Something SENSATIONAL to Read in the Train

Introducing G. Marie’s Comic Memoir, Baby!

Dear friends,

Tomorrow you’ll receive my first piece! Since I put you all off for so long, I’ve made the executive decision to switch the order of the first two essays, which means I’m throwing you in the deep end, culturally speaking. I know you’ll do just fine. All you really need to know is that I was homeschooled in Pennsylvania.¹

In my second essay, I will finally reveal the truth about my education. Get ready.

So, welcome to my substack! I’m excited to launch this project. Here’s a short introduction with some important notes.

In order to give this some narrative structure, I will (for the most part) be focusing on my educational journey (from ~unschooled~ to Oxford). Because of that focus, quite a bit will be left out—for whatever reason I’m not super interested in writing about childhood, for instance, so childhood friends and my hilarious family will get slightly short shrift. The period between undergrad and grad school, too, was full of goofiness but not necessarily educational goofiness, so I’ll pass over a good bit of that as well.

I’m also changing all names, just to be sensitive to the fact that not everyone is, ahem, a goofball with no shame. Currently, my plan is to post every two weeks, but if I’m real ambitious I might decide to do it weekly, especially when I have bonus content, like a goofy² quiz. When, eventually, I write about grad school, there may be an occasional history piece on a funny topic thrown in.

OK, now for the real question: Why a comic memoir?

The answer: Because one should always have something SENSATIONAL to read in the train!

Another (slightly more serious) answer is that I want to give an account of myself.³ Sometimes, especially in the past two years, I’ll mention something about my life and see complete confusion flit across the other person’s face. There are a lot of (at least seemingly) contradictory aspects to my experiences and personality, and people are not always sure how to reconcile the chill vibes and “calming presence” with the intense neuroticism and worry; the loud, chaotic sense of humor and the closely guarded privacy; the distrust of every authority ever and the love for Catholicism; the non-traditional education and that time I left the country for two years to go to a grad school that is obsessed with tradition. These are all just two sides of the same respective coins for me, and I think this project might make things a little clearer.

However, that’s not really what inspired all this. I actually just really wanted to write about the people I love! For me, laughter and funny stories are ways to delight in the particularities of people, to record them, to hold onto their quirks and goofiness a little longer. As tipsy G. Marie is so fond of saying: I love my friends. Let them live forever through these goofy stories.

Also I love comic memoirs. Just an excellent genre.

So thank you all for subscribing! Especial thanks to the people who encouraged me when I first broached the topic of this goofy endeavor and to everyone who responded with excitement and encouragement. It means a lot.

I remain,
G. Marie

P.S. Somebody told me recently that all-caps subject lines can get caught in the spam filter… If anybody has vibes about this please hit me up.

1. For my European readers: homeschoolers are the American version of what they call “home educators” in Britain. I’ve been informed that home educators are 70% more normal than their American counterparts.

2. How many times will G. Marie say “goofy” over the course of this project? Get counting.

3. The story of my LIIIIIIFE has been going through my head this whole time.