On nerdiness and Greedo.

I found my connection to Benji in his references to life as a nerd. A Star Wars fan. A Dungeons and Dragons player. Benji is a huge dork, and I, too, am a huge dork.

I love every reference to Star Wars. Greedo is such an obscure character, and I love how he pops up in class discussions so casually. We talked about the various Greedos, and how they symbolize different things, and I'm just so shocked that my hours of elementary school research into the Star Wars universe are helping me in English class.

From what I remember, Greedo was supposed to be a bounty hunter. He could turn invisible. He got shot by Han Solo in a passing scene and was never really shown again, which was a bummer. It's interesting how a character like that is Benji's connection to Star Wars, by virtue of Greedo being a not necessarily white character that was kinda cool. At the same time, Greedo isn't one of the black characters like Lando Calrissian who isn't exactly a model outstanding character as Benji points out.

I feel like Benji's connection to Greedo is indicative of his current social status. He doesn't exactly fit in with his peers, just playing the game to fit in. He's not always the first on a trend and his background is different. He's also not totally white person like, due to his upbringing and a lot of the struggles he's had to go through. He's almost a totally separate party, a green, spiky, bulbous-eyed creature with a weird voice that falls victim to Harrison Ford always shooting first but drawing second.

I'm appreciating Benji's DnD references because recently Nick has gotten my friends and I to start playing. It's really complicated, but as long as it helps me in English to better put myself in Benji's shoes, I'll stick to it. Dungeons and Dragons epitomizes nerd stereotypes. As Benji puts it at some point, it's used to "perpetuate virginity" and I guess that's holding up for my friends. I should go out more.

Dag.

Sag Harbor has been a lot harder to read than a lot of the other novels we have read so far. I think it's the format of the chapters and the fact that the action is very slow moving until the ends of the chapters, I've noticed.

Ben the narrator uses the beginnings of the chapters to put in a lot of exposition and a lot of foreshadowing without necessarily revealing anything. This holds true for the past couple chapters we've read. The fact that the novel also takes place in a short timespan makes the progress seem to move a lot slower than in Black Swan Green.

There are relatable elements for me, like in "The Gangsters" when the kids get into some dangerous things not really thinking about the consequences. In class, we talked briefly about the nature of boys pretending and putting on adult roles for fun and enjoying.

If you think about coming of age as a process that's a sum of experience, I believe that the act of pretending is really important. The kids are acting out what they've seen, different lifestyles of adults that serve as role models. It appeals to some more than others, as mentioned by Ben in passing where some of those kids would go on to be actual gangsters in the future.

Actual coming of age, in my opinion, is the point at which it's no longer pretending for a while then going back to assuming your position as a child, but realizing you already belong in the "Dad" aisle of those stores. When the responsibilities overtake the desire to be someone else. When you realize you're done changing, out of the time in which you're still choosing what path to take in life.