The Boobahdore

Sometimes when reading a book, only one word comes to mind. Not because the prose is lacking, or the ideas aren’t complicated enough to illicit more than one-word responses. Simply because a sort of stuntedness wraps your brain so that all you can do is try to keep reading behind endless circles in your mind of ‘wow’ or ‘incredible’. This is just my lame way of saying that even at the end of Steph Bowe’s Girl Saves Boy, even after scouring the dictionary for anything at all, I still had only one thought: how could anything be so sweet?

GSB is a love story of two teenagers: Sacha Thomas, a terminally ill boy who collects garden gnomes from others’ gardens, and Jewel Valentine, an emotionally distanced sketch artist haunted by death. It begins as any happy story will, with Sacha attempting to drown himself in a lake and Jewel coming bravely to his rescue. This is their first meeting, and we are lucky enough to see how these two preciously damaged souls come together with their individual pains.

And sweet is definitely the single word which retains for me throughout the entire story. Not because it is blissfully unaware – plenty of unhappiness ensues, from terminal illnesses to broken families and death, unrequitedness and the impossibility of teenage normalness – but because it breaks past all of these with a sense that none are alone and the world isn’t worth giving up on just because your life is looking bleak.

I’d like for people to get this idea from my own writing. Honestly, if ever there is a Best of John Back collection where every single thing was fundamentally flawed in a perfectly appreciated, all-the-better-for-it kind of way, I’d well and truly die from pride. This is, I think, my most simple and most important conception of life so far: enduring optimism.

I’m not sure if the author intended this to be quite so prevalent as I have taken it to be. Some readers will find heartbreak and intense, lonely pain and they won’t see any of what I’m talking about. But I think this is because we are conditioned to want pain, to search for it unrelentingly to remind us that feelings are human, that we’re allowed to be downtrodden even if we need a sad story and broken characters to get us there. I’m not saying to fall apart immediately and irreparably if something goes wrong, I just wish we could celebrate sadness like we do happiness. Anyway!

Regardless of whether Bowe wished for this or not, for me I found the most joy in the fact that something prevailingly uplifting was published in a (let’s face it) fairly passively-aggressive pessimist’s playground. It gives me hope that there is a market for that which is not degrading, depressing or intrinsically critical of everything human. Maybe this is simply because the author was a mere 15 years old at the time of writing (which I still don’t fully believe) and had not been made brazenly agitated by humanity yet. And something I honestly believe is that the major strength of this GSB lies in the age of its author: that excluding the characters who are rife with multi-tragic pasts and the plot which moves in terrific speed, this novel is wonderfully simple. Not in a negative sense. Not from being under-thought or hinderingly naive. Its simplicity stems from a childlike state, from an honest, non-embittered view of the world which most authors would (wrongly in my opinion) consider ‘unworthy’ of literary value.

I applaud Steph Bowe for this, though she may find it embarrassing now, being older and having seen more of the dark world. I wonder if sweetness is attainable once you reach a certain age, or is it something which will forever be stuck in the ‘wonder years’? Can we ever allow ourselves as thinking adults to stay simple, to accept anything for what it honestly could be? Or are we all too far gone for that? I’ll certainly be doing everything I can for it. I hope GSB’s author will be doing the same.

It’s about time I get down to the business of it, since five posts is just a little too much waffling for a thing like this. Despite the common opinion among friends, family and those who know nothing about me except that which is on this blog, I do actually do other things except stare at old people and read far too much manga. Since quitting English manga, in fact, I’ve done quite a lot of other things (since distraction is the best cure of addiction). What have I been doing? Writing creative!

Well, thinking about writing, at the very least. My discipline is far from regimented (more like craftily enforced by a drunkard asleep on a snowy patch next to... okay, let’s put an end to that simile before I get all writer-like up in here). The point is I’ve had a lot of stories running around in my head but due to time restraints and lack of energy (I swear young adulthood should be medically recognised) I’ve been very slack in pulling them from the air to the page. And maybe the fact that I use phrases like ‘pulling’ which are completely synonymous with a withered donkey trudging a wagonload behind him is not the best way to enthuse myself back into it. No, let’s use dainty words like ‘plucking’ or ‘cajoling sweetly’. That sounds much better.

What has become most apparent in my writing creative (and this has strangely been somewhere between consciously realised and subconsciously ignored) is the inclusion of two things: magic and tragedy. This might sound as unreasonable as drinking red wine from a gravy boat, but I assume that one or two people are out there who just might be into that sort of thing. Rejoice, the strange few who have finally been given a voice! Or at the very least a story or two to read and enjoy in some small amount.

Of course, there is a lot more detail involved in both of those elements than that which I’ve given you, however really the only reason I mention this right now is to give you an idea why I am currently obsessed with fairy tales.

Question for the writer: Is this the world you are looking for?

Now I’ve been fascinated by fairy tales for years – and I hardly think I am alone in that – and have been waiting for the chance to give it a go myself. Other projects have been keeping me so busy that only some three years after deciding that I desperately wanted to try the form have I finally been able to give it a go.

And some may have noticed that fairy tales are EVERYWHERE right now. Snow White has popped from the Hollywood archives twice in this year alone, and Once Upon a Time is doing something or other with fairy tales, I’m sure (I still haven’t convinced myself to watch it. What do you people think?). An optimistic me would say, “Swell! The market is already preparing itself for your long-awaited foray!” The real me hopes to hell that I don’t miss the peak and become ‘that’ writer that could have been big if they’d just been a bit quicker.

