Tag Archives: The Stalk

May 15 2015

Saga 28

Alternating Currents: Saga 28, Drew and Patrick

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Saga 28, originally released May 13th, 2015.

Drew: There are few things more depressing than studying altruism at a biological level. In a world driven by survival, what could possibly compel an individual to risk life and limb (or, more modestly, share food and shelter) with another? For sexually mature individuals, the most obvious answer is reproduction — helping your mate or your offspring survive increases the chance of your genes, and thus, the behavior of protecting your mate and offspring, will be carried on to future generations. But what about other relationships? Well, in 1964, W.D. Hamilton proposed that we help others for basically the same reason we protect our offspring: because we share genes with them. Importantly, we only share genes with those that are actually related to us, and a key part of Hamilton’s formula was the “relatedness coefficient” — essentially, you’re more likely to help your sibling than your cousin because you’re more related to them, or, more precisely, because you’re more likely to share genes with them. Which is to say, we don’t help people at all, we help their genes, and only because their genes are our genes. From that perspective, “altruism” doesn’t exist at all — we’re all just working in service of totally self-interested genes.

Of course, we’re not entirely driven by our genes. If genes give us our hardware, culture gives us our software, allowing us to do all kinds of things our genes wouldn’t dream of, from taking vows of celibacy to covering a live grenade to protect our platoon. Those are some extreme examples, but I think they become more relatable when we think of those acts as protecting family. Sure, a religious congregation or military unit aren’t technically families, but they can act as families for those who need it. It’s exactly these types of makeshift families — and the sacrifices they elicit — that Saga 28 is all about. Continue reading →

Nov 4 2013

Saga 15

saga 15

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Saga 15, originally released October 30th, 2013.

Shelby: I don’t have any kids, but I assume parenting is hard. Not just because you’re trying to figure out how to keep this small creature safe and provide for it and raise it in a way that it doesn’t turn out to be a total douche (presumably that is a common parenting goal), you’ve also got to put up with a deluge of “help.” Everyone who’s raised a child, as well as no small number who haven’t, believe they know the best way to do it. And they are more than happy to give you all sorts of advice on the subject. No matter how sound that advice may be (like, “you should probably get a job”), if it’s unsolicited it will probably be poorly received.

Continue reading →

Sep 27 2013

Saga 14

saga 14

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Saga 13, originally released September 25th, 2013.

Shelby: One of the big parts of growing up is learning that you can’t always have what you want. As a kid, when your parents tell you that you can’t have something, you pitch a fit in the middle of the Jewel-Osco, but as you grow up you learn to more appropriately deal with disappointment. It’s a process that never stops, because we constantly have things we want taken away from us. Sometimes we have to choose between two things we want, knowing that we’ll always be a little disappointed for the option we didn’t take. Sometimes we have to face the hard truth that we can never again have what was lost, no matter how badly we want it.

Continue reading →

Jan 22 2013

Saga 9

Alternating Currents: Saga 9, Drew and Shelby

Today, Drew and Shelby are discussing Saga 9, originally released January 16th, 2013.

Drew: My trumpet teacher used to talk about the “Ascending Spiral Groove Thang,” the notion that you can gain a lot from an idea by returning to it after you have different experiences to relate it to. He was using it as a (valid) justification for retreading the same lessons for his advanced players that he gave to his beginners, but I often think about it in terms of appreciating narratives. Many stories that I enjoyed well enough as a kid became significantly more meaningful once I had my own experiences with loss, heartbreak, or leaving home. Of course, I’m a far cry from having seen it all, and nothing reminds me of that more than parenting stories. Whether they feature uptight professionals (or lazy slobs) whose lives are turned upside down by an adorable street urchin, or a good old-fashioned “we’re having a baby!” story, the moral is always the same: having a kid changes everything. I suspect these stories keep being told because artists keep experiencing it — a kind of “no, seriously: HAVING A KID CHANGES EVERYTHING” — and because the stories themselves can never really do the experience justice, all of which leaves me feeling like I’m probably missing something all parents just get. Fortunately, that ignorance doesn’t prevent me from enjoying said narratives, as Saga 9 so ably demonstrates. Continue reading →

Nov 21 2012

Saga 7

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Saga 7, originally released November 14th, 2012.

Patrick: Parents! Amirite? You spend your whole life trying to strike out a path for yourself, establishing your own values and building your own relationships, but parents can always re-enter your world totally ruin everything. They mean well, and they’re not even bad people, but the disconnect between the present and the past is never so pronounced as when someone’s parents are in town. Saga 7 spends a little time getting to know Marko’s parents, both as they were in Marko’s childhood on Wreath and now, when confronted with his half-bred daughter. As the holidays approach, this is an anxiety with which we can all readily identify. Lucky for most of us, that parental baggage doesn’t come with centuries worth of pointless warfare as a side dish.
Continue reading →

Nov 5 2012

Saga 1-6

Alternating Currents: Saga 1-6, Drew and ShelbyToday, Drew and Shelby are discussing Saga 1-6, originally released March 14th, April 11th, May 16th, June 20th, July 18, and August 15, 2012.

Drew: Eight months ago, Patrick floated the idea of covering Saga. At that time, we weren’t really considering expanding our coverage outside of DCs publication line, so we tabled the discussion. Almost eight months later, we’re finally expanding our coverage, and Saga is still at the top of our list. We like it. The only problem is, so does everybody else. I’m normally not worried about agreeing or disagreeing with fans or critics, but with a comic as universally loved as this one, will we have anything meaningful to add, arriving eight months late to the party? Looking back on the density of Saga‘s first six issues, I realize that we’re in no danger of running out of new things to say. Continue reading →