Oftentimes, it seems as if The Dinette Set views the world in fairly black-and-white terms. Today's panel is just such an example, setting up an us-against-them paradigm in which the mass of obese people are set in opposition to the lone, obese, vegetarian beatnik.
They are so opposed to his beatnik way of life that they object to fruit's very presence amidst their puddings, jellos, potato salads, and pea salads. Fruit is marginalized in the signeage the way the beatnik consumer of fruit is marginalized by society simply because he is different.
In contrast, we have Burl. A careless reading will miss the fact that Burl states that he is not a vegetarian, but has managed to fill his plate without any meat or fruit. Meaning that his entire plate is filled with vegetables and/or carbohydrates. Burl is closer in spirit to the vegetarian than anyone in the joint, and yet he has nothing but scorn for him.
The lesson, such as it is, is that the majority of people don't really hate others for being different, but rather just for being the "other." The world is filled with equal-opportunity haters who need no reason at all to hate everyone around them.
All you can eat marginalia:
- What to make of the halo of white surrounding the beatnik? Is it meant to suggest his isolation?His self-righteousness? A lack of artistic ability on the part of the author?
- Among the mass of unnecessary background detail, the mulleted man in a track suit is my favorite.
- Is it just me or does Burl's forearm look excessively long?
3 comments:
Welcome back.
I get the impression that Ms. Larson does not own an eraser, white-out, or more than one sheet of paper per cartoon. All her "works" seem to be filled with afterthoughts. Her buffet bar reads "... & more (& fruit)" with the fruit part crammed in at the end as if she just remembered after drawing the "joke" that it would be helpful to point out that the salad bar had fruit also. Similarly, the banner that reads "THERE'..S NO PLACE L..IKE HOME BUFFET" is spaced extremely awkwardly to accommodate the speech bubble.
By the way, when was the last time anyone saw bins in a buffet labeled with such obvious monikers such as "Rolls & Muffins"? Nobody outside DS goes to a buffet and realizes "so *that* is what those things are..."
Yay, you're back!
Yes, I think she definitely lives in a world where paper is at a premium and preliminary sketches to decide where everything goes are right out. The white space around the vegetarian is an attempt to disguise the fact that she didn't leave room for his head -- the only way the picture as we see it makes sense is if he's sticking his head under the sneezeguard to Burl's side of the buffet.
Personally, I think the flies on the sign are a nice touch. They tell you everything you need to know about this buffet, and buffets in general.
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