Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3811-3815 (20-24 August 2018)
Milayna:
--- Quote from: Cornelius on 23 Aug 2018, 00:56 ---
--- Quote from: SmilingCat on 23 Aug 2018, 00:53 ---I'm pretty certain the dig about the laundry was meant to be in good fun and was taken by Marten as such.
--- End quote ---
I'm not confident it was. I've seen too many of that kind of "little jokes" turn into serious arguments.
--- End quote ---
...Can second that, not about "little jokes" but about laundry being Serious Business
Case:
I've been wondering ...
... Jeph spent a long time living in a University-town, where students/academics mix with the "people actually living here"/non-academics. And one function of Marten as a character is to represent the latter group (Marten completed college, right? Does that mean he has a Bachelor-degree? I admit that I don't really know how that compares to other education systems - Do you count as an 'egghead' with a Bachelors' degree?).
Maybe Marten simply doesn't realize the degree of exam-anxiety Claire is experiencing? Claire is a grad-student, and the exams she's study for are her Masters-exams, right? That's probably quite a different game to a Bachelor (can't really speak from experience - in my curriculum, Masters-equivalent was the lowest qualifying degree). Also, exams are a different game depending on whether you plan on staying in Academia or not - in the latter case, the exam-stress is compounded by 'having to find a job Arghfarblarguurrrggglll'-anxiety, and the knowledge that one chapter of your life is ending.
Background is that an acquaintance (we both live in a University town) recently complained to me that she sort of 'misses' not having done an advanced degree - not because she wants one, but because all her friends have, and she regrets not having that experience because she can't share with her friends.
Could be as simple as different life experiences.
--- Quote from: dutchrvl on 23 Aug 2018, 11:27 ---
--- Quote from: Tova on 23 Aug 2018, 03:59 ---I don't think that the recent stories have been that bad, but they feel a bit preachy, and I think it's because the "messages" of the stories, for lack of a better word, have been delivered 100% in the text. There's no subtext. But I wait in hope that we'll see a story with the same impact as the Faye and Bubbles storyline.
--- End quote ---
Hmm, not sure if I feel like the story arcs are preachy, I just feel that the narratives and conversations have felt somewhat unnatural. I felt this especially with the Faye/Sam/Jim arc, where some of it felt slightly off, kinda like Jeph was forcing the conversation in a way to suit the point that he was trying to make too much.
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I wouldn't use 'preachy', either - but yes, recent arcs have been a little bit 'exposition-heavy'. Though I guess that's simply a hazard of the format - a three-comic arc is 15 or so panels. Not much space left after he's crammed in the plot. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Jeph first tried to do without the exposition, and then threw his hands up and hollered "Fine!".
Zebediah:
If memory serves, Marten has a double BA: music and critical theory. So yes, bachelors degrees. Two of them. Both useless.
Claire’s exam anxiety seems to be typical of graduate students approaching the end of their studies. I don’t have a graduate degree myself but know a lot of people who do (as well as many with incomplete graduate degrees) so I’ve seen a lot of it. Marten should have seen some of it by now too. I’m sure he knows it’s stressful for Claire; he just doesn’t know how best to deal with it.
KnightRider007:
I am slightly concerned that we are once again normalizing the use of violence again a male as humorous.
SmilingCat:
--- Quote from: mad hands murphy on 23 Aug 2018, 09:43 ---"Talking them out like adults" doesn't mean shitting all over one person for making a non-mistake because you're not under any circumstances allowed to acknowledge that the other person is being a dick. That's more what you call "being in an unhealthy relationship that should end".
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When did that happen?
Marten came back to talk to her again, Claire, with a little bit of prodding, explained why it bothered her, and Marten acknowledged that he could have done better. This is normal, healthy human behavior. Even the fact that she needed to be prodded to open up about it normal human insecurity.
And the laundry thing is a fourth panel joke, not signs of impending abuse or doom.
Seriously, would you view yourself or your significant other with the same hypercritical lense?
--- Quote from: KnightRider007 on 23 Aug 2018, 15:03 ---I am slightly concerned that we are once again normalizing the use of violence again a male as humorous.
--- End quote ---
There is nothing normalizing about being hit in the head with a dildo by a little robot with orb hands. :-P
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