{"id":5177,"date":"2020-05-08T05:00:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5177"},"modified":"2020-05-03T16:43:56","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T23:43:56","slug":"mark-reads-the-shepherds-crown-chapter-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/05\/mark-reads-the-shepherds-crown-chapter-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;The Shepherd&#8217;s Crown&#8217;: Chapter 8"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the eighth chapter of <i>The Shepherd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crown<\/i>, the men of the Chalk reflect on Tiffany; Baron Roland makes a mistake; Peaseblossom makes his move. 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>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fascinating to contrast how the men in The Baron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Arms speak of Tiffany and their concerns versus how Roland does it. I feel like Pratchett was also playing with expectations here, too. It would have been pretty believable if the men at The Baron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Arms had been tactless and crude while drinking on a Saturday night. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all seen that happen. People get carried away, the alcohol washes away their filters, and pretty soon, folks are saying what they <i>really<\/i> feel, but with no kindness or sympathy. And it would have been believable if Roland had come to Tiffany and had been more thoughtful about how to convey people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concerns. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just me reading into this or an intentional thing, but it was really interesting to see the two scenes back-to-back!<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably more likely that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character-specific stuff here that Pratchett was working off of. First of all, I just adored how quiet and respectful the scene was in The Baron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Arms. It spoke to the greater sense of respect these people have had for the Achings over the years and how that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s translated to a respect and a pride for Tiffany Aching. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll notice me stop and wonder aloud on video where this scene was going, and it was a pleasant surprise to see the conversation about the Baron twist into one about what Tiffany does for all of them. I just remember how reluctant everyone was to discuss witchcraft all the way back in the early Tiffany books. THEY\u00e2\u20ac\u2122VE CHANGED SO MUCH. And with that comes this almost territorial pride of Tiffany. Maybe they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mess with witches in the Chalk, but Tiffany is <i>their<\/i> witch. She is born of the Chalk, she understands the Land and the value of sheep, and they all trust that she will continue to do right by them. Because she already has! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another reason that this was so pleasing to read; we got to see Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s effect on the people of the Chalk from their perspective.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So of <i>course<\/i> they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to want her to stay on the Chalk and not choose to go to Lancre. I respected that Joe Aching said that his daughter probably wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite ready to settle down, either. Thus, it was frustrating when Roland, in his attempt to start to talk to Tiffany about the looming choice before her, did not approach things with the same sort of understanding. Oh, he tried, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this bit early on in his scene where he is very aware that while he is the Baron and owns the lands, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153this farm was the Achings\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. It always had been, and it always would be.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>And yet&#8230; he really fumbles it here when he does two things: He invokes this ownership, and then he tries to tell Tiffany to do her job.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am your baron,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and I ask that you look to your responsibilities, do your duty.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh. Oh, no, honey, THIS WAS THE WORST THING TO SAY. She knows you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re her baron; she also HAS BEEN DOING HER DUTY. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her <i>entire<\/i> problem right now. SHE IS DOING HER DUTY <i>TOO MUCH<\/i>. Oh, Roland!!! Like, I also understand that he has no idea what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on in her life, but this was still a presumptuous thing to say to her. Even then: still not actually what the problem was! Were people vocalizing concerns that she was too busy? Where in that does it say she <i>wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> doing her duty?<\/p>\n<p>OH. ROLAND.<\/p>\n<p>I also ended up being right about Peaseblossom! And I was so uncertain about vocalizing that theory, too! Clearly, my weird Of the Lathe the Swarf theory was DEFINITELY wrong, but this was absolutely the time for Peaseblossom to make his move. I commented on this on video, but Pratchett really knocks it out of the park when it comes to portraying all this. I love the freaky body horror of the Queens transformation and how much loyalty plays into this. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The allegiance of elves is spiderweb thin and the currency of Fairlyland is glamour,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wrote Pratchett. So how does that <i>look<\/i>? What does it mean when the elves change their allegiance?<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a physical, visceral thing, and like everything with the elves in these books, it was FUCKING TERRIFYING. But I think this <i>had<\/i> to be so physical, too, especially when you consider how much glamour works to twist appearance, both for the benefit of the elves and as part of how they torment and manipulate others. Here, the Queen literally shrinks in size as the elves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 allegiance is transferred to Peaseblossom, who grows more powerful in response. But Peaseblossom has more that he wishes to do to punish the Queen for what he sees as a disservice and a failure. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not enough that she lost her glamour; no, he orders that after she is toyed with (that phrasing is so unnerving, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?), her wings are to be torn off. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just want to make an example of her; he also wants to maim her in a way that cuts at the very identity of the fairy folk. Because what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fairy without their wings?<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/TGvBw9rDdVY<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9781250169211\">You can now pre-order my second YA novel, <i>Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a><br \/>\n&#8211; Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/EachOfUsADesertPreorder\">If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>&#8211; 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 eighth chapter of The Shepherd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crown, the men of the Chalk reflect on Tiffany; Baron Roland makes a mistake; Peaseblossom makes his move. 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":[463,248,567],"class_list":["post-5177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-the-shepherds-crown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177","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=5177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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