In any case, I am at current working on a series of fairy tales with somewhat of a long-term plan in action. It works like this:

I think it seems fairly reasonable, give or take a few minor details. The plan is to try and get some of these stories published in journals/online/wherever people will accept them, so I am hoping that you will actually get to read them and be able to experience the world as we move towards the big project at the end.

Maybe this should be what I'm going for. Exactly how I remember Hansel and Gretel!

I am currently figuring out my answer to the first question (and ignoring my personal issues) as well as starting the short stories. This follows my rash decision a few weeks ago to scrap the six stories I’d written so far (none of them being what I was really aiming to achieve and probably being fairly dodgy quality) so subsequently, I may post a few of these up on the blog for you guys to read. It occurs to me that some of you might actually want to read some of my writing, so whenever I can I’ll find ways to give you an idea of where things are sitting at current (I have some ideas of how to get around the whole 'previously published' problem - although nothing devious, don't be alarmed).

Alternatively, I think I will start updating my Facebook and Twitter accounts fairly regularly once I get a bit of a schedule developed, so any super keen readers are welcome to tag along for the ride (and comment from the back-seat, if you so wish!).

Hopefully this gives a little bit more of an idea what I’m getting up to between these posts. I realize after typing it all that this may just be a tad on the boring side. If so, I sincerely apologise on behalf of all now-fired employees responsible.

Cheers

P.S. Is it annoying when I say ‘writing creative’? I can’t decide if it’s annoying, pretentious, stupid, grammatically incorrect, or if I’m breaking new ground here.

So for the next few posts I thought I’d talk about what I’ve been getting up to (not intentionally a justification for my lack of posting, although you can take it that way if you’d like. This is more a self-absorbed thing, I suspect) and hopefully eventually I’ll be able to keep you guys more up-to-date on everything.

Probably the most embarrassing of these, and therefore rightly the first for me to bring up and move past, is that I've been reading manga. Lots of it. To the point that I’ve had to find ways to cut myself away, and have now resolved to only read it in traditional Japanese. Hopefully this will work as an incentive while also freeing up a bit of time for writing. We’ll see... I know many of you won't be at all interested in manga, and that's fine. But this blog just wouldn't be mine unless I brought up my Jap fanaticism every now and then. Feel free to read as much or as little suits you.

I have to say a few words about a few of the series that have been draining away my time. Actually, just two.

1. 20^th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa

So Urasawa is a bit of a gem writer. This is the only series I’ve read in full (because Australia’s none too kind when it comes to accessing non-mainstream manga), but I’ve watched some of the anime of another series, Monster. Basically, he’s a genius of cliffhangers. I’m talking the type so subtle that you don’t even realize until you’ve turned the last page that you are absolutely dying to read the next chapter. 20^th Century Boys begins with Kenji – the main protagonist of far more than should be possible – stuck in a nothing job and other than small hints of bigger things to come, it reads as very little more than colloquial and banal. This continues for several volumes, in fact, while flashbacking to Kenji’s past in what must be the best use of flashbacks I’ve ever seen, bar none. That being said, nothing much happens for a fair while, or so it seems.

I must admit, when I started this series, I wasn’t convinced I’d like it. I struggled through, trying to find something to convince me to finish. There are 22 volumes in total, after all, so it’s no small task to reach the end. That is, until everything starts and you realize you’re completely addicted. I won’t say anything about the plot because it’s hard not to ramble and spoil like a madman, but (and this is completely objectively speaking, because honestly, there is no denying of this) the story, the characters, the artwork, all are damn impressive. Seriously, if you want to be convinced that quality manga exists, start with Naoki Urasawa.

2. Katekyo Hitman Reborn! by Akira Amano

Tsuna is the one in the background. The baby Reborn is the one that looks like a baby.

This one’s a little bit wilder. In fact, it’s insane. Here’s the plot in its most basic form:

Yeah, I like it so much I added a second cover, what of it? And no, I don't care that Yamamoto is on

A young boy named Tsuna is a no-hoper in every way, failing in school, sports, romance, everything. To his surprise (but not to the surprise of any reader) a mysterious guest arrives and shakes things up. Who is this person? That’s right, a baby with a gun! Oh, what’s that? The baby is from a prestigious mafia family and Tsuna is set to become the new boss? Oh, and the baby (named Reborn) shoots Tsuna in the head to unlock his near-death powers? Yes, I saw all of that coming as well.

You’d be right to say it is a bit of a weird concept. Some would even say that it's, perhaps, crap? and some would say it’s a twist on the classic shounen formula (think Dragon Ball Z) just for the sake of a twist, but what makes this so fantastic is that it’s seriously, ridiculously funny. It also manages to simultaneously be out-of-this-world adorable while blowing my mind with just how awesome the fight scenes will later become.
My favourite manga/anime of all time is Bleach by Tite Kubo. That’s a contentious title as favourite, to be sure, but there’s something about it that I just can’t get over. Not since the first time reading Bleach have I been so excited by a series, not even of any other format. I never thought I’d actually have to question whether Bleach was still my favourite or not.

And almost singularly because of Reborn! (the exclamation mark is actually in the title, don’t knock it) I’ve decided to stop reading manga in English. I know if I continue on I won’t get anything done for at least a year and a half. Clearly, that isn’t the best option for me right now.

Now, I still feel bad that I have neglected my extensive and dedicated fanbase over the last two weeks. Hopefully we can find a way to push forward to the new world. In the meantime, one more wonder from the land of rising suns and maid cafés. I think it captures a little bit of a universal truth which only a miraculous treat can bring out in all of us.