A Goscinny and Uderzo world*
We have nothing to fear. Apart from the sky falling on our heads.
I AM SENDING THIS AGAIN AS SOME PEOPLE DID NOT RECEIVE IT. APOLOGIES IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED IT TWICE.
My brothers and I used to love reading the Asterix comic books, created by French geniuses René Goscinny and Alberto Uderzo. Goscinny wrote most of the words and Uderzo drew the cartoons.
I have tried to pass on my love of Asterix and his sidekick Obelix to my sons, but to no avail. Maybe they are still a little too young to appreciate them.
The comic books are a wonderful form of escapism. The stories are fantastic, but the humour in them is even better. The jokes are so clever. Loaded with puns, references to history and contemporary (at the time) 20th century pop culture, they bring the tales to a whole other unmatched level. The Tintin series, for example, is awesome too, but cannot match the nuanced depth contained in the wisecracks and occasional scenes of parody in the Asterix comics.
Asterix and Obelix live in a village in the north of Gaul in the first century B.C. (present day France) that the Romans have been unable to conquer. This is because Getafix (geddit?), the village’s druid, has developed a magic potion that the villagers can drink, which gives them superhuman strength for a few hours. Obelix (the guy whose chest has slipped a bit in the above picture), however, fell into a pot of the magic potion as a baby and subsequently has the constant gift of superhuman strength, so does not need to take the magic potion before engaging in combat.
The tales are based on the duo leaving the village to go and right wrongs, fight battles and rescue the odd damsel in distress. Their adventures take them all over Europe and they reach the farthest parts of the Roman empire. They even end up in America some 1500 years before Columbus!
Asterix and Obelix always do the morally right thing. They are prepared to risk everything to complete the missions they are sent on. They will not bow one inch to the mighty Roman empire (whose soldiers are made out to be a running joke throughout the series). They are afraid of nothing (the magic potion helps a bit with that I guess).
That last bit isn’t quite accurate, but, paradoxically, is true. Asterix and Obelix and their fellow villagers do worry about one thing — the sky falling on their heads.
I have no idea if that stems from some ancient Gaulish myth that the gods would drop the sky on their heads if they misbehaved, or if Goscinny and Uderzo just made it up, but it’s a good gag.
Their village chief Vitalstatistix is always saying “we have nothing to fear, apart from the sky falling on our heads”. Even though Asterix and Obelix and their villagers appear, at first, to be afraid of the sky falling on their heads, they aren’t really afraid of it. That’s because it’s a way of them saying that they’re not afraid of anything, really. Why? Because the chances of the sky falling on their heads is pretty remote, if not impossible. Which is a good lesson I guess.
We are sometimes way too afraid of things. Real and imaginary. My wife, for example, is so scared of spiders that she won’t go into a room sometimes if there’s one in there. And we live in the UK, where there are no venomous spiders on the loose.
Being too fearful has terrible consequences.
Excessive fear suppresses our critical faculties. It forces us to lash out at the bogeymen that plague our thoughts. It destroys risk-taking, adventure, exploration, innovation, experimentation and good old plain fun. In short, it stops us from growing and discovering all there is out there for us on God’s green earth.
I have my own belief as to how people can overcome, or at least manage their fears. There’s a rather large hint as to what that belief is in my novella I Must Stay At Home.
Suggested reading:
I finished a great novel this week. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. It takes a while to get going, but it’s well worth a read. It’s about some former Texas Rangers leading cattle from the South of the US to Montana. Those cowboys had balls of steel, as they say.
Other good Western-style novels that I would recommend — if they’re your cup of tea — include:
Blood Meridian and The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy, who is probably a genius.
Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams.
The Son by Philipp Meyer.
Progress update:
The man who wore hats (working title) is still at 24,016 words.
I have completed the first draft of my next novella Through open doors (working title). It sits at 17,591 words. Now comes the hard part. Editing.
Take it easy, and thanks for reading.
Marek
Does this indicate some form of Graphic Novel coming from you shortly?