Dresden Files Reread - Storm Front Chapter 4

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Murphy explains that the reason she didn't bring Dresden in sooner is that internal affairs suspects them both of involvement with Marcone, after the rumors he's been spreading, and Internal Affairs has been breathing down her neck this whole past 6 months. This explanation includes a much clearer, albeit shorter, explanation of what actually went on in the previous book. She then goes into the background on the "Lobo Killings" - for five days centering on the last full moon, there was a string of murders in which the victims were torn apart. They kind of looked like wolf attacks, but the dentition and footprints weren't quite right, so the FBI's going theory is that the murders are being done by a cult using weapons edged with wolf teeth, and ritualistically leaving fake footprints around. There appear to be five different sets of teeth, which the FBI thinks represent five of these "weapons", and Harry thinks are more likely from five different werewolves - a pack. There is one victim who stands out from the others; James Harding III was killed in a parking garage, while aside from Spike, all the others were killed outdoors. Like Spike, he also has connections to Marcone. 

The foreshadowing here hasn't quite started to come together yet. There's nothing to indicate that Marcone's business activities have anything to do with Kim Delaney's activism, even if one happens to have made the connection that Kim is the unnamed young woman in the crowd at Mac's in Storm Front, the one who has a connection with animals and is involved in a number of environmental causes. We also get our first glimpse of Terra West, tailing Murphy's car. Harry doesn't mention this, figuring she's already stressed enough, and he's not sure she's following them. He does mention the blood he found on the broken glass and that he may be able to use it to track down the killer. He also promises to get her a report on werewolves by the next morning - right now, he doesn't know much beyond that they aren't like in the movies. 

Once Murphy drops him off at his car, Harry sits there for a while thinking. He goes back over his compulsive need to protect women, which is still gross and misogynistic, but the way it's presented here is already less defensive, and more self-critical. Like, he still goes on about how he likes to treat women on dates, but he also says "maybe I'd call it chivalrous if I thought more of myself", and acknowledges that his perspective here could be viewed as chauvinistic, without acting all persecuted about it the way he does in Storm Front. More to the point, while identifying Murphy as a "lady in distress" is till super icky, he's shifted focus some from "protecting" her to actually helping. It's on this basis that he decides to go ahead and use the blood for a tracking spell, here and now, before the blood dries. As far as I can tell, when he was talking to Murphy about it, he didn't quite realize earlier that he would have to use it tonight or not at all, and he's worried that she'll think he planned it like this. That's a valid concern, although if he were being sneaky, why tell her about the blood in the first place? But it's not drying so fast that he couldn't like, find a pay phone or something and let her know, ask if she wants to come along. On the other hand, based on her behavior in the previous book, it's not unreasonable to think that she might try to forbid him from following the trail, and refuse to accept that he can't just set up the tracking spell for her and stay behind himself. 

Sorry for the late post (again), my weekend got eaten by work on another project, and yesterday I just couldn't get the thing to happen. I'm going to start work on the next post as soon as this one is done, so I will have it ready on Wednesday. Until then - be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things! 

Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 3

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In the aftermath of seeing a dead body, and watching Agent Benn shoot at Murphy, Harry tries to calm himself down. The way he talks to himself and uses mindful breathing and the cooler temperature outside is like, actual DBT skills. This puts an interesting context around his subsequent conversation with Murphy, in which he tries to talk to her about the events of Storm Front, and work out why she's still mad at him. 

After an initial hostile brush-off (which Dresden handles reasonably well), she explains that he lied to her and kept things from her, which was a serious breach of trust and also made it harder for her to do her job. Harry... does not respond to this constructively. But what I find interesting here is not that he's kind of a dick, but how he's kind of a dick. He doesn't, for example, point out that before he did that, she threatened and berated him, and seriously overstepped her authority in the way she tried to order him around, which would have been valid, but would also almost certainly have escalated the argument. Instead, he tries to explain how the information he withheld was dangerous, and when she reminds him that she's not his to protect, falls back on the defense that he didn't intend to piss her off, which was about the point at which I realized, I have had this conversation. Mostly, as an adult, I've been on Murphy's end of it, but as a younger person I was absolutely sometimes the Harry. 

