At the Ingle

Metalogue 1

October 29, 2015

Intrigue! If you're reading this page, you've found a small secret: me! The author. In an effort to make the site a little more fun without getting in the way of its basic functionality, I figured I'd sneak a few secrets here and there. This is the first one.

The Great Galavar is my way of remembering and romanticizing my own teenage experiences. It's written with the benefit of hindsight and a dablet of wishful thinking. (I didn't realize dablet is such a rare word. It means "small amount.") I conceived of Galavar when I was that age, and in those days he was very much an ideal, both of who I aspired to become and what I aspired to achieve.

In the same vein, many of the anecdotes in the story and quite a lot of Galavar's internal monologue stem from my own past. Likewise, most of the key characters have a single, major inspiration from my life—mainly but not exclusively from my high school years. Sadly I can't name names! Well, I could, but it'd be uncouth.

A lot of people hated their high school years, but for me it was a wonderful time. Middle school was my personal Hell. That's when everything that was hard about being a kid in general and being me in particular came together for the worst. When I was at home I longed to be in school, and when I was in school I longed to be at home. Rough times. I think most people would have been warped by that, but I've always had some kind of indefatigable optimism that I never could account for. But it was still a miserable time.

When high school came along, I resolved to use the change of schools to do things differently, and I was just barely developed enough as a mature person to actually achieved this. I turned in the bullies rather than putting up with them. I made my first real friends in life, too—friends my own age, that is. (I was always fine with adults.) I took the hardest classes and got outstanding grades. I participated in a number of exciting extracurricular clubs. I taught at my shul's Sunday school, and even led Shabbas services sometimes. I grew out of my toxic relationship with my mom. I began writing in earnest. I fell in love, and even managed to find the courage to tell her one day (albeit two-and-a-half years later, in senior year). And most importantly, I found the Internet!

And all the while I knew I would be leaving for college one day, and as that day drew nearer it gradually changed my outlook. I began to savor the childhood that had been so oppressive to me. My enemies were gone; my classmates were growing up along with me. One of my old middle school bullies even found me in the bathroom one day in high school, and, of all things, we talked. We just talked. And it wasn't endearing or anything like that, but it smacked of the changing of the seasons. Adulthood was in sight. The end of life as I had known it was near.

Today my memories of that era are faded like leather in the sun, and blurred together like grass on the plain. Those days are gone forever, and I would never return to them, but damn were they were formative, and I look on them fondly. The Great Galavar, and specifically the early parts of The Great Galavar, when Galavar is still a student in Ieik, aspires to be my homage to that era. I don't know if I'll live up to that goal. I don't think I got there in Season 1. But I'll surely keep trying!

In that spirit, the story of Galavar is much more important than any divine mysteries or political intrigue that may appear to dominate the plot. Those events help tie the story into the broader Curious Tale, but they aren't why I'm writing it. Pay attention to the story of Galavar. That's what's really important. To me at least.

Every once in a while I'll write another of these metalogues. This one I titled "At the Ingle," an ingle being a fireplace, and fire being reminiscent of the Swayfire, the source of Relancii providence and the essence of what it means to be a sapient, passionate person. There was never a time in my life, nor will there be again, when my ambition blazed as furiously as it did in those final couple of years in the desert. It's the great conceit of an adolescent who is about to become an adult. But I'm not ashamed to say that in those days I really did feel like I could take the whole world in my hands and make it the way I wanted, just the way Galavar will come to feel, soon.

Enjoy the story!