Cynicism and Sarcasm

Finished reading: "Last Summer #3 -- Succeeding In Your World"

On this side of the internet, nothing new but work, followed by more work. I worked about 12 hours on Wednesday and 16 hours on Thursday. Then, I spent the weekend recovering. Looking very much forward to a visit to Toronto soon.

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And now, on to LS3....

Interesting items arrive in the mail for the Morgendorffers. Daria gets a mail from Aunt Amy, who has sent her a "dorm survival kit" with several useful items for her first semester at Raft. Meanwhile, Helen gets a registered letter from the State Bar Association, leading Helen to conclude that it can't be good news.

After Helen reads the letter, Daria is pulled from a visit at Jane's for an important dinner table announcement: the State Bar Association will be presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Carol Murphey, and Helen has been asked to present the award. Furthermore, Helen wants the family to be there. While Quinn protests, Daria knows that Murphey is a long-time woman's rights activist and wants to meet her. Helen tells Daria that she'll have to be in a formal gown for the occasion.

Quinn wants to help Daria with the choice of the gown, but Daria declines. Quinn has worked hard to bring her grades up, showing that she has at least the potential to succeed in Daria's world. Most of Quinn's success has been unaided, and now Daria feels that she needs to made an independent venture into the world of fashion -- or at least, enough of one to be passable. Quinn at least gives Daria some starting advice: stick with a classic look.

Jane is bribed with some caffeine to go with Daria gown-shopping. Daria remembers the awful time she had getting a bridesmaid's dress fitted ("I Don't"), but the seamstress states that the other seamstress was obviously a hack.

Daria manages to "clean up" well, according to Quinn. Jake is brought to tears at Daria's new apparance and Helen and Quinn are impressed.

At the presentation, Daria finds herself surrounded by college age and older men. Daria manages to verbally fend them off, winning admiration from Carol Murphey, who happens to be watching.

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I didn't care as much for this story as the one before it. It was more aggravating than illuminating.

Daria's attempts to succeed in "Quinn's world" were fairy down-to-earth -- Daria didn't become a model instantly like in a Nemo Blank story -- but having Jake crying over his supposedly-now-beautiful little girl made me conclude that the author was fishing for an "awwww" moment. It's a bit cloying.

More annoying was the interplay between Carol Murphey and Daria. Murphey's first line is "Cynicism and Sarcasm, not just a philosophy, a way of life." Undoubtedly, this line is supposed to echo Aunt Amy's line in "I Don't" that sarcasm is "a great way to deal". However, Amy was speaking about sarcasm in the context of her life growing up with Helen and Rita. Sarcasm, in Amy's case, was a great way to deal with her sisters who never listened to her anyway.

As for Murphey's leaden line, I don't think I've heard of anyone speak of 'cynicism' or 'sarcasm' as capital-letter philosophies, except when talking about the ancient Greeks. As for Sarcasm (capital-S), I went to Wikipedia and found Dostoyevsky's line of sarcasm being "the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded." I think a real philosophical discussion regarding sarcasm and its uses might have helped the reader give more credit to Murphey.

I believe Dr. Lobinske was trying to figure out a way to make Murphey cool, and tried way too hard to cast her as Aunt Amy. Oddly enough, it had the effect of dumbing down Murphey's intelligence instead of giving me an appreciation for her work as a lawyer and activist.

There is a small ending scene which falls flat. I won't give it a way, but it probably would have made more sense for the protagonist to ask if Helen had a third daughter (say, Veronica)?

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Anyway, onward and upward to "Out of the Frying Pan". The teaser -- "To what extremes will Daria, Jane and Mack go to give Jodie a break from her summer activities?" -- sounds promising.