{"id":5081,"date":"2019-11-11T05:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5081"},"modified":"2019-11-11T09:08:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T17:08:30","slug":"mark-reads-snuff-part-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2019\/11\/mark-reads-snuff-part-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Snuff&#8217;: Part 17"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the seventeenth part of <i>Snuff<\/i>, Carrot and Angua visit a familiar face and learn a crucial detail about their case. 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><b>Trigger Warning: For discussion of slavery, poverty, starvation, and death of a child<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Well, holy shit, this got even darker.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Even though this is very much a Vimes book, I love that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this long section with both Carrot and Angua. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m start to grapple with the reality that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be reading a character POV and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be the last time I read for them in this series. Hi, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a horrible thought, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent over HALF A DECADE in this world and with these characters? WHO ALLOWED THIS? So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that even this far along in the series, so many of these familiar faces matter a great deal. Plus, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just good storytelling from a craft perspective! I like that in this particular story, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being shown how the oppression of the goblins affects more than just the local community in the Shires. This has massive ramifications for <i>any<\/i> place that benefits from the unpaid, stolen labor of the goblins. And now we know where this tobacco traveled from and where at least some of the goblins were sent after they were kidnapped.<\/p>\n<p>Howondaland.<\/p>\n<p>More on that towards the end. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about all the little details that Pratchett ties together here! Carrot and Angua\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trip to Sir Harold King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s establishment is such a great scene, and I always love it when Pratchett widens the world of the Disc with scenes like this. This is certainly not the first time we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve visited King, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still more revealed here about how a pseudo-capitalist economy works in the city. That was the first significant thing that I picked up here:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I pay them half what I pay humans and I reckon they do twice as much work, and do it better. Be happy to hire another hundred if they turned up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But you pay them far less than humans?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Angua.<\/p>\n<p>Harry gave her a pitying look. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And who else would pay them anything at all, love? Well, business is business. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like I chain them down.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>THERE IS SO MUCH TO UNPACK HERE. And I see real-world parallels to things like migrant labor, to the way we talk about immigrants here in the States, to the way business owners often speak about costs as if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s literally nothing they can do. Look how Harry King throws his hands up. Business is business, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just how it works, right? Which makes it sound like those who are business owners have no real agency, that this is just some natural \u00e2\u20ac\u0153force\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that they have to obey. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fucked up situation, too, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong about how the rest of the city won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hire goblins. So yes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decent that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offering them a chance to be a part of the workforce, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still operating within exploitation: he knows he can get away with paying them half the normal rate he would because they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get hired anywhere else. And Pratchett presents this so plainly that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uncomfortable as hell. What can Carrot or Angua do in that moment? Nothing. Angua wrinkles up her nose, but Harry King knows that he is still gonna be able to do exactly what he wants.<\/p>\n<p>Business is business, right?<\/p>\n<p>And then we move into ANOTHER uncomfortable (but still entertaining!) section as we meet Billy Slick and his great-grandmother. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m OBSESSED with her.) Billy is perhaps the most unusual goblin in this book, in the sense that I did not expect to meet one who <i>gladly<\/i> assimilated into a different culture. Which is an entirely different phenomenon, and one I could devote so much time to. Mr. Slick occupies this interesting space because he wants to be seen as anything but a goblin, but he recognizes that this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t how the world views him. He expects Carrot and Angua to harm him. Is that because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re human? Because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re cops? <i>Both<\/i>? But there was one line in this that just took me the fuck OUT:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>He looked at her defiantly, and she thought: and so one at a time we all become human\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhuman werewolves, human dwarfs, human trolls\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the melting pot melts in one direction only, and so we make progress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>HI, WHO TOLD PRATCHETT TO GO THIS HARD. Because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spot-on here: the dominant force still controls the narrative. Assimilation by nature happens in one direction. And while I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak to what that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like in Britain with any authority, you can see something eerily similar to this metaphor in the United States. What exactly constitutes American culture? