Joy's self-flagellation, punctuated with both an exclamation point and an emphatic use of the word how, offers up a life lesson, courtesy of The Dinette Set: keep things in perspective, focus on what's important and everything else will take care of itself. That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Indeed, the question of how marinara sauce ends up on oneself is rarely worth examining let alone assigning blame. It is, in fact, a property of all red sauces that they end up splattering shirts and blouses. Joy's angry denunciation of her own clumsiness is hardly warranted. (Though the reader could be forgiven for inventing an off-screen tirade from Burl regarding ruining a dress as the root cause, there is no direct evidence of such an event.)
Verl and Ma, unlikely sources of sage advice, point the way for Joy. Focus not on the event, but on the effect. In this case, there is little negative effect and the event even has an unintended positive outcome. Not only has Joy managed to vigorously scrub away the marinara stain, she has even managed to erase a large section of the ugly pattern on her frumpy dress along with it (a detail which is further emphasized by the wall length mirror which removes all color from its subjects).
Certainly, there are overtones in this panel relating to the midterm election and the potential uproar they could create (keeping in mind that the artist submitted this panel weeks before the elections). But given the conjunction of politics and a stained dress, I feel it is better to not delve too deeply into that particular topic.
Marginalia in the mirror:
- The position of Joy's left hand is really freaking me out.
- Ma's sailor suit has some pretty unpleasant connotations.
- I find it interesting that the artist feels compelled to render beams of light coming from the mirror lights.
- It's not possible that the entire panel is an elaborate set up for a joke about drinking white wine with marinara, is it?
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