Tea & Whiskers: More than Words

One of my students reminded me recently how thrilling it can be to wait for a new tv episode week by week. Experiencing the story unfolding alongside millions of others. It made me reflect on my own moments of being swept up in stories, and how they’ve really shaped my understanding of different medias, and helped forge my love of storytelling.

The first time I ever really recall being frightened by the contents of a book was when I read The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. I must have been about nine or ten, and while I probably didn’t understand the deep complexities of the story, I grasped the whole alien/plants killing people and civilization falling thing. I totally blame Day of the Triffids for my love of the ‘cosy catastrophe with teeth’ subgenre – a truly marvellous term that was popularized by the science fiction writer Brain Aldiss, and I believe it sums up perfectly my lifelong love of apocalyptic scenarios, and brave, heroic survivors heading out to establish a better life.

I still recall the time when I read Mossflower by Brian Jacques. I adored his Redwall Series, and if you have a young pre-teen, I highly recommend them as a good starting series for an avid reader. Within the Redwall universe there is a mouse called Martin the Warrior, and he’s a bit of a…ah…let’s say…Saint-ly Figure, kind of a St. George, or even Joan of Arc concept. If you were like me, and you read the stories not in their current reading order, but in their publication order – then it was very different experience. I started the Redwall series with the first book Brian Jacques published, which is ‘Redwall’ and then I read ‘Mattimeo’ and these books feature Martin the Warrior as a guiding spirit to the heroes in those stories. As a reader, you come to really connect with the warm feeling of Martin the Warrior, it’s like – I was there, walking the halls of Redwall Abbey, sensing his deep kindness and strength. He is the protector of Redwall, and he will always be there if needed.

So, Mossflower is Martin’s story. I was not ready for the emotional journey. Nope. No. I sobbed in my bed. I cried so much over this book. I remember being curled up, under the covers, just crying and crying over a MOUSE in a NOVEL.

That’s the power stories have, and I love it, so much.

Not all of my experiences are positive. I have a favourite author, Traci Harding, and I really love her books – she is one of the few authors that I own pretty much her entire collection. Traci Harding gave me hope that there were good female writers out there, who wrote good, positive strong and feminine female characters. She wrote a series called ‘The Ancient Future’ – and if you’re into aliens, and alternate realties, and new age stuff, it’s genius. Having my nose in the conspiracy theory world, I just about died laughing whenever I read her books, because she used some wacky ideas and it was great – until the end. Which, looking back, I totally should have seen coming – but I was young and innocent. I threw the last book across the room. I cannot tell you how angry I was at that moment. I had spent a few years of my life reading this series, loving the characters, laughing and enjoying it all – and then the main heroine, hero and their family turned out to be Lucifer and his Fallen Angels. I was like, really? REALLY…

Really?

After everything the story had been building up to, it just felt like a generic letdown. I hadn’t wanted them to be some super special awesome fallen angels. It had been better when they had been just, normal humans, who had stumbled into immortality and had to deal with the serious repercussions of it. I donno, that’s my personal opinion, I guess.

Now, don’t get me wrong – it’s still, to this day, one of my favourite series. I have far too much fondness for the characters and the universe Traci Harding built for a bad ending to make me dislike what was an overall positive experience as a reader. And I think that’s a really interesting outcome.

The Red Wedding. Do you remember where you were when The Red Wedding happened?

Game of Thrones was something else, you know, it was this large cultural experience that, to this day, still fascinates me. It was like a flash of time that happened, and then…it passed, and I don’t know if we’ll ever have something like it again.

For the Red Wedding, I was in my office, and it was dark. Aislinn, my cat, was on my desk sleeping, and I was totally unprepared for what was going to happen. I went into Game of Thrones without any knowledge of the books, so, I didn’t know anything!!! Which, I suppose was a good thing? Maybe?

Yeah. So, that episode destroyed me.

💖💖💖

But for as shocking as Game of Thrones was – it was nothing like The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead is one of my all-time favourite shows. Which is funny, because when it first came out, I didn’t like it. I remember my brother gave me the first two episodes to check out, and I did, and I decided – heh – nah – super boring

That’s hilarious now.

I was recovering from a knee operation, so, basically couldn’t walk much, and I decided I needed to watch something, so, my brother had all The Walking Dead up to about Season 5 at the time, thus, I threw it on. I ended up binging it all. That experience, to this day, is one of the best experiences of being fully immersed in a story. I laughed and cried with the characters. Because I didn’t know anything about the world, I’d never seen anything online about it, I went in not knowing who died, who lived – so – when things happened, it felt like being punched.

I fell so in love with the main cast. I’m very much still a Daryl Dixon fan, which, I’m sure, says so much about me and my taste in men.

However, it was Maggie that I felt the most connection with as a female character. She was brilliantly written.

Then, the Season 6 finale happened. It ended on a cliffhanger; the mother of all cliffhangers and we had to wait a whole year. I was terrified I wouldn’t be there for the ‘EVENT OF THE CENTURY’. The build up to Season 7 was utterly crazy. I remember going to Comic Con, and Negan was everywhere. People were dressed as Negan, Negan’s FACE was on posters and plastered on walls, it was just…great. There was this buzz, you know. I loved it.

The day came, and I was off Twitter, because – nope – no spoilers.

I got my episode, and I sat down.

And I screamed, and I screamed, and I screamed.

Nothing will ever hold up to that episode: Season 7, Episode 1, 'The Day Will Come When You Won't Be'.

It was the greatest moment of television. It was horrible. It was just the worst thing ever. But hands down, brilliant storytelling. And it wasn’t the story. It was the build up to the moment. It was collective excitement of everyone, the shared anticipation of it that made the moment.

I like to think that, as humans, we still long to share stories together. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that same collective excitement around a story. These days it seems everything gets spoiled so quickly, and the internet can be cruel. But I’m grateful I got to live through those special moments, because they’ve shaped how I tell stories. Maybe that’s why I keep writing, even when it feels like I’ll never really share my work, because deep down, I know stories are more than words. They’re shared experiences that connect us across time, across place, and yeah…even across the end of the world.