There’s a Girl in the Castle

 

There’s a Girl in the Castle

by Jed Quense

Introduction

“This book is a work of fiction. I made it up.
Neither novels or their readers benefit from attempts to divine whether any facts hide inside a story. Such efforts attack the very idea that made-up stories can matter, which is sort of the foundational assumption of our species.
I appreciate your cooperation in this matter.”
John Green, authors note to The Fault in Our Stars

This is a true story.

That probably just threw you through loop, so let me say this to fix you up right. Stories matter, this is not some artistic statement, but a personally realized reality. Oh Lord it’s going to be one of those books, isn’t it? And the answer to that hypothetical question you are probably asking yourself is, no. It is not going to be one of those books. At least I hope not.
This is a story about growth. A story about realizing that, perhaps life is not as small as we may make it out to be. Yet, at the same time it is wonderfully small in that it allows us to see deep within ourselves so that we can see the dignity that we so often forget we have.
At the risk of reneging on my answer to the above question. I will simply say this. Stories matter because they can teach us about ourselves, allowing us to empathize with the characters that inhabit them.

Empathy, in a sense, is the greatest creative thinking tool that humans possess because it is innate to most, and if it is not, it can be learned or at the very least understood. We are not meant to strip stories of their meaning, quite the opposite. We are meant to experience what the characters experience, to feel what they feel. They have as much of an emotional capacity to be us as we have the emotional capacity to be them.
So yes, this is a true story. At least in the empathetical sense, but why is that any less true? I don’t think it is. A journey to the truth, is still a journey to the truth, no matter if it is realized through someone else’s story or your own. Though, if that is true aren’t they one and the same thing? And more to the point, we must have a story of our own to be able to empathize with others.
Perhaps, that is the point of these pages. My journey. A journey to truth and understanding of myself, and the appreciation for those around me. It is a long journey to be sure, and one that is still going on. In fact, this part of the story is only a fraction of a tale that has caught me up in its visuals for the last 20 or so years. I think it’s a story worth telling, and I hope you can join me on this journey.
I have failed to mention that this is not going to be your normal biographical endeavor. You know the type, I grew up here, and my family did that, my family did this. As well as the ever-classic, little Josie has dysentery, and has five seconds left to live. I jest, but no, this is a story told through the lens of reviews.
Now, before you get taken aback, and I take myself too seriously, let’s remember. These are reviews, and essays and they can be taken as such. Though I would be honored and humbled if the following become meaningful windows into the art of visual storytelling for you, as they are for me.
God cannot be put in a box; Lord knows I’ve tried. The following are stories that we all go on. Surprisingly to me though, the Lord used these stories to begin to show me who I am, and what I mean to Him.

“Vincit qui se vincit”

I have learned a lot from the following stories, and the events and people they help me recall. I hope in some way you do too…