Start At the Beginning

I am an internal and quiet processor. I don’t volunteer information in conversation, entirely too concerned with how I say what little I say. I like to think that I am a more effective communicator via the written word. Writing gives me the opportunity to fret about the details and doesn’t leave you waiting for minutes at a time as I seemingly stare into space. There’s no clock on writing.

The idea to blog is nothing new to me. Follow through has been the issue. I haven’t actually done the damn thing. Now I find myself in a season of change so I’m taking the opportunity to challenge myself to write. Not only to write, but to share that writing. My goal is to publish twice a month likely related to what I am reading, but not exclusively book reports. 

What follows are some thoughts I had as I read – and in the days after finishing – Saga:

Family: Noun, six letters, two syllables, deceptive. Demure at first glance, family’s meaning is fraught with nuance and complexity.

Adopted at two days old I have a particularly litigious relationship with the concept, one I regularly revisit and revise. I spend countless hours debating whether wanting to know more about my biological family constitutes a “Fuck you,” to my parents. Worrying that not knowing more already means I’ve given the middle finger to my biological relatives.

That is the lens through which I read Saga, a grand exploration of family. I’m scratching the surface of one nuclear family. There are extended families, families of choice, and exes to name a few of the dynamics I haven’t touched.

Marko and Alana casually joke about their relationship and have seemingly found a way to move past their generations old blood feud. Their species, at war with each other for generations, make the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s seem downright cordial. Their daughter, Hazel’s very existence is viewed as abominable by each of their worlds. Her parents were on the lam when she was born, the flop house she’s born in raided minutes after her birth. Hazel has spent her entire life in the confines of a spaceship surrounded by the vacuum of space, or in repressive state-run detention facilities.

Hazel is all of four. Clearly, she lives through these experiences, but Jesus H. Christ. To spend any time in those conditions is a tragedy no one should have to endure, let alone in your formative years. Even on the rare occasion she gets to be a kid, she must repress part of herself. To conceal her identity and remain “safe”, Hazel must bind her wings. On a practical level I understand why Alana and Marko have this policy. Hazel would quite literally be murdered for simply existing. No one should have to live that way. But there are people in my life whose lives have been majorly influenced by eerily similar thinking. I hope there are some serious conversations that aren’t shown to make sure Hazel doesn’t internalize the message that she has to deny and suppress part of her full identity to be right or acceptable. 

I’m a naturally competitive person and I don’t take too kindly to injustice. Systemic or trivial injustice alike. I have thrown all of one “real” punch. I was on third off a teammates line drive in what I recall as a very tight game of Wiffleball. The problem was the third baseman wouldn’t let me tag up between pitches. Tensions were already high, we started to argue, and things got physical. Not my proudest moment. I lost the appeal and got ejected from the game. I spent the back half of my sixth birthday party in my room, watching my friends play Wiffleball. 

Twenty-one years later a grown ass man and I can barely make it through that story without feeling righteous injustice and anger creeping in. In the face of profound loss and betrayal Hazel doesn’t seem angry or bitter. Her narration is filled with gratitude and nostalgia. Maybe in a subsequent issue she’ll reveal that this was accomplished through years of intense therapy. That seems increasingly more unlikely. The list of people that want her dead, whatever their reasoning is, is growing not to mention closing in. Her family is shrinking. I have to wait for new issues to be published to learn anything more.

I give Saga four and a half stars.

A big thanks to John Green and team that make The Anthropocene Reviewed (who I give five stars). This endeavor was inspired by the episodes reviewing the Auld Lang Syne and the QWERTY keyboard.

Thanks also to Andrew Bennet for being a sounding board for ideas and help in editing this piece.