Now | 2024 | Previous | Articles | Road Essays | Road Reviews | Author | Black Authors | Title | Source | Age | Genre | Series | Format | Inclusivity | LGBTA+ | Artwork | WIP |
|
FF9933: orphan wildlands blue highway: 11/23/18
Next on the orphan part of the road narrative spectrum is the journey to or through the wildlands via the blue highway. This is a particular narrative that I haven't read an example for the project. Therefore this post will be descriptive rather than analytic. The orphan is a solo traveler. Or the orphan is a literal orphan who is traveling with other companions. Milo Pine is a literal orphan with traveling companions in his two highly metaphoric adventures at the Greenglass House. Milo of The Phantom Tollbooth begins his journey as a literal solo companion, but picks up traveling companions on his way. The wildlands are any undefined, untouched bits of land that are there in the periphery of the road narrative landscape. These are the negative spaces that are sliced through by roads of varying ilks. The wildlands are like utopia in that they could be unnamed or unknown, but they aren't proper "no places" because they can be found on mundane maps between other places. The method of travel for this narrative is the blue highway. These are the one or two lane highways or other small country roads that meander through the landscape. Where the rail roads and interstates bypass the smaller places, the blue highway goes through them. One example of an orphan wildlands blue highway narrative would be any of the monster of the week episodes of Supernatural where the Winchester brothers are separated. There have been times when Dean has been dead or captured and when Sam has been dead or captured. When this happens, the remaining brother is temporarily elevated to orphan status and is able to save the day and his brother through that added supernatural boost. Works cited
Comments (0) |