Retro Daria

With all of the pictures of “future Daria” posted on the Daria Fandom Blog II -- a fine site, highly recommended – I recall a conversation I had with my wife. The contention was that even though Daria was on hip and happening music video (at the time) network MTV, the show was as much of a relic of the 1980s and before as just about anything.

The world of Daria is high school . Not any modern high school, but apparently the high school that Glenn Eichler must have gone to…and from my understanding, assuming that Mr. Eichler became a National Lampoon editor of the ripe young age of 22 in 1983, then Eichler graduated from high school sometime before 1979. Daria comes a lot closer to representing the high school Glenn Eichler attended than the high schools of any of the Daria viewers.

The first example is Brittany Taylor. Brittany Taylor is the big boobed dumb blonde cheerleader. This is an archetype that’s been around for a while and it will take several generations of Nobel Prize winning cheerleaders to eliminate it. Brittany’s activities consist primarily of supporting her Kevvie and writing cheers.

The joke in “See Jane Run” is that Ms. Morris’s gym classes are little more than cheerleader classes in disguise. However, Daria and Jane aren’t required to do much more that wave pompoms. In another episode (I forget the name) we learn that Lawndale High School at least has a trampoline, which might have some useful purpose in a cheerleading practice session.

Brittany does some splits, but can’t even keep her balance. The most athletic thing that any of the Lawndale cheerleaders are doing is forming a three-level pyramid…but this activity takes place only in the imagination of Jane Lane. In short, the cheerleaders of the Daria world are little more than pompom-waving sex objects of limited intelligence.

Brittany wears a short skirt, which would provide some lower body mobility, but she’s encased in an upper body sweater more suitable for a cheerleader of the 1970s – close fitting sweater (the better to show off the goods!), short sleeves and not extending below the hemline of the skirt. The only concessions to modernity (1980s and early 1990s) are Brittany’s slouch socks and sneakers.

The problem with this portrayal is that it’s a dated portrayal of high school cheerleading. If Daria were going to be accurate, she’d probably wear a short-sleeved spandex “shell top” and she spend a lot less time writing cheers and a lot more time doing complicated tumbling and gymnastics routines. (The only hint of these we see are from “The Daria Hunter”.) Brittany would come to class with say, her ankles taped up or maybe with a bruise or two.

Eichler portrays cheerleading as an activity for young women to engage in to gain popularity. (Back in Eichler’s day, cheerleaders auditioned for their role by giving their cheers in front of the student body. We see an audition in front of a smaller crowd in “The F Word”.) But by 1997, cheerleading was a lot closer to a sport than it was to something like a Fashion Club. Brittany wouldn’t need to feel that she had to match up with Kevin Thompson. She’d be taking the Lawndale Cheer Dance Team on tour to the state finals, working with cheer coaches and spirit camps, performing complex dance routines. These routines are often dangerous, resulting in broken bones or worse. (Remember, no one is wearing a helmet or pads while doing any of this.)

Another example is Kevin Thompson, and by extension, the rest of Lawndale High sports. During the first three seasons of Daria, Kevin Thompson floats on by. We know that Brittany is the smart one of this intellectual challenged duo – a C-minus is grounds for celebration – so God knows what kind of grades Kevin Thompson makes.

The understanding is that the jocks at Lawndale High School don’t have to take exams. They are given the infamous “bye”. However, during “Mart of Darkness”, something changes. (Thanks to Scissors MacGillicutty for pointing this out.) It is made clear that Kevin will simply float through high school and not face any intellectual challenges.

This might have been true in Glenn Eichler’s day – teachers and administrators would have looked the other way and given their Kevin Thompsons an automatic diploma. It would be the college’s problem, and many colleges of Eichler’s day had formulaic approaches to the admissions process. College scholarships weren’t tied to rigorous academic standards.

This all started to change in the mid-1980s, after Eichler graduated high school. States began to institute high school exit exams. Colleges were more closely regulated by the NCAA and Division I school applicants were forced to have grade point averages above a certain minimum to get a sports scholarship. When it was learned that high schools were artificially changing grades for star athletes, the NCAA began to require minimal scores on the SATs.

Someone must have reminded Glenn Eichler – probably Rachelle Romberg, writer of “Mart of Darkness” – that academic standards existed. The plot thread will not be dropped, and now all of a sudden, Kevin’s father is asked by Mr. O’Neill to convince his son to study harder. (A plea that falls on deaf ears.) One can only wonder why Ms. Li supported the candidacy of George W. Bush and his “No Child Left Behind” program with its heavy emphasis on standardized testing.

(* * *)

My wife, Ruth, comments on the fact that the Fashion Club would not be considered fashionable by 1990s standards. The most popular haircut of the 1990s for women was the “Jennifer Aniston/Friends” haircut, a haircut which is never seen in Daria. Short hair was in in a big way in the 1990s, but oddly enough…it can be argued that all of the main female characters of Daria have long hair! One could argue that Jane Lane’s hair is not long, but she’s the only one. Jane Lane has weird artist helmet hair, not meant to represent any popular style. If Daria were true to fashion, Quinn would have a Meg Ryan do. At least Quinn’s pink baby-doll midriff-bearing T-shirt more accurately reflects the styles of the time.