People whose emotional and self-regulation skills are well ahead of their interpersonal skills have exactly this pattern of thinking that if they can just adequately explain their intent and their thought process, especially when the other person is more emotionally invested than they are (which is usually the case when you hurt someone's feelings by accident), it will cause their interlocutor to stop being upset; and they usually aren't aware of how condescending they sound. Harry's not that upset anymore, about how Murphy treated him in the previous book, because he undervalues his own emotions as a source of information about how an interpersonal relationship is going (while Murphy somewhat overvalues hers), so it kind of doesn't occur to him that Murphy is still hurt, and that what she needs her is an apology and some assurance that he won't do it again, much less that an accounting of why he feels his actions were justified (especially in the absence of anything to indicate that the current situation is different) is almost the opposite of that. This is arguably a failure of empathy, but empathy isn't strictly necessary if one has adequate practice. 

After deliberately thinking over Murphy's perspective (during which we get a review of what SI is and does), Harry does apologize, more or less in impulse. She asks him to also promise not to keep secrets, and when he tries to say that he can't necessarily promise that, she does something painful to his hand until he agrees. This is bad...everything, really, because you can't ever really trust a promise you coerced through violence, and she didn't give Harry a chance to lay out his perspective and thereby arrive at a compromise that she can believe and they can both live with. This is significant to the conflict at MacFinn's house, several chapters from now. Murphy's very ready to assume Harry broke his work, which is reasonable since he gave it under duress, but also she never really gave him a chance to do otherwise. 

See you on Saturday for Chapter 4. Be gay, do crimes, and read all the things. 

Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 2

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The is the second book's Long Crime Scene Chapter. We get reintroduced to Harry's car, and to how wizards have trouble with technology. Murphy is weird and silent the whole way out to the suburb, technically out of her jurisdiction, where the latest killing took place. Turns out, it's the site where Marcone is rebuilding the Varsity. There's a brief recap of Harry's confrontation with Marcone at the original Varsity in the previous book, but it's oddly skewed, making it sound like Marcone was the maker of the 3-eye, and Victor Sells, who is not mentioned by name, only as "the dealer" was somehow just the fall guy. It makes it sound like Marcone orchestrated the events of Storm Front, which is kind of the opposite of what happened. Marcone was almost as confused as Harry, and considerably less able to take action. 

The dead body is horribly mangled, just shredded, but Harry eventually identifies it as "Spike", one of Marcone's bodyguards. Remarkably, he shares this observation with Murphy, who is like 'okay good to know' rather than getting weird about why Harry recognizes someone who works for Marcone. A+ communication, everyone! She tells him to keep looking around, and he spots a pawprint near a shattered window, like a wolf or dog print, but the size of his fucking hand. There's also some bloody shards of glass, and Harry quietly collects one of these in his handkerchief before drawing Murphy's attention to the pawprint. She confirms, in answer to his question, that there were a bunch of deaths around the previous full moon, and then asks if there's such things as werewolves. Harry doesn't have time to much more than answer in the affirmative before the FBI shows up. Agent Denton is not happy to see Murphy, having apparently already told her to stay away from this investigation, and he's even less happy to see Harry when, over Murphy's objections, he introduces himself. Given what a weirdo Murphy was being in the previous book, it's sort of understandable that Harry wouldn't trust her judgement here, but it's also sort of a dick move, especially given that he doesn't stand to lose anything by keeping his stupid face shut. 

Neither Denton's weirdness nor Harry's, however, gets anywhere near the level of Agent Benn's. When Denton asks her to escort Harry and Murphy outside, she instead physically attacks Murphy, and tries to shoot her when she fights back. Denton and Murphy both brush this off as an accident, much to Harry's puzzlement, when local police, who have arrived by now, express concern. 

One the way out, young FBI agent Harris asks Murphy to go easy on Agent Benn, because her partner died in one of the previous "Lobo Killings", only to be shut down rather aggressively by his partner, Agent Wilson. Weirdness abounds, basically, and Harry's pretty sure Denton's hiding something, beyond covering for his new partner. It didn't entirely register with me on previous readings how thoroughly Wait What? Benn's attack on Murphy really is. It's out of nowhere, and an extremely obvious indication that Something Is Up with the FBI people. 

