{"id":5077,"date":"2019-11-06T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5077"},"modified":"2019-11-03T16:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T00:48:00","slug":"mark-reads-snuff-part-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/11\/mark-reads-snuff-part-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Snuff’: Part 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifteenth part of Snuff<\/i>, Vimes makes progress on a suspect and readies for an arrest. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Jiminy<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anger over what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discovered about the goblins and the complicity of folks in the Shires has spilled over into how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s approaching this case. The confrontation he has in Jiminy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cellar is so angry<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. And we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll later see a form of that anger in Sybil, but for now, I want to focus on the fact that Vimes is impatient, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still being clever about it. For instance: he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t confront Jiminy in a public place, but rather in the man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cellar. That way, he can put pressure on him without tipping off anyone else in town that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closer to the truth than ever before. But he certainly makes it clear to Jiminy that he IS close, that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a wave of momentum that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rising and Jiminy is currently on the wrong side of it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just that, either. There are appeals to the man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s morals, too, though I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure that those works as well as the threats that Vimes issues. I say that because after Jiminy gives up two names\u00e2\u20ac\u201dStratford and Flutter, one of who works for Lord Rust, he says something very interesting about goblins:\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And since we understand one another so well, Mr. Vimes, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been here for only three years. I know there was some stuff way back, maybe they did scrag a few goblins, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, not my business. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know who, if you get my meaning?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Except we know for a fact that it wasn’t<\/i> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153way back.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The timing is oddly coincidental, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say it is, that Jiminy truly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have anything to do with the mass kidnapping of the goblins. The man has a lot of tobacco in his cellar, right? So I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much of a stretch to assume that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s benefitting heavily from the work the goblins are<\/i> doing. So does he truly not know who or why? I bet that he, like everyone else who has lived in the Shires, knows EXACTLY what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on. But since he benefits from it, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easier for him to ignore it. To quietly justify what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening. To assume that it is someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problem to solve it.<\/p>\n
Well, that someone else has arrived, and Vimes isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to stop until it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all<\/i> dismantled, including:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6if this pub still has the head of a goblin hanging over the bar the next time I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be a mysterious fire, do you understand?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Bless. BLESS.<\/p>\n
Music to His Ears<\/b><\/p>\n
I have a thought on why<\/i> Pratchett included the scene where Vimes hears Tears of the Mushroom playing harp so transcendently that he immediately went to fetch Sybil and his son. First, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the context of Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experience with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153classical\u00e2\u20ac\u009d music. We had to know that the man simply doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care at all about it, but he still knows<\/i> it. Kinda through osmosis, right? So it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just that Tears of the Mushroom was good, but that she was impossibly<\/i> good, performing at a level NO OTHER PERSON had ever played at in Sybil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life or Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. I suspect that this is just another crack in the facade, yet another moment in which these humans are forced to reckon with just how little they know about goblins. Even Sybil and Vimes, who are relatively way more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progressive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d about goblins than nearly everyone, still pale in comparison to someone like Miss Beedle, who has allowed the goblins a space of freedom of expression that no one else has. And look what Tears of the Mushroom accomplishes within such a space! What else are the goblins capable of if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re allowed to exist without threat of violence? When they are put in an environment where they are taught that they have inherent worth, that they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sinful creations, that they deserve to live fully and wholly and happily<\/i>?<\/p>\n
So it was a very stark thing to see Sybil apologize to Vimes after this experience. On the one hand, she had every right to tell Vimes to make this holiday an actual<\/i> holiday. He needed a true break, and she was trying to get him to focus on the family instead. But she now recognizes that Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suspicions have come to a horrible fruition, and it is much<\/i> more important that Vimes eradicate this nightmare. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a huge<\/i> moment, and I love that she tells him this:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nevertheless, Sam, I am certain of one thing and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this: the worst thing you can do is nothing. Go to it, Sam.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I love it. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. I love that she offers her support to Vimes in a substantial, meaningful way while also making it clear that she gets why<\/i> he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done. Well, she also tells Willikins in much more explicit terms how angry she is at what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening around her in the country. These moments are important because of the metaphor that Pratchett spins through the story of Pelvic Williams. Pelvic played pool in a way that infuriated everyone because he constantly disobeyed the rules. Well, disobeyed them all but one: the ball still dropped on the table. And I feel like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Vimes is announcing here. He is about to ricochet the ball off a million surfaces, or sending it rolling along the edge, because in the end, all that matters is him dropping the ball. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for him to get this done<\/i>, means be damned.<\/p>\n
Chief Constable Upshot<\/b><\/p>\n
I do respect that Vimes insists on involving Upshot in all of this. In the end, this is<\/i> his jurisdictoon. So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to placate the man; I feel like he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appreciative that Upshot is making an effort to do what he can, right? But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Feeney Upshot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long, winding monologue, prompted by Vimes asking why Upshot is going along with him, that stuck out to me as the most important development for his character. And I love that Pratchett gives space for this growth, too. Upshot observed things that challenged his understanding of his colleagues, his fellow citizens and neighborhoods, and his perception of the goblins. And ultimately, instead of rejecting these things, he changed<\/i>. He stopped thinking that the goblins were just animals; he considered how harshly he was judging them for things that humans do but are suspiciously acceptable. He accepted that maybe his superiors had gotten things wrong<\/i>.<\/p>\n
And now I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to see what Upshot does with that.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/mHN6h3O3YKM<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now OUT!<\/a>\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 fifteenth part of Snuff, Vimes makes progress on a suspect and readies for an arrest. 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":[463,563,248],"class_list":["post-5077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-snuff","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5077","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=5077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}