Even slacker Trent Lane is more retro than grunge. Let’s look at his musical influences, and the periods when they were the most popular

Jane’s Addiction: The high point of the band was 1985-91.
Morrissey: 1988-1997
The Doors: the Morrison Doors were gone by 1972
Cocteau Twins: hung around till 1996 or 1997, but its real high point was the 1980s
Frank Zappa: died in 1993
Nine Inch Nails: when Daria hit the airwaves, NIN hadn’t released an album in three years.
Nirvana: Cobain died in 1994
Gregorian Chants: by the 16th century, it was falling out of use
thunder: thunder has never gone out of style
the Banana Splits: Fleegle sadly died of a heroin overdose in 1970

In short, the only way Trent Lane represents grunge is in his clothing. Musically, he’s a retro throwback. I can understand why it was so easy for him to do a commercial for Happy Herb; if Mystik Spiral hadn’t agreed, Herb would have had to search through The Carpenters old back catalog.

(* * *)

Unfortunately, I have not been able to think of a good ending paragraph for this essay. Is Glenn Eichler a big fat lazy retro jerk? No. I worship at the man’s Doc Martens. However, it’s clear that not only his conception of the 1990s, but the conception of the other writers and designers of high school life is a bit…tilted toward the 1980s and earlier.

Then again, every writer writes about the way things were back in the day. I’m sure that in the future we’ll get a vision of Daria that actually illustrates what high school life was really like back in the late 1990s…when new Daria episodes finally come on the air in the 2020s.

Cold War

Finished reading: "But in Her Heart a Cold December" by The Angst Guy

(* * *)

There is going to be a very brief summary of the story, in much less detail. The reason will be explained below.

The story begins at the end of "Fizz Ed" -- after Principal Angela Li has been hauled away to the hospital after her caffeine-induced mental breakdown. As Angela Li recovers, we learn some fascinating facts about Ms. Li's life through a process of inner monologue.

As it turns out, Ms. Li is actually about six or so years older than her documents claim to be. She was a young girl growing up in (South) Korea when the North Koreans invaded. Her family suffered greatly, and her wartime experiences instilled a hatred of communism. After the war, the dictatorial South Korean government extends a dragnet to imprison/kill/nullify any communist influence (or anti-government influence) in South Korea. A young Li, working as a bar assistant, hears some young university radicals talking up action against the government. One thing leads to another, and Li ends up working for the KCIA, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.

Her job is not to cross the border into North Korea, but to take menial jobs in universities and other places. Eavesdropping, gathering trash, she points out possible communists to the KCIA...what happens to those people afterwards, she doesn't care. However, Ms. Li is unhappy as the KCIA widens its searches. She's interested in communists being punished, but not loudmouthed all-talk-no-action radicals, or anti-government curmudgeons.

Li emigrates to the United States. Hanging around universities has sparked an idea that she can be a teacher -- her first contact with the KCIA was an former teacher of hers. Fifteen years as a teacher, several after that as a principal...and we have the Ms. Li of today.

(* * *)

My first comment is that "show, don't tell" has a corollary: if you decide to tell, and not show, you'd better be damned good at it.

The Angst Guy takes up the burden of writing a story that is mostly first-person -- we are privy to Angela Li's thoughts, and hear her own story in her (TAG's) words. The Angela Li of this story is an excellent storyteller. The first person language is not merely a recounting of motives or wished, but illustrative: "The Americans were big and pink-faced and sharp-nosed and had loud voices."

Part of the problem that many fan fiction writers have with writing in first-person is that they dwell too much on the narrator's own thoughts. They forget that even in the first-person, you have to provide all the sort of background that you'd provide in third person -- setting the scene, establishing characterization and motivation, moving the plot along. An additional difficulty is that you have to make the narrator compelling, in effect the narrator has to become an interesting character in her own story. (I suggest you read the works of Mickey Spillane or Raymond Chandler to understand how this works in hard-boiled detective fiction, where use of the first-person narrator is common.)

The Angst Guy obviously has no problem in using this form. There is always the problem of the "unreliable narrator", that the narrator will be biased -- and Angela Li undoubtedly is biased. However, a good writer will make use of that bias to strengthen the story. The Angst Guy has no problem with the technique.

The other comment is that we get a sense of Angela Li's "foreignness". Li is not a Korean-American, she is Korean in The Angst Guy's tale. A lesser writer would have beat the reader over the head with the fact; The Angst Guy knows how to keep reminding you of the fact without it dominating the story. We learn of the Korean veneration of parents, about Korean food, etc. without it sounding like a reading from Wikipedia. My only thought was "I wonder how many first person stories TAG had to write to get it this right."

I only found one minor flaw, namely that The Angst Guy had to end the story with a little bit of angst. It seemed too coincidental -- remember that in melodrama, "coincidence drives the plot" and I thought the story was strong enough not to need coincidence. But then again, he's The Angst Guy, so maybe he felt the necessary need to throw some angst in to slake his unquenchable penguin lust.

