Chapter Five: Pages 43 - 46

The "tiny sword" that Alexandra's father was carrying turns out to be more significant than Alexandra could have suspected. The glittering red gems embedded in the scabbard are supposedly the magically-transformed eggs of a majestic swan! Alexandra's father entrusts it to her care, but what does he want her to do with it? Well, let's find out…

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NOTES

• These are the pages I was thinking of when I was remembering how difficult it was to make interesting images out of a person lying still on their back.

• Do you all want to hear a personal story? How much do you want to hear a cartoonist spin his wheels on the topic of religion? I'll put it in the next bullet point.

• I wasn't raised atheist, it's just that religion never came up, and I never asked. If I ever thought about it at all, it was to the extent of, "that's something other people do." My parents never mentioned belief or church, and neither did my grandparents. Not even on Christmas. If you asked me, "is your family religious?" I would have snorted, the question would seem so silly. That's why, when my grandfather was dying, and we were at his side at the hospital, and he started reaching out for god — sounding frightened and asking our pastor cousin(1) to come in and read rights — I was shook. Intellectually, I knew that people did this when they died. I'd seen it in movies. But there, at that moment, I was silently shouting, "where did this come from?" My grandfather looked so different in my eyes, which I suppose indicates I understood how fundamental it was to people; unless it was core to someone's character, why would it affect my perception of him? On the other hand, his reaching-out could have been perfunctory, or desperate grasping, in which case… what did that mean about his character? Or about belief and religion generally? Surely if he had chosen to live as an atheist, or agnostic, he ought to have the strength of his convictions. Or perhaps he was lapsed in his religious practice, whatever it was. Who knows how much thought he put into it? Surely we all understand how religious practice can fall into the category of "The Done Thing" without requiring much thought or care. Whatever the case, my grandfather arrived at the end of his life, surrounded by the people that loved him and who he had loved, and he was asking for someone I'd never heard him mention before, someone who — depending on your belief — may or may not be entirely imaginary. Like I said, it was startling, and that is now my primary memory of him. I think about that a lot, and I wanted to put that unusual feeling into this book.

  • (1) the fact that I have a pastor cousin, did not know it until that day, and was raised with a rudimentary-at-best knowledge of religious topics is probably illustrative of our family dynamics.

  • Of course this all ties into the previous mentions of Her Celestial Majesty and an offhand remark in chapter three of THE TURKISH LIEUTENANT, when DD blasphemes about "the thousand-year honk of the Space Goose."

  • And, looking at the pages now, it feels appropriate that Alexandra's Dad is innocently appealing to Her Celestial Majesty only moments after describing how he planned to exploit the Duke of Faulerberg's ardent religiosity for political gain. I can't claim to have planned it that way, but that sort of hypocrisy feels like it supports Alexandra's response, whether she could articulate it or not. Her heart is right about a lot of things, even if her head takes a while to catch up.

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Nothing but lighthearted cartoon hijinks in this installment, huzzah! I don't want to spoil the next one, but I promise there will be some top-quality dad-joke nonsense to lighten the mood around here.

Until then,
I remain,
magically-transformed eggs,

TC