Hello friends. How are you? Doing alright? Hang in there.
There is a moment at the end of Monty Python’s Life of Brian that is equal parts side-splittingly funny, life-affirming, and potentially offensive. If you are easily offended, DON’T CLICK THIS!! If you are not, give it a watch. Eric Idle, who is actually a pretty good singer in his own right when he wishes to be, talks, croons, and whistles his way through what is, in my opinion, an optimistic manifesto.
When the Broncos were losing by 30 in the Super Bowl (it doesn’t matter which time, it happened a bunch of times), I watched until the end trying to do the math. If they get a pick-six and score the two-point conversion, and then get two onside kicks they can win! Spoiler alert, they didn’t win. I mean, they did win three of the eight times they were there, and technically, they were the second-best team all of those other years and that should have been pretty awesome, but for some reason, the loser of the Super Bowl is almost always considered the worst team of the year, which is absurd really.
I am not a realist. I can’t even pretend. It is why I love comic books, Jane Austen, and detective stories where the main character is 11 or 84. I love the underdog. I love to see people beat the odds and do something amazing. I not only want to believe in the impossible, but I often convince myself that the impossible will happen.
I know it is more likely that the team with the biggest payroll is going to win. I know it is more likely that a man dressed like a flying rodent will fall off the side of the building than it would be that he could leap off the side, flip around, glide through the air, and land, 70 feet below on the head of the bad guy. I know it is more likely that the young woman in the early 1800s will be forced to marry her absurd first cousin to save the family than to end up with a hunky rich guy. I know it isn’t likely that an 11-year-old isn’t going to solve a crime that the entire police force couldn't solve.
Even though I know the odds are against that team or those heroes, I still believe because when the unlikely thing happens, my brain lights up like a casino at dusk. The pleasure sensors ding; ding; ding like I just won a jackpot and the euphoria carries me for a long, long time. I can cast off being chastised at work, or getting a rejection letter, or seeing my team lose, again, because it was close and they won that one time, and I do have a book deal, and Flavia de Luce did solve the crime, and Catherine Morland was born to be a heroine (I know that is from a different Austen book than I mentioned up there, but I have Cat on the brain lately).
So, I’m going to remember the wins for now because they make me feel good and they help me get through the day. I don’t want to write platitudes and I don’t want to sound like my head is in the sand, because it isn’t. I know that platitudes are not worth anything anyway so I won't give you any. Instead, I will let you know that I am going to make some art, consume some art, root for my team, and look on the bright side of life today, and tomorrow.
Notes from my bookshelf
Alex Van Halen has a new book called Brothers and I liked it very, very much. To call it a memoir wouldn’t be just right. It feels more like an invitation to sit with Alex as he tells stories about his little brother who was his best friend. Alex misses Eddie desperately. He has phantom brother pain, but he manages to think about the good stuff, because honestly, regardless of what you think about Van Halen as a band, the world is better because Eddie played “Eruption” and Alex doesn’t want us to forget.
Theo Parish made a comic about coming to terms with their identity. The book is called Homebody and while Theo’s journey was fraught, it is uplifting. The book’s illustrations capture so much hope and joy in the midst of struggle.
Notes from my bookshelf
I saw the draft cover of Universal Truth, book three of the Austen Chronicles. It doesn’t come out until next October, but it is great to know that I am that far ahead. I really like the cover a bunch. Like seeing dolphins or deer, I will never get tired of seeing my name on the cover of a book. It feels like magic and my brain goes ding, ding, ding.
I know how book four is going to end. Jane Fairfax has been singing in my head and I like the way it sounds, but it is time for her to play her encore. I will cry when I am done. I get weepy every time, but I know I can visit her any time.
Tonya Todd and I are working hard on Vol. 2 of Comics Lit. We have collected the drafts of the essays and are editing them now. That too will be out sometime next year. We already have people working on essays for Vol. 3. Good things are afoot. If you’d like to hear Tonya talk about the book, you can listen here and here.
Thanks for being a subscriber,
ARF
Comments