Tattoo Yoo

Finished Reading: Last Summer #5 -- "Comforting a Confused Soul"

If there's anything I don't like, it's the feeling of being tied down to a routine. Last week, that same-old, same-old feeling began to settle in and I took a nice week's vacation from blogging.

This is also why I try to avoid doing fan fiction reviews by request, or even beta-reading. What was formerly fun becomes a chore, some sort of social obligation and just one more item on my list of many things to do. Now that I'm a bit more refreshed, hopefully I'll be reading some more fan fiction.

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Aside: two nights ago, I had my second part of the sleep study. This time, they hooked me up to the CPAP machine ("continuous positive airway pressure"). The idea being that with the right amount of air pressure, my airways could be held open and my brain could finally get some oxygen.

I was hooked up to a nasal CPAP. This meant that I would have to keep my mouth closed during the night. I've probably been breathing through my mouth at night for thirty years; it was such an adjustment that they had to give me a sleeping pill to get me to sleep.

Five hours later, the attendant came to wake me up. I knew I had dreamed, but didn't remember much about sleeping. It wasn't so much sleeping as though someone had stolen six hours off the clock. That morning, I was almost hyperalert with the oxygen infusion I had had the previous night. My conclusion? If this CPAP thing works out all right, I'm going to have to go off the caffeine.

(* * *)

And now, back to fan fiction.

We're on part five of seven from the Last Summer series, "Comforting a Confused Soul." We arrive with Jane planning to pain a picture of the entire Morgendorffer clan in formal attire. Her original plan was to only paint Daria in formal attire, but the fact that Helen and Jake remembered Jane's first major sale led Jane to change her plans and commemorate the whole family.

Trent and Jane talk about the fact that Jane has purchased real food. It's certainly something that Trent isn't used to. Trent notices the reference photos for Jane's painting project and Jane states that aside from Trent, the Morgendorffers are the closest thing Jane has to a family.

Daria and Jane meet at the Good Times Chinese Restaurant. Daria presents Jane with a copy of her new story, "Depth Takes a Holiday". Jane suggests that Daria and Jane take a road trip to commemorate the final summer before college.

When Jane returns home, she finds her mother Amanda in the kitchen. Amanda is puzzled about the food in the kitchen. Jane has some residual bitterness about Amanda's absences and asks if Amanda even remembers how old she is. Amanda knows how old Jane is...and asks if Jane should be graduating soon. This sends Jane into a rage -- it's been six weeks since Jane graduated -- and Jane storms out of the house.

Jane goes on a jog to clear her mind. After fending off Upchuck, she bumps into Axl, the local tattoo and piercings man. Axl knows quite a bit about the Lanes, given Trent's musings to Axl at the tattoo parlor. Axl manages to point out to Jane that Jane and Trent are more adult than Amanda and Vincent are and that Amanda must care if she managed to attend the ceremony of Daria's faux "honor society".

Jane returns home to find Amanda working at the kiln. She shares with her mother the fact that she was hurt that her parents never showed up during the graduation at Lawndale. Amanda answers that she didn't think Jane would attend her own graduation, as none of her brothers or sisters attended theirs. Jane answers that it would have been nice if Amanda and Vincent had at least checked, and gives Amanda credit for showing up at the Honor Society. (Vincent, apparently, isn't comfortable at social occasions.)

With college imminent, Jane asks Amanda if the Lanes can help her out financially. As it turns out, Jane had forgetten to tell Amanda that she was now interest in attending BFAC. Jane is slightly embarrassed, but Amanda tells her daughter that the Lanes will indeed be able to provide some financial help for Jane while she is in college.

Jane gathers the Morgendorffers together to reveal the finished painting. She tells them that the Morgendorffers have provided closeness that was missing from her own family, and presents the painting as a "thank you". Daria gives Jane a simple "thank you" with a hug, and Jane knows that her gift was the right thing to do.

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While reading "Comforting a Confused Soul," I was very wary of Mr. Lobinske's reputation for writing sad but upbeat stories. The problem is that once you get a reputation as a certain writer, it's hard to shake it. If this were a story by The Angst Guy, I would probably be waiting for Trent's car crash or Amanda dying in a freak kiln accident.

So my sugar sensitivity was set on high during my reading. However, there are no sugary moments to "Comforting a Confused Soul" (except at the end, and I'll get to that). Jane's interaction with Amanda is pretty much true to canon. Amanda is sort of off on her own tangent, and Jane holds her resentment in until she has a rare outburst. The maddest I've ever seen Jane was after she visited Tom in "Dye! Dye! My Darling!" and Jane's outburst isn't even at this level.

It was a smart touch that Jane finds good advice from Axl, of all people. Axl, being familiar with Trent, would probably know as much about the Lanes as anyone. I'm sure Trent has unloaded on Axl through many a tattoo, although I suspect Trent was probably talking about his relationship with Monique more than talking about his little sister. It also fits into the meme that independent shopkeepers like Axl are probably a lot smarter about things than they let on. (Trent would have never gotten that kind of attention at Tattoo-Mart.)

And now, on to the ending...the ending was probably my biggest problem with the story. No, there's nothing particularly out of character about how the scene "plays" -- Daria's simple "thank you" and hug are spot-on canon, as Daria has never been comfortable with verbal expressions of her emotions.

Rather, my problem is with the concept of the Morgendorffers being a surrogate family for Jane. Granted, Jane has a good relationship with the Morgendorffers. She's probably shared so much with Daria that Daria seems like a sister and Jane probably knows more about the Morgendorffers than any other family in Lawndale, thanks to Daria's tale-telling. We also have evidence that the Morgendorffers are at least sympathetic to Jane -- they let Jane stay with them during the events of "Lane Miserables" and certainly cared about Jane's well being during "Daria!" when both Daria and Jane were threatened by a hurricane. But I don't think that the Morgendorffers have really gone out of their way to bring Jane into their family circle. I don't think that it's supported in canon. No, I'm not a prescriptivist, I just don't even see an interpretation where you could conclude that Jane's relationship with the "non-Daria" Morgendorffers is as close as she thinks it is.

Maybe Jane is just projecting, due to the sorry state of her own family. I don't know. If Jane was really that close to the Morgendorffers, then wouldn't she seek advice from Helen instead of from the guy who runs the piercing parlor?

Anyway, that's just me. Two more "Last Summer" stories to review, and then on to something else.

Assigned reading: Five Geek Social Fallacies. Determine how these fallacies relate to the state of relationshps in Daria fandom.

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.

(* * *)

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)?

(* * *)

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.