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always assumed that straight, white, Christian, able-bodied, cis\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the framework by which people are judged in this country. If you deviate from that, you are an outsider, even if you were here first, even if you were born here, even if you contribute, even if this is the only life you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve known. This is a simplistic view of the phenomenon, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got people who come to America and try everything they can to fit themselves within this system. They aspire to whiteness. They force their bodies and their minds into a specific shape, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll step on anyone else in order to get closer to this arbitrary ideal. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the core of what a model minority is here, you know?<\/p>\n<p>And so we see how Billy doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be a goblin or be seen as one, yet he is fiercely proud of his granny and her being a goblin. So he respects where he came from and what her legacy is, all while trying to be different himself. Again, it is so amazing to me that Billy appears in a relatively small scene in this book, and yet he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so ridiculously complex. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>craft<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. That shows how much Pratchett is able to pack in with context details and dialogue.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Which is a perfect segue to Granny Slick, who is just an ENDLESS delight. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fierce and funny as hell, and like her great-grandson, she reveals so much about the world of goblins. Initially\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand completely understandably, I should note\u00e2\u20ac\u201dshe is resistant to sharing <i>anything<\/i> with these two members of the Watch. Why shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she feel that way? Humans have stolen from goblins for years without repercussions, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no reason for her to believe otherwise here. So yes, get as much from these people as you can, Granny Slick! I thought it was interesting that even though Billy vetted Carrot and Angua (to an extent), she still made them \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seal the bargain the old way.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit of cultural tradition that the goblins have maintained, and that stuff is great to get within the text. I want to know those sort of things!<\/p>\n<p>One of those things was produced earlier, and now we get confirmation of this: a goblin woman had to have consumed her child and put its soul into an unggue pot, to be born during a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153safer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d time, for it to have ended up in the possession of Sergeant Colon. We also know that Colon <i>has<\/i> to find a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153goblin maiden\u00e2\u20ac\u009d so that they can \u00e2\u20ac\u0153grasp the pot, in hope one day of having child.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Unfortunately:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And big problem for you, Mr. Po-leess-man, is that goblin girl these days are hard to find. None here. Maybe none anywhere. We shrivel and shrink like old leaves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>WELL. This is new information. I was reminded of the Feegles in this, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the same thing. Why is it that this is the case? Historically, has this been the case, or is it BECAUSE of what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened in recent years as humans have fucked up the goblin population? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually know! It of course makes the death of the goblin girl in the Shires all the more tragic, since there are so few women. It also helped me realize that the dead goblin most likely CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T be the one who stuffed the unggue pot into a cigar. (Was that on purpose or accident, by the way? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve assumed thus far that it was on purpose, but what if it accidentally fell into a batch of tobacco?)<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s next? Well, thanks to the incredible work of Cheery Littlebottom and Wee Mad Arthur (and I would absolutely read an entire novel of them working together on a case), we have our answer. Well, part of the answer, that is. I felt there was a deliberate parallel between Harry King and Bewilderforce Gumption. (Still can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get over his name. Both of them have immensely questionable business practices when it comes to morality and ethics, and yet both try very hard to distance themselves from that decision-making. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that Mr. Gumption is a lot slimier about it than Harry King is. Even when Cheery makes it clear that they all know he smuggles, he <i>still<\/i> tries to dodge responsibility. Suddenly, there are just <i>too<\/i> many records, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>too<\/i> difficult to determine exactly where a cigar came from. But once Cheery provides pressure, he relents, and I hope this means what I think it means:<\/p>\n<p>We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to Howondaland.<\/p>\n<p>We have spent virtually NO time there (perhaps not ever???) in this series, and not only that, but I believe this is the first time that All Jolson is confirmed to have come from Howondaland??? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recall that being a thing in earlier books, but holy shit! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big deal. I am hoping that we get to see a significant portion of this place because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a long time coming. Part of me is a little worried because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some possibly unintentional complexity here. Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the first time we go to Howondaland, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in a story about slavery? Except the slaves are from this continent, so the metaphor is a bit backwards? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reserving judgment until I see how this is executed. At heart, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re (probably) going to see scenes set there. How is it different? How much of it it is borrowed from the Roundworld counterpoint of Africa? I NEED TO KNOW.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/YNkGN37cit4<\/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 seventeenth part of Snuff, Carrot and Angua visit a familiar face and learn a crucial detail about their case. 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-5081","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\/5081","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=5081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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