Monstrous Regiment [Kintsuji Bookclub]

Just finished it myself for the first time. I agree with both of the headcanons above; Jackrum reads as trans to me and Maledict doesn't really read as either gender absolutely, though maybe vampire more than anything else. Loved it.

 

this may just be word association, but jack jackrum did remind me of jesse somehow haha
i could see him having a bear daemon at least, when it comes to stuff less spurious than word association and more spurious than trans headcanons

and yeah with maladict i did get a sense of that genderqueerness
like sure they revealed that they were a girl and called maladicta (which was how i knew the narrative was going) but... it didn't really... change anything
no less a boy, no more a girl than before
maladict... just... maladict, full stop

 

Yeah, it was the most unrevealing reveal in all of revealingness. Nothing new at all, and no different perspective. She was the same.

 

Just finished my reread after hearing of Pterry's death.

God, I love this book. My first Discworld, after the Amazing Maurice.

One of the things that always impresses me with Ptrerry's writing, but here especially, is how human everyone is -- and how often that leads to sidestepping issues I've seen time and again elsewhere. Jackrum is a blend of right and wrong, and presented as being very old and cunning but is not actually all-knowing. Polly apologizes in the heat of the moment for saying things she doesn't mean an making accusations of Tonker rather than saying the next line in the scripted fight, avoiding the many tropes that would normally follow it. The young heroes do the work of freeing people but do not then lead the army on to glory and success directly (barring Wazzer). Hell, Wazzer is presented as rather unsettling and is most certainly not the main character, which is rather a nice change, too.

And god, some of the lines in the book are just horrifying. I missed so much the first time through, I was just too young to really pick up on a lot of things -- or perhaps just to have them stick with me.

I think the most horrifying bit was probably...

Spoiler

"What did you used to do in the world?"

"I was beaten."

Paraphrasing, there, but still. Goddamn, Wazzer, I feel so bad for her.

Then again, Lofty's history might well be just about as bad.

 

Going through for the first time, so I'm not reading the thread and am probably repeating things, but. Bleh token girl that's a tired trope NO WAIT LITERALLY EVERYONE IS A GIRL. LITERALLY EVERYONE. I am dying. XD

 

amazing, I just got a mental flash of jesse going "on my oath I am not a violent man" and then verbally obliterating one of those internet trolls

nice

 

^ I support this idea

 

Hey, @jacktrash, can you make this happen?
*puppy dog eyes*