8-17-97

Hail,

Obviously, I'm back.  The camping trip was car-camping rather than backpacking (as the Morgendorffers did).  No psychotropic berries were involved.  However, in an interesting bit of syncronicity, my boss is named Jake.

Daria and her family is today's topic.  At first I thought the numerology on her was totally off, since she didn't seem to like her family at all.  Then I got some comments about "The Teachings of Don Jake" that started me thinking a bit more.  "Don Jake" really showed off the internal dynamics of the family.  Of course, all of it was shown before, this just highlighted everything.  Helen is domineering, Jake isn't, Quinn goes along when she has to, but will lie to get her way, and Daria goes along when forced, but has ways of making her displeasure known.  In other episodes Daria seems to hang around the rest of her family much more than is strictly necessary.  She reads downstairs ("The Big House") where she can easily be bothered by the rest of the family; she reads the newspaper downstairs ("Cafe Disaffecto"), again where she can be bothered; she watches TV downstairs ("The Teachings of Don Jake") even though she has a TV in her room.  In fact, the only time she's home and not down with the rest of the family is when she's with Jane, and when she was playing her harmonica in "The Big House".  Even though she doesn't like her family, they may be somewhat important to her.  For further argument, she gets ticked when Quinn is pretending they're not sisters.  I don't know why Daria would be angry about this, since she really doesn't want to be associated with Quinn.  She capitalizes on it when she wants to annoy Quinn, so it's actually something of a bonus.  And, of course, there was that advice Daria gave Quinn in "Too Cute".

Just some food for thought.

Wraith

8-12-97

Hail,

Well, I've been slacking on the rambling lately, but hey, I'm a bum.  Not enough time to do everything I want to ;)

The first chapter of Godzilla vs. Lawndale High is up, so go check it out.

Also, I will be gone this weekend.  This friday around noon I'm stuck on the office 'camping' trip (it's not my definition of camping.  We're going to an established campground, and one guy is bringing a camper-trailer).  We'll be back sometime late on Sunday.  So, this pretty much means no big updates this weekend.  There are a few changes I've been working on, but it's thunderstorm season in the mountains, so I can't even guess when I'll be able to put them up.

Today I'm going to talk about Daria (surprised?).  Specifically, her hobbies.  This is an aspect of her personality that was shown once, and then pretty much ignored.  I've seen lots of complaints (or comments) that Daria is defined by her dislikes, instead of her likes.  Well, pretty much.  Her likes have been shown (and I don't mean just Trent), but they're the kind of things that don't animate well.  She likes to read, and we saw here do that in "The Big House".  Don't expect this one to be shown much, it wouldn't be too interesting to sit there watching her read a book.  There's a more important, to me anyway, hobby that has been almost un-mentioned since "Cafe Disaffecto".  Her writing.  Mr. O'Neill calls her "Lawndale High's most gifted writer", and even though he can't remember anyone's name, he does remember her stories.  This is probably how Daria spends most of the time we don't see.  Writing is addictive, as nearly any author will tell you.  It also takes as much, if not more, dedication to become great at as, say, a guitar.  However, the limitations of the media come into play here.  It's not the kind of thing you do while talking to a friend (like Jane's painting), or talking on the phone (Jane again).  It isn't loud (like Trent's guitar), or visually dramatic (like Quinn's desperate search for the right outfit).  It's also not the kind of thing that would come up in everyday conversation.  But it is there.  Hopefully we'll see this expanded in second season (she could win a writing contest with a paper she wrote to make fun of the contest... only the judges don't notice).  This could be an important part of her personality.  Unless it was brought up in "Cafe Disaffecto" just for the laugh potential, it will be.  And so far the writers have shown that they do like character driven humour.  Interestingly enough, being a writer puts Daria into a stereotype...  Girls are better at the verbal portion of the SAT than boys.  I know that that's not much of a basis for a stereotype, but boys are seen as better at math and math-related subjects, and girls at writing and speaking.

Well, not much today, but it's better than nothing.

Wraith