The first thing I'm certain every reader noticed about today's panel is the jarring change in perspective on the living room. The Dinette Set relies heavily on repetition of backdrops, providing a familiar but essentially blank slate on which it can make its philosophical arguments.
Among the standard backdrops, the straight-on view of the living room is among the most frequent.
As such, the sudden change to a three-quarters view begs for analysis. It's tempting to believe that the change is entirely functional, necessitated by the plot requirement to show the resistance chair out the window.
But that functional interpretation requires belief that the artist is not herself keenly aware that showing the chair does nothing to enhance the panel. As if that were not enough, the chair is rendered with such coarseness and clumsiness that it is hardly recognizable as a chair.
And while that answer is, in fact, too easy and too obvious, it is precisely that realization which unlocks our understanding of the panel as a whole.
The leap to an easy and obvious answer mirrors Burl's desire for an easy and obvious solution to his weight loss problem.
When, the panel asks, did the American Dream change from being about the rewards of hard work into the dream of finding a get rich (or thin) quick scheme?
Before the reader has the time to laugh at Burl for his foibles, the panel forces us to realize that we, like Burl, are looking for our own easy answers.
Lose 30 marginalia in 30 days:
- Here we go with the Cialis again.
- Burl's cup appears to say "Big Slupe"
- Anyone want to hazard a guess about the full title and significance of the "Baby Jones" movie?
3 comments:
I think the unusual angle of the room was chosen to make sure Dale's face ran into Burl's shoes in the most confusing-looking way possible.
I can't decide something about the movie... either that's the best joke ever in Dinette Set marginalia, connecting the fact that Burl is trying to find a comfy exercise chair with the fact that he's watching a movie whose central scene involves torture in a dentist's chair, or it's just a lame excuse to make another Cialis joke. If it's the former, it's the first time I've ever really thought something in the strip was funny in the way it was intended.
Maybe the movie says "Baby Jane's" something, a reference to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? However, the dark, psychological horror of that movie pales in comparison to the abomination that is DS.
I like the trick of perspective that allows the television to be visible both straight on from the side and flush against the window all at the same time.
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