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.