something that always struck me about Tartah’s struggle with the Ferry is that he doesn’t even have Sylph shoes, something that is unknowingly pointed out by his non-witch schoolmates,
despite the fact that they’re something you can buy in the town he lives in and don’t actually technically require any magic skill from the user.
We see Tartah using the doorknob contraption earlier, but he doesn’t have the shoes, despite having use for them
there is a chance that witch kids who haven’t started their apprenticeship aren’t allowed to use them but considering the nature of the Dadah range test and the fact that Tartah has them later in the story, despite still not having a teacher/master it seems pretty clear that it’s part of his learned helplessness due to the discrimination he faced from witch society
we do know there isn’t any official prohibition on witch kids learning magic/using contraptions before starting their apprenticeship because the condition to them being able to enter into one (the Dadah range test) requires them to be able to draw magic to a certain level and tiny baby Richeh was making spells in the chapter 19 flashback/dream (also i doubt Agott would have given Coco her shoes otherwise)
so not only was Tartah convinced of his own inability to draw his own spells, (despite the fact that to our current knowledge, his silverwash interferes with the Stationer job much more than it would if he were a run of the mill witch )
he also did not use tools he could have and what’s more, in chapter 41 he tells Coco and co that they are the only other witches he knows despite living in a village of them, further showing his alienation
Clearly, Tartah found a way to learn after Coco gives him hope, we see him reading magic books and he explicitly says he didn’t think he had the Right to learn, despite having the means in chapter 42, adding to the learned helplessness argument
it’s also interesting how Nolnoa, despite clearly claiming to believe in him, never convinced Tartah to try, or try to accommodate him in the shop using magic (ie, create a spell with a similar function to the one he and coco came up with, instead telling Tartah not to move the jars)
i think that goes to show how a lot of the time, even the people who love someone with a disability/chronic illness fail to understand and give them the support they need, especially when part of the issue is mental
i wonder if his parents are still alive and left him with his grandfather after they themselves lost interest in their son or if something happened to them (also, as many people have pointed out in general, it seems like the work as a stationer is way more affected by his silverwash than any magic we’ve seen being practiced atp in the story)
i’m just going off on tangents now but i second OP in how it’s an interesting study of how people with disabilities are often conditioned into believing they’re incapable or undeserving of access to knowledge or accommodations or even undeserving of teaching, regardless of their actual skill
