Saturdays

Dear Ian:

Saturdays are the perfect day. The sit-com day. When you are old enough, you will appreciate this fact: in re-runs of shows like Friends and Seinfeld, they seem to spend an unlimited amount of daylight hours hanging around in coffee shops or diners. No one seems to have a job. This makes a bit of sense with Seinfeld, George never really seemed to hold a steady job, Jerry worked at night, Elaine was not always present, and Kramer...? How the heck did Kramer afford a New York apartment without ever actually having a job? Reruns...I love 'em.

Speaking of reruns, the "origin story" has to be the most rerun, retold, refabricated, reprinted, re-re in comic books. I started reading an Angel origin story today. It is a five part story arc, limited series. Angel is a mutant, one of the X-Men, his story has been told a hundred times before (okay, he isn't one of the super important, extremely popular X-Men, so maybe 10 times would be stretching it), and because this is stand alone series, it does not necessarily mesh with regular X-Men continuity. I am only two of the five issues in, but so far it is a pretty good read. Origin stories are that tell you the beginnings of established protagonists (or antagonists, for that matter) are supposed to provide insight into what you already know, or thought you knew, about a character. Kind of cheating in a way, and also extremely difficult for that very reason. Anyhow, origin stories, read them. All of them. Not just comic books by the way. Read your Bible, great origin stories there. Not just the Eden one either. Check out that Moses story, baby in a basket, compare that to Superman. Read Inuit origin stories, look for trixters and thieves.Other origin stories place the world on the back of turtle that stands on the backs of elephants. Read your Greek and Roman origins, almost all of them intend to tell the story about something that came to exist, such as the story of Arachne and spiderwebs.

Someday, maybe you can write an origin story of your own.

Spent the rest of the day with a headache. Read in good light. Advice I shunned in my youth and still do, despite the reading glasses and headaches.