Jason Taylor = Sam Weir (of Freaks and Geeks fame)

SORRY, THIS POST ONLY REALLY MAKES SENSE IF YOU'VE WATCHED FREAKS AND GEEKS :-/

I've had a great, great time reading Black Swan Green for a number of reasons. This book is really compelling in a relatable way, an objective way and, generally, it's just a blast to read. There's so much to look at, I feel like we almost could have had another day or two just talking about the novel as a whole. That being said, I don't want to disregard any parts of this book and I don't mean to be dismissive, but the entire time we've been reading Black Swan Green I couldn't ignore the feeling that Jason seemed really familiar, like a character I'd met before... then it hit me. I was thinking of Sam Weir, of Freaks and Geeks. The similarities are striking!!!
On the surface level, there's a lot in common between Sam and Jason. They both have an older sister (and giver of advice), they're living in small towns with, they love fantasy worlds, they hang out with nerds, they've got... interesting home lives, they're decidedly unpopular, they struggle with fitting in, they've got some lovely fringe, and they're about the same age in the early 80's (though Sam's a bit older than Jason). Even below all this, too, there's lots of deeper issues in their lives: Sam and Jason both have problems humanizing girls at first (and listening to them), they're sensitive and struggle with how to handle it socially, and they experience moments in the in-crowd, but choose to walk away from it because they "give a toss" -- think of Sam when he and Cindy break up, and he chooses to return to Neal and Bill, who are the "geeks" (similar to the lepers, perhaps). As well, here's a classic example of Sam's social life at school (plus, the "homo" stuff at the end -- all too familiar to Jason as well!):

Sam is 14 when Freaks and Geeks finds him and, though I'm bitter the show only lasted one season, I think it functions as a sort of snapshot of his life really well. We see Sam develop over the course of a school year, come into a lot of realizations about himself and the people around him, and grow to learn a lot about his personal values. Of course, we find Jason in a very similar state: over the course of Black Swan Green we learn so much about him that, by the end of the novel, it's almost difficult to let go. 

Both of these characters do a great job of being relatable for most people that have had to go through middle school, but just distant enough from personal experience that we find their stories appealing and strange. I find Sam Weir so sympathetic and sweet because the eye of the viewer in Freaks and Geeks, much like the reader in Black Swan Green, is intimate enough that we're allowed to see his worries, his sensitivities, and his growth. Especially after he's dated Cindy, he comes to the realization that girls go beyond their charm and looks and are complex characters like everyone else. Just like Jason, because of our up-close-and-personal view, we're able to see all of this as it comes to Sam, and I think that's why I like him so much. 

Also, there's a lot of similar scenes between these two. Hallway scenes, dance scenes, going on walks and getting harassed, being confused by sex and girls, fears of being "gay" and other boys' macsulinity, etc. etc. It's a funny parallel, because while Black Swan Green is written from Jason's perspective and takes a much more dire, serious tone (where it's hard to imagine getting out of being 13, and a life beyond middle school [the neverending purgatory that it is]), Freaks and Geeks follows a list of characters and, mainly, Sam's older sister Lindsay. Sam's story line is a lot more comedic and scene in the conteht of this larger picture, which makes his struggles feel a bit more lighthearted. Yet, there's so many similarities that I think it's really intriguing to think about it in this context. Personally, I remember middle school/9th grade (Sam's year) as being the shittiest, but looking back it's a lot easier to laugh at that period of my life. I guess I really have to commend David Mitchell for managing to write a novel from the perspective of a middle schooler in a mostly serious tone without it seeming contrived and stiff or satirical. Props to him!

Finally, I guess I'll mention all the references to music (and popular culture of the early 80's in general). This doesn't pertain to Sam as much, but culture still plays a heavy hand in Freaks and Geeks. There are some golden scenes where Sam and his friends are playing Dungeons and Dragons around his dinner table, and plenty of music refernces (JOHN BONHAM IS DEAD!!) Though music isn't as important, necessarilly, to Sam's story as it is to Jason's (and perhaps that's because he's not so obviously on a creative path yet?) I think it still sets a certain tone in the show overall. Black Swan Green felt very cinematic to me because of the amount of mood setting based on music, and the way the music really fleshed out scenes in their entirety, and I guess, after noticing how similar the two stories are, I began to think of Freaks and Geeks like an American version of Black Swan Green in a lot of ways.

