Giant : by Margaret Madrilejos

Leviathan- By Dylan Holden

Looking down, head hung low, his eyes followed the random bursts of ocean foam. Wearing a relaxed but playful grin on his face, he imagined they were the ancient remains of Venus’ birth, forever bursting from the ocean depths commemorating her induction into the house of Gods.

A passing seagull caught his eyes, distracting his thoughts, rendering the foam ordinary once again until he returned his curious stare for another day.

Nostrils flared he invited the surrounding air into his chest. He savored the salty after scent. Exhaling he turned to continue his work.

The deck was blanketed in pipe ash, bird droppings, fish entrails and other undesirable wastes. Finishing about twenty feet of deck in one long and practiced stroke and ready to tackle another twenty; water flew on board covering his back. Hearing the accompanying rush of air he looked over the edge of the ship to see the great beast grazing the top of the waters surface. He was transfixed, letting his pupils greedily steal as much detail as they were able. Oh how he envied the smooth undisturbed path of the sea giant. Gliding peacefully as if the ocean simply enjoyed the animal for what it was, carrying it wherever it pleased; showing her off to the upper world.

He watched the creature slowly disappear beneath the blackened depths and tried to rebuild it to continue marveling at its seemingly placid existence.

Again he moved from the edge of the ship and continued his duties; more clumsily than before, now offering more reasons for his size to be scrutinized by the other shipmates. If only he too could gracefully move across the ground, his presence almost unnoticed.

The Dark Side of being a Giant by: Kim Embacher

Don’t let those other stories fool you. Those stories about giants being accepted and liked and fairytales and lalala, it’s not like that; being a giant sucks, plain and simple. I guess there are the good days where you come across some other giants and it feels like you have friends, like you actually have a connection with someone. But they always move on, and then you’re always alone. You don’t even have your family to turn to, since the tradition amongst giant families is to let your child out into the world when they are 17. So you have to make do all alone in a society that doesn’t exactly hate you, but doesn’t accept you either. Sure, some people will talk to you at the park, help you out when your big-ass hand gets stuck in the slot of a vending machine and ask you if you feel you have enough rights in this society. But most of them are just those pro-acceptance nuts who are trying to look good by being friends to us giants; just setting up a façade of friendship. “A bigger body means a bigger heart!” is their slogan. That’s stupid. My heart is capable of the same amount of love—and hate—as you small people. I don’t want to be set aside or put up on a pedestal like I’m some special species. Don’t act like I’m different, like I’m some type of alien or animal. I see and hear and breathe and feel just like you do. I feel happiness when someone is genuine in their care for me. I feel hurt when you look at me and suppress a laugh. I’m not sure what is worse; knowing someone is laughing at me, or knowing someone is faking their kindness. Maybe that’s why we giants are stereotyped as being so cold-hearted. We’re just used to being paranoid and defensive. That’s what happens when people don’t treat you right. Maybe someday when people realize that we are no different than them, things will be better.
So now maybe you’re feeling sympathetic about this whole deal, and you’re probably thinking about joining some pro-acceptance group. You’re probably surfing their website right now, please don’t do that, they don’t know what acceptance is. Treating a person like they are some puppy to be coddled and trained is not acceptance, acceptance is when you treat someone the way that you want to be treated; because really, we are just like you. We just happen to get our hands stuck in vending machines more frequently. That’s all.

“A Giant”

This is an illustrative exploration of being a giant and how the surrounding environment and its inhabitants react to its presence. Are they accepted, despised, or even just ignored? Does it depend on their size being of worth and useful for a given occasion or situation?

I invite you to join me in filling this site with illustrations, sketches of any kind, even short stories discussing the matter. I hope to see a lot of great work as a result of this topic.

You can email your artwork or stories to my personal email address, dylanholden@gmail.com