Long chapter, short post. Lots of description, not a lot to analyze. Chapter 3 on Wednesday. Be Gay, do Crimes, and read All The Things. 

Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 1

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Sorry for the prolonged absence, everyone. I sorta got knocked over sideways by a combination of freelance work, abdominal pain, and one of those periods where I don't really want to do anything but read. I just went through three of Natalie Goldberg's books, and I have thoughts, which will hopefully make their way into a post of their own at some point. But for the moment, we're talking about the first chapter of Fool Moon. 

The chapter opens with some deeply unsubtle hints about the status of the moon, and how Harry never used to keep track of it. Technically, it does not say "This one is about werewolves, you guys", but it might as well. 

Kim Delaney, a young woman of some magical talent, whom Dresden describes as a "sometime apprentice", wants Harry's take on a greater circle, for which she has a hand-copied diagram. Calling her an apprentice here stands in direct contradiction to to Harry's assertion in Proven Guilty that he's "never been on this side of an apprenticeship before", but I think that reflects growth in his understanding of what the master-apprentice relationship actually entails, especially given how disastrously irresponsible he is about it here. 

The circle has three nested rings, one a standard circle, but more powerful, supported by special symbols, one a barrier against physical beings and objects, and the last meant to contain creatures of flesh and spirit. Kim says her interest is purely intellectual, and that she doesn't mean to use it. Harry is understandably skeptical, but explains how the first two layers ought to work. He balks at the third, however, and lies to Kim, telling her that it is incoherent, as the kind of beings it's means to contain don't exist, and refusing to discuss its mechanics with her. We are told in narration that they do exist, but they're things like angels, and it's White Council policy to deny it to anyone who's not a wizard. More on that in a moment. 

I do wonder if a circle like this could be used to contain an Outsider. It's not entire clear where they fall on the corporeality spectrum, but they don't seem to dissolve into ectoplasm when "killed", so it seems possible. On the other hand, they may not be spirit creatures at all, since they aren't from the Nevernever any more than they're from the mortal world, so it's possible they could stroll right out of this thing. 

Kim presses the issue, and gets frustrated when Dresden tells her outright that this is too advanced and she should leave it alone. Now, Harry was sorta valid inasmuch as Kim probably would have had a bad time using the circle on hr own, even with all the advice Harry could give her in the course of a single lunch meeting. The responsible thing to do would have been to say "This is too advanced for you, but I know you're a sensible person, and you wouldn't be trying it if it weren't important. If you want my help on this, you have to actually let me help", and then assist with the construction of the circle, consulting with Bob if necessary, and make sure it's done right. 

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That said, Dresden knows he's handling this wrong. You can tell because he doesn't feel like he deserves to eat the steak sandwich Kim bought him, and because the reasons he gives in narration for not being more forthcoming are not things he actually believes. He cites White Council policy, and the fact that Kim isn't a fully accredited wizard, but Harry doesn't actually accept the legitimacy of the White Council's authority. He also brings in the possibility that the Council will do something to Kim for knowing things she oughtn't, but as I discussed extensively in my posts about the previous book, that has never been a real thing. What's actually going on here is that Harry doesn't trust his own moral intuitions, because he believes himself to be a bad person, so he's turning to the only external standard to which he has access, even though he knows it's pretty much bullshit. And of course, there is also an element of misogyny here, which he need not examine if he's not relying on his own judgment. As much as he acted wrongly, his shitty actions in this scene feel way more consistent and understandable than some of the nonsense he pulls in the first book. 

As an aside, this scene is also the first suggestion that Harry's level of power or skill is anything out of the ordinary for a wizard of his age and training. No one in Storm Front suggests that Harry is anything special in this area. 

Kim crumples up her diagram and walks out, to be replaced almost immediately by Murphy. Harry is snippy with her, initially, because she has barely been in contact with him since the end of the previous book, but he has to get over himself about it pretty quick, because Murphy needs his help with a dead body.