Time to crown a Keg Queen for the Dariafen New Year's Party. I nominate Andrea! Goths have more fun!

Off to North Carolina for four days. So no posts from me until after the New Year.

I have no doubt, however, that everything is in good hands here. If I come back and find that this has turned into a blog on English architecture ... there's gonna be trouble.

ABC, the network in Australia, has started showing "Daria" reruns at 11:35 AM on Saturdays.

Added to PPMB:

cyke added "Mighty Moronic Power Rangers - 2".
angelboy added "Diary Entries - Chapter 3 - Special X-mas Intro".
The Angst Guy added Chapter XXI of "Outcasts from Beyond".
Steve Blum-Deckler added "Sorry About the Mess" (a "Daria"/"Star Wars" crossover).
MsHand added Part 1 of "Not Exactly".
Richard Lobinske added Part 1 of "First Summer 7: Cruising".
Mr. Orange added Episode 6 of "Le dernier ete" (translation of an English work written by Richard Lobinske).

Added to SFMB:

The Great Saiyaman added the final page of his adult Daria comic "Party at Lindy's" in the secret section.
Napalm Kracken added his "Unnamed (not for lack of trying) Story".
psychotol added a new part of "An Accident".
Roentgen added Chapter 5.9 of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes".

Added to fanfiction.net:

"Washington Biological Survey" by Lawndale Stalker.

Fan art: By Christ Oliver (original link is here).

I've posted some thoughts about Kara Wild's comments, as to our getting material other than fan-activity reports into this Blog, over in the DFB announcement thread at the PPMB. Your thoughts, about striking a balance in what we present here, are welcome -- as always.

James pretty much invited me to disagree with him, in his analysis and in light of his extensive year-end retrospective. And I find, with all due respect, that I need to do so.

I'll note again at the outset what I did yesterday: It's been a pleasure to work with him in carrying out this Blog. Where I'm differing here is in outlook, and it's where he seems to consciously take on a different persona. (Perhaps the "CincGreen" signature reveals more than he admits.)

Is it time to bury "Daria" fandom? Not yet.

I find it hard to believe that he would say this, in a "fandom blog." After so many productive events and actions being brought into his remembering the past year? Fan ferment and interest that may not be following his preferred paths, but undeniably exists, and is far from dead?

It doesn't work. All this communicates, along with what leads up to it, is contempt. He doesn't believe this, not from how I've interacted with him ... not even from the first part of the same post ... but that's how it comes across.

I have to add that James's resorting to vulgarisms (self-censored, anyway) twice, to punch his concerns across, doesn't work or speak well for him. RLobinske didn't let that stop his making a dignified post-comments reply about the episode transcripts. Nor, for that matter, were he or T.A.G. thus deterred in notes about their own serial fiction and its scope.

[About novella-length fan writings:] Sigh. So much work, and so few readers.

This isn't a legitimate complaint. Fan works always have a limited readership. Few care about their essence -- extending a given character and story universe -- enough to read them for long. Not when compared to those who take up a fictional world, enjoy or find interest in it, and simply move along.

What matters is personal satisfaction. Fan works creators aren't doing it for the marketplace, as the fan works concept excludes a marketplace.

It can be exasperating when the fan works don't follow classical unities -- or even those of Mark Twain, as my Blog colleague has been fond of citing. It can even be maddening to not see them follow grammar and punctuation principles -- my own dark beast of bother. It's worth speaking up to exhort better standards. Yet this kind of comment shades into a dismissal of the entire enterprise.

But I'll take it up anyway, because who doesn't like a good fight?

I don't. Not when it's this pointless. James is spoiling for a fight when, on the basis of the very same post, no need exists for it. If fan activities weren't getting some self-sustaining momentum, there'd be no point for this entire Blog.

The essays at the Green Sink site aren't like this. Go to that link at the left and read some of them, if you haven't. James cuts to the heart of inconsistency, cant, and pretense. He's not doing it here.

To sum up, then, I don't see the point of casual, and not very believable, contempt. Or of ignoring one's own evidence of variety and growth among those sharing an interest. Or of appointing oneself as an arbiter and wanting controversy for its own sake, especially at a site where matters ought to first be reported and highlighted.

I don't agree, James amigo, I had to be blunt, it's not becoming, and it's not like you. I don't know how much of this comes from my spending only a year around these Dariafen creations, rather than six or more. And thus being, perhaps, less jaded. I do know that a more open, less cynical (que ironico) perspective is necessary, whatever brought it about, if a "fandom blog" is going to work.

(And if a "fandom" makes any sense, as a concept and target of dissection, apart from the creative and vigorous fan talents that are being active. But that's another kettle of slippery, hard-to-cook thought-fish. It also impinges on how far "canon" concerns extend, which merits more discussion later.)

So we've finally hit the one year mark. Someone once asked how long a blog devoted solely to "Daria" fandom could ever last, and we know that the answer is, "At least a year, if you have two people working on it." Let's hope that both Greybird and I are back here on December 26, 2006 to celebrate the second anniversary.

I decided to flip back over a year's worth of posts for sort of a Daria Year in Review, covering the Best of 2005 in "Daria" Fandom (including a little chunk of 2004 as well). A lot has been going on, and I shall break the boldface/italics rules that are informally set in stone over here. (I'm allowed to do it once, since it is a celebration.) Choosing, in no particular order:

John Takis ended up a published writer, and Janet "Canadibrit" Neilson published a role playing game. This is a good sign, that years of laboring over fan fiction might translate to a career when you just get f****ng tired of writing fan fiction.

There were the usual Dariacons. Canberra, Australia turned out to be the site of a mini-Dariacon, and two Dariacons, hosted by yours truly, were held in Atlanta, Georgia. But the big, big news was Deref's World Tour, which spanned the North American continent and might have been the biggest fan-meeting undertaking since Father Martin Sylvester travelled the states. For once, "Daria" fandom finally got to put faces to people who before had only been names on messageboards.

Katherine Goodman, a fan since the very beginning of the fandom who has since moved on, delurked for a few moments to let us know what had happened to her.

The Daria-Jane Conspiracy, one of the major "Daria" sites out there, went off line (and Dr. Mike, long time "Daria" fan, decided to get away from it all, at least for a while). The site stored stories, art, screen captures, a messageboard, and had a function