This story caught me off guard. I started telling it because I was interested in the wild man aspect of Bearskin. But the more I told it, the more depth I recognize. The more gray it becomes. It is unusual because of all the stories in the Grimm Brothers collection, this one seems directly connected to a historical time. The returning soldier may be associated with the Napoleonic Wars. However, the deal with the Devil and the seven years wandering without bathing have old connections to grief rituals. In fairy tales, seven years could represent a long period in one’s life. I think if you’re old enough, you could remember a time in your life when you had to wander as an outsider with riches that you couldn’t use yourself.
The young man, like many returning vets, is discarded. His own brother takes away part of his inheritance. His only possession is a gun, a useless tool in the civilian world. He has no opportunities. When the Devil offers him riches in exchange for his soul, he has few options. The more I think about this story, the more I realize that it is about grief and PTSD. Bearskin must wander the world as a monster before he is redeemed. It is significant that the Devil has to bathe him at the end. That too is a ritual bathing, a washing away of grief. The dark twist with the souls of the sisters going to the Devil reminds us of the cost of easy wealth. There is always fine print with the shadowy one of the forest.
Despite that ending, I imagine as Bearskin moves through the homeless encampments of the city and the forgotten parts of town, he is able to change other people’s lives for the better. I am excited to begin this series of cranky stories. They will be proudly rough hewn, wonky and analog. No AI needed. Let me know what the story brought up for you.
THE WOUNDED LAND SALON: STORYTELLING AND DRAWING
The first Wounded Land session will be Sunday March 2, 2025, 10AM PST. A zoom link will be provided for all paid subscribers. I’ll introduce the two stories and the larger themes.
Second session: Saturday March 22, 2025, 10AM PST.
Third session: Saturday April 19, 2025, 10AM PST.
Fourth session: Saturday May 24, 2025, 10AM PST.
For anyone who is a paid subscriber you can join next Saturday at 10 AM PST. The sessions will be organized by sections of story. Each session will include some live storytelling, drawing exercises that respond to the story and discussions. You don’t need to read anything beforehand. I will tell parts of the story or read sections of the book. After each section I will give you quick responsive drawing exercises as a way of thinking through the images in the stories. I believe anyone can draw. Your hand is a voice. You don’t need special training and you certainly don’t need to consider yourself “good”. Of course, if you are a trained artist that is great. You will bring other viewpoints and depth and will stretch your own practice. Drawing is a way of thinking through the images and themes.
We will spend four sessions between February and May moving through the stories. The time in-between sessions allows you to absorb the work we’ve done. For the Grail stories I will rely on two main texts: Wolfram Von Eschenbach’s Parsival and Chretien de Troyes’s Perceval or the story of the Grail. I will pull in other interpretations such as TS Eliot’s The Wasteland, stories from the Welsh Mabinogion and Emma Jung’s writing. Leslie Marmon Silko’s prophetic novel is in a class all its own. Nonetheless, I might refer to her book of essays and stories Storyteller.
Once I understood the mythic sympathies between the two disparate works, I saw more than rousing entertainment. They come from completely different times and cultural perspectives. Both transcend story to become a kind of conjuring. Themes of broken masculinity, matrilineal power, corrupt leaders who suck the land dry with their wounded egos and the necessity to follow one’s own path invigorate both the Grail stories and Ceremony. Perceval must find the Grail castle after failing a first time and heal the wounded king with a question of reciprocal empathy and Tayo, a mixed race vet with PTSD on Laguna Pueblo after WWII must remember the old stories and ceremonies to restore the waters to the land.
These salons will be a way for each of us in our own way to address the wasteland we find ourselves in. We are in thrall to a sickened king and a mad, dark magician. They are sapping the land and its people of life. Hopefully, in a small and humble manner, these salons will help us find the old stories and ceremonies to counter the darkling envelope of sorcery surrounding us.
THE NAKED BOY GRAPHIC NOVEL is now available through the Lulu Bookstore. Order your copy here.
DANIEL DUFORD
ISBN 978-1-304-44554-4
266 Pages, (7 x 10 in / 178 x 254 mm)
Uncoated, Paperback Perfect Bound, Glossy Cover
$26
The Ground Beneath Us Books, 2024
An adventure story, a mythic journey through North America, a fever dream of the United States: all of these describe The Naked Boy. The first three parts were published between 2009 and 2012. The final drawings were completed in 2014. The full volume has never been published. Now in 2024 the full volume is available.
From the introduction:
“The book has a couple of structures and guiding principles. The story structure is a combination of The Bear Mother, an Indigenous story present throughout North America. In the story, a young woman is seduced by a bear and then gives birth to twins. Her brothers come to kill the bear in spring but not before he imparts his wisdom onto the twins. The other story is that of Romulus and Remus, the brothers suckled by a she-wolf one of whom goes on to be the founder of Rome. I grafted the mythical onto the most simplistic version of Manifest Destiny as told in high school textbooks. Hence, the path the Naked Boy follows is the railroad track west. Added onto this cobbled together ghost train are folk songs, tall tales, myths of place and unexamined histories.”
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