Adventures in Literature

During the chapter “The Gangsters” in Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor , there is a particularly interesting moment during the BB gun fight where Benji stops to reflect on a firefly that he encounters. Alone in the night, Benji says: A firefly blinked into existence, drew half a word in the air. Then gone. A black bug secret in the night. Such a strange little guy. It materialized visible to human eyes for brief moments, and then it disappeared. But it got its name from its fake time, people time, when in fact most of its business went on when people couldn’t see it. Its true life was invisible to us but we called it firefly after its fractions. Knowable and fixed for a few seconds, sharing a short segment of its message before it continued on its real mission, unknowable in its true self and course, outside of reach. It was a bad name because it was incomplete一both parts were true, the bright and the dark, the one we could see and the other one we couldn’t. It was both. (184) I found thi...

One of the many amazing arcs of Jason Taylor’s narrative in Black Swan Green revolves around his general awareness and expectation of how the world works and how one lives their life. But deeper than that, I think this thread sets up an interesting situation where David Mitchell challenges the notion of “coming-of-age” as a whole. At the beginning of the novel, one of Jason’s only (or at least one of his biggest) concerns and goals is to do all that he can to be on top of the social hierarchy at school and to be welcomed by the “popular” group. This concept is apparent in several different places, but one example is once Jason gets invited to take the Spooks test. At this point, he is almost reaching his goal, mentions he would do anything to become a Spook, and feels on top of the world. Jason describes: Mum’d bought Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re new and totally lush. I grabbed five, went upstairs, changed, lay on my bed, ate the biscuits, put on “Mr. Blue Sky” by ELO and p...