In conclusion, I can definitely recommend this story. After slagging on stories over and over again, it's good to read one that is more of an illustrator than one that has to be made an example, in the bad sense of the term. I swear, however, I'll find a story of his to tear apart one day! He has to have one hidden out there on the internet. If I only look hard enough...!

Dear Diary

Finished Reading: Last Summer Series, "Something For You".

I've finally made it to the last part of the "Last Summer" series by Richard Lobinske. Oddly enough, this work of fan fiction was completed almost four years ago, but no one can say that I didn't finally get around to reading it.

(* * *)

The story starts with Daria, Jane, Jodie, and Mack finishing their last meaning of the "Lawndale High School Student Leaders Honor Society" -- an organization solely crafted for the purpose of giving Jodie Landon a break from work and errands. Everyone states their plans, with all of them heading off to college and Jane heading off only after the first semester.

Daria also concludes her time reading to Mrs. Blaine. We learn that Mrs. Blaine's "deafness" was caused by waiting for a hearing aid to be repaired; with it she can hear normally. Mrs. Blaine thanks Daria for their time together, and gives her a present -- a fountain pen given to Mrs. Blaine by her mother in 1929. Mrs. Blaine tells Daria that it seems fitting to pass the pen on to a writer.

Daria watches Jane photograph the "padded walls" room at the Morgendorffers. Helen plans on remodeling Daria's room while she's gone and undoubtedly, the padded walls and broken window bars will be removed. Jane can at least provide a visual memento. Daria plans on taking books and other items with her, but is trying to think about how she can have a more concrete memento of her room to take with her to Raft.

Helen and Daria chat as Daria turns in the final assignment of the summer. Quinn arrives with the Three Js and Jamie finally notices the painting of Daria on the wall...and notices Daria for the first time. As Daria and Helen chat about Jamie's odd behavior, Daria is interrupted with a call...Mrs. Blaine has had a stroke and has died.

Daria attends the Blaine funeral. Mrs. Blaine's son thanks Daria for visiting his mother -- Len Blaine lived in Oregon and Mrs. Blaine didn't want to leave Lawndale. A lawyer arrives at Lawndale to give Daria Mrs. Blaine's final bequest -- seventy so years of Mrs. Blaine's diary.

The summer, however, is running out. It's time for Daria to take her leave of Lawndale and head to Boston. Daria finally figures out a way to save a memento of her room...and makes good use of one of Mrs. Blaine's gifts to her....

(* * *)

At first, I thought there were too many extraneous scenes -- scenes which could have been cut out. However, the theme of the story is "wrapping things up" and we get to watch Daria wrap up things with people who have been important in her life.

Many the scenes in "Something for You" bring up the whole question of "fanon vs. canon". Fanon encompasses everything that fans believe to be true about the series; canon encompasses everything that can be verified with an appeal to the sixty five episodes, two movies and two books.

It's always been a part of 'fanon' than Jamie White, out of all of the Three Js, is the one who is most loyal and most devoted to Quinn. There's nothing in the series that states this is the case; all we have is Daria assigning Jamie to Quinn at the end of "Write Where it Hurts". I found Jamie's sudden noticing of Daria through Jane's painting a bit implausible, but that's more a matter of personal taste that it is me trying to build an argument against such a thing happening...even though if Jamie had seen the "Foxy Daria" at the end of "Quinn the Brain" he might have dropped Quinn a few years earlier. (Hmm...Jamie falling in love with Daria...now that would be an Iron Chef!)

Aside from the "fanon vs. canon" argument, I'm never happy with any scene where Daria cries. In my opinion, Daria holds her emotions in. I've always cast a jaundiced eye towards any scene where Daria lets the tears flow; to me it seems as if the writer doesn't know how to write a moving scene and uses Daria's tears as an emotional shorthand. "See, we know X affected Daria deeply...because she's crying!" ("...and crying is something that all females do!") But once again, my interpretation and the interpretations of others may very.

At the end of the story, we get a little too much information regarding what's going on in Jake's mind and Helen's. Once again, "show, don't tell". I'm never a fan of entering the mind of a character and writing out long prose paragraphs...it's an act of didacticism, of saying, "and now, this is what Jake believes, so listen up". All I could think of while reading Jake's thoughts about his daughter leaving was the real lack of closeness between Jake and his daughters. Jake has to realize that he's been an absent figure in his daughters' lives, and I think he'd be feeling a lot more regret than is let on by the author.

The question is also begged: "if Mrs. Blaine can hear just fine, and can write well enough to keep a diary, then why does she need someone to read to her?" It would probably have been better just to have Daria and Mrs. Blaine chat, although I can believe that Daria would make use of Mrs. Blaine as an editor for her stories.

(* * *)

I'll wrap up "The Last Summer" by noting that I liked the use of one of the plot components at the very end of the story. I probably won't be reading "Falling Into College" -- it doesn't seem to be my type of story; nothing wrong with that. I hope, however, that Mr. Lobinske made use of the Blaine diaries at some point in his future work.

I also hope that he addressed that whole Jamie thing. And hey, if Daria's not hanging around Lawndale High anymore, well, there's always Stacy Rowe....