>You know, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting the sense from many of you that this was a tough read for a lot of <i>Discworld<\/i> folks, and I have a few fans who have emailed me to say that my read-through is actually the first time they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re managing to make it to the end of the book. Which is very flattering! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reminded of an experience from NINE YEARS AGO (how????) when I was shocked to discover that a whole lot of <i>Harry Potter<\/i> fans did not like <i>The Order of the Phoenix<\/i>, as they found it too difficult, upsetting, and frustrating to get through. (I especially imagine that reading about Dolores Umbridge in 2019 would be a&#8230; I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. A real disturbing experience.) Yet I found that book to be the one I related to the most intimately, and I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll always be my favorite of the series. I say all this while recognizing that <i>I Shall Wear Midnight<\/i> is an increasingly upsetting and frustrating book, <i>and<\/i> it is one I am deeply, deeply latching on to. I feel comfortable discussing how abuse and bullying has manifested in the book, as well as how Pratchett writes these things with empathy and nuance; the discussion of Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Roland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s derailed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153relationship\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has also come at a time when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never thought about such issues this much <i>ever<\/i>. I recognize that all books can not be for everyone, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an impossible notion to believe in. We each bring our own complicated lives to the experience of reading, and I totally get if this novel isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t your thing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But right now? In this time? This is very extremely my thing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>ALSO THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING!!! Like, the opening scene of this chapter made my blood boil. It is admittedly very challenging to read something with a character like the Duchess in it, namely because there are so many people like her in Roundworld who absolutely get away with their horrors. While I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that Pratchett is leading us into a bleak ending with this book, I do not that I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t felt this hopelessly angry since&#8230; maybe <i>Night Watch<\/i>? But even then, I mostly knew things would be okay because time travel? I HAVE NO POSSIBLE IDEA HOW TIFFANY IS GOING TO GET OUT OF THIS.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not quite true. See, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a HUGE shocker in the midst of this chapter that makes me think that Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan is to beat the Duchess at her own game, to be <i>aggressively<\/i> law-abiding to prove a point. Maybe. But before I get to the hearing part (!!!!!), I wanted to discuss this gut-wrenching epiphany:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And where they had gone wrong was in believing, somewhere in their minds, that because two things were different, they must therefore be alike. Slowly finding out that this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t true hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been nice for either of them, and there had been a certain number of things that both of them wished hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say this is necessarily applicable to what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going through, but it still struck a nerve. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m believing more and more that it was clever as hell for Pratchett to draw these two apart <i>between<\/i> books rather giving it to us <i>on<\/i> the page. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a texture here that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much more brutal since Tiffany has to deal with the fallout of her and Roland changing. Their feelings for one another have changed, too, but what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m mostly referring to? I think Tiffany is realizing that Roland is <i>becoming<\/i> the Baron. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just the kid she saved from the Queen of the Fairies anymore, and this is made all the more complicated because of the presence of the Duchess. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, she is totally exploiting the fact that Roland is grieving his father in order to get what she wants, right??? She knows he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vulnerable, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s using it to her advantage. She knows she can push Roland to ban Tiffany or have her arrested (AGAIN!!!), and with the right kind of pressure in the right place, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do as she says. Because in the end, everyone does what the Duchess wants, right? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s used to.<\/p>\n<p>So Tiffany changes her technique. She follows the cultural standards set before her, and that includes ASKING FOR AN ACTUAL HEARING. She tells Roland that his accusations aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even strong enough to <i>be<\/i> accusations, and he can take this to trial if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s serious. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even think it was a bluff in the beginning, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I think she knew the game had changed, and she had to treat Roland as if he was the Baron, not someone who used to be a friend. (Because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly not treating <i>her<\/i> like she was his friend.)<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t solve everything, of course, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more of a temporary reprieve. Because, as Tiffany puts it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>How much poison can he seep into their heads? How much does he <i>need<\/i> to?<\/p>\n<p>That was the problem with witchcraft: It was as if everybody needed the witches but hated the fact that they did, and somehow the hatred of the fact could become the hatred of the person.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Cunning Man won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to work hard to turn these people against Tiffany, will he?<\/p>\n<p>Except that all this does not seem to be working on Sergeant Brian, and I get why Tiffany ultimately decides to return the same decency that he shows her. Brian is <i>terrified<\/i> of a lot of things: Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s broom flying away while he touches it. The Duchess. Disobeying the Baron. The Duchess. Not doing his job. THE DUCHESS. And yet, he still refuses to dehumanize Tiffany; he won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see her as a villain. Maybe he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not as clever as Tiffany, but you know what? I respect him, and I respect that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fall in with what everyone else is thinking of her. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>trying<\/i>, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth something, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eager to jump into the second half of this because I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to see what the Toad is going to say about Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legal options. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, is she really going to go through with this hearing??? What if the Cunning Man turns <i>everyone<\/i> against her at it? THIS IS TOO MUCH.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/9pisGwdy1w8<\/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 first part of the tenth chapter of I Shall Wear Midnight, the ramifications of Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions leave her in a tough spot. 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":[562,463,248],"class_list":["post-5034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-i-shall-wear-midnight","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5034","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=5034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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