Search
TEN SECOND BUZZ
- The FTC has banned (nearly all) non-compete agreementsApril 23, 202418 Comments
- More Campus Palestine Protests, More Arrests, More Viral VideoApril 23, 202417 Comments
- Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024April 22, 202440 Comments
- Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024April 15, 2024232 Comments
- OJ Simpson: Football Great, Murder Suspect, and Convicted Felon, Dead at 76April 11, 2024115 Comments
Features
Hot Posts
A Message From Devcat
We have been experiencing some system resource issues. We believe the problem may be resolved, but if it is not please bear with us.
Recent Comments
- LeeEsq in reply to Jaybird on Free Speech, But No Freedom to HarassI also expect that the period where Jews were seen as an underdog was short and not entirely univers…
- Michael Cain in reply to North on The Shifting Politics of AbortionThe two big stories of political geography in the US over the last 30 years is the huge swing from b…
- LeeEsq in reply to Chip Daniels on Free Speech, But No Freedom to HarassAnd what really pisses me off isn't necessarily the anti-Zionism per se but just treating Jews as di…
- LeeEsq in reply to Jaybird on Free Speech, But No Freedom to HarassA mass slaughter of Jews but an organization that explicitly calls for expelling Jews from the Middl…
- North in reply to Michael Cain on The Shifting Politics of AbortionYes, I think this year should give us a very good idea if the trend is durable.
- Dark Matter in reply to DavidTC on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harasshttps://www.timesofisrael.com/14-kids-under-10-25-people-over-80-up-to-date-breakdown-of-oct-7-victi…
- Jaybird in reply to LeeEsq on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harass"What about Palestinian on Palestinian crime?" Seriously, you've seen this argument play out a thous…
- Chip Daniels in reply to LeeEsq on Free Speech, But No Freedom to HarassAnd this is where the protests really do remind me of the Vietnam war, where naive people just assum…
- LeeEsq in reply to Chip Daniels on Free Speech, But No Freedom to HarassOn the other blog, a commentator pointed out that while South Africa got the ANC while equally racis…
- Michael Cain in reply to North on The Shifting Politics of AbortionI think they'll get there. AZ is doing it in the reverse order of CO. Statewide offices first, then…
Comics
-
April 24, 2024
-
April 23, 2024
-
Friend Husband At The Ballpark
April 22, 2024
-
Good Morning! Are You An Amateur?
April 21, 2024
More Comments
- Chip Daniels in reply to LeeEsq on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harass
- Dark Matter in reply to DavidTC on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harass
- North in reply to Michael Cain on The Shifting Politics of Abortion
- Dark Matter in reply to LeeEsq on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harass
- Michael Cain in reply to Chip Daniels on The Shifting Politics of Abortion
- LeeEsq in reply to Chip Daniels on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harass
- LeeEsq in reply to Saul Degraw on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harass
- Chip Daniels in reply to Michael Cain on The Shifting Politics of Abortion
- North in reply to Michael Cain on The Shifting Politics of Abortion
- Chip Daniels in reply to DavidTC on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harass
- Michael Cain on The Shifting Politics of Abortion
- Damon on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024
- Damon in reply to DavidTC on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harass
- Jaybird in reply to DavidTC on Free Speech, But No Freedom to Harass
- Jaybird in reply to CJColucci on The Shifting Politics of Abortion
Is there a term for an unreliable narrator, but on a moral dimension? That is, an author telling a story from a point of view where that point of view is the ‘hero’ of the story, but he’s actually not – and that’s exactly the author’s intent (as opposed to accident, or mistake)?
I happened to be thinking about that today, reading Ursula LeGuin’s Left Hand of Darkeness, with respect to gender fluidity and the outside observers in the story making comments on it – which by today’s standards could be ‘problematic’. But I’m wondering if that was Le Guin’s point, even in 1969. (though the newer intro, written about 10 years later, doesn’t really lend itself to that interpertation)
Anyway, thinking about that again, with this one, which again, has the dude flying off the handle at his wife due to the frustations of his day. Is it at all possible that Briggs is making this guy ‘the bad guy’? Or is it just straight up an embrace of the 1920s version of toxc masculinty?
(weirdly enough, Cosmo Kramer would wear that same coat 70 years later, but fully own the look – and yet fly off the handle very inappropriately for a complete different reason)Report
I read it as being somewhere in between the two. The guy doing this isn’t Good, though is kind of too easily forgiven.
The analogy I would use is the doofus dad in a family sitcom who spends the entire episode trying to cover for having forgotten his anniversary. There is, I think, a consensus around the idea that forgetting the anniversary is bad. That, if we’re thinking about it, it reflects badly on him that he did. That if she’s mad, she’s pretty justified in being mad. Maybe we’re hoping he gets caught or maybe we’re hoping he gets away with it because, even though he did this thing he shouldn’t have, we’re sympathetic to the character in the overall and this particular thing doesn’t persuade us not to be. (And even if we want justice to prevail and him to get caught, we are likely to hope he doesn’t get into too much trouble.)
That’s sort of where I see this, except with the bond to the male character being weaker since the characters in these don’t repeat and we have no relationship. The guy in this comic is portrayed as kind of a loser-for-a-day and I think verbally ripping into his wife actually furthers that portrayal. It goes from a bad day to a worse day, because now he’s dragging other people and yelling at women is something you’re Not Supposed To Do. There is a sort of “This type of behavior is inevitable because men will be men” aspect, but the men doing it are not enviable and are (at least for the day) losing at life.Report