This isn't really a super productive post, and I don't have THAT much to say with it besides wow, they're so much alike and I love both of these cute little boys!! I don't mean to take away from the structural, literary, or metaphorical complexity of Black Swan Green by comparing it to Freaks and Geeks, but I just think it's a funny similarity. I looked around online for a minute and couldn't find this anywhere, but I hope some of you guys maybe noticed this too. :-)

Escapism and leaving town/childhood in Black Swan Green

As we talked through Souvenirs this week, I began thinking a lot about the way Jason's thoughts change dependent on the spaces he occupies. Of course, everyone's thoughts change as they move about, but I think the way that David Mitchell uses Jason's location relative to Black Swan Green is particularly valuable.

Basically, it seems to me that Mitchell is honing in on Jason's immense feeling that he needs to escape Black Swan Green. There's the moments when he's sitting in Ewan's car daydreaming about flying away, the lines when he talks about the fact that he just can't stay in his shire, and the scene where he's fantasizing about running away with Dawn to London, where they'll become the hottest new artsy it-couple. Overall, there's this gnawing within Jason, it seems, that's commanding him to leave.

With that in the back of our (and Jason's) minds, I thought Souvenirs was a really interesting chapter, as well as Solarium. In Souvenirs, Jason gets a breath of fresh air -- the first one we see in the novel -- by leaving Black Swan Green. During these trips, we get glimpses of really lovely, cool experiences Jason has alone, and then with each of his parents; yet, these scenes are, both times, disrupted by embarrassments and let-downs. Also, in Solarium, I think there's a really intriguing dynamic between Jason and Eva where Eva is not only playing the role of the sage, experienced artist, but of an outsider, a worldly woman invading Black Swan Green and providing Jason with some idea of what it means to be an artist outside of his shire. She pushes him to come into his own, grow into himself, and move away from the hiding he's in because his town is so little and he feels the need to hide. Then, Eva gets arrested and taken away from him, and it suuuucks :-(

It's difficult to articulate, but in both of these chapters, and in earlier ones (Hugo's visit, etc.) there seems to be some sort of running theme: though Jason complains and whines about being stuck in Black Swan Green, when he leaves OR gets a glimpse of the outside world it may seem pleasant at first, but there's something darker under the surface. Think of The Falklands in Rocks, as well -- Jason opens the chapter cheery and gung-ho about the war but by the end, he's weary and confused by the purpose of it all.

I think a lot of this foreign experience ties into adulthood as well -- though Jason wants so desperately to just be done with being a teenager, the glimpses he gets of adulthood seem to be a sort of mixed bag. Take Eva, again -- he's mystified and drawn to her, but there's also something dickish and scary to Eva. That might be good in the long run, but it's certainly not pleasant in the moment. He used to idolize his dad, as well, and his mothers a sweet lady, but on their respective business trips we see that fun, dorky side of his parents disrupted. This also happens in Rocks parallel to the Falklands, as his parents bitterly fight the whole time. Therefore, I think it can be sort of difficult to separate these two unknowns in Jason's life at times -- the outside world, and adulthood.

Mitchell hints at this theme a number of times. There are glimpses Jason gets into these experiences, and they interrupt his fantasies a lot, reminding him that, although they might be better than right here, right now, they're not necessarily peachy keen and sweet. I think there's definitely something there about Jason sobering and maturing after realizing that 1. the world outside of BSG and 2. adulthood, aren't necessarily just amazing -- and I think these realizations mean a lot for Jason in terms of rationalizing the scale of time and life and everything. In Rocks this happens most openly, but I believe it goes along with each of the chapters I brought up; there are moments that go against Jason's idyllic understandings of these unfamiliar experiences, and once he's seen them in action, he's led to the questions, is this really something I want? Is it actually like this? These questions go for a lot of themes in the book -- coolness, popularity, not giving a toss, etc. etc., but I think it's compelling that Mitchell chose to apply them to themes like adulthood and leaving, because these sorts of realizations are just as important as those about social status when you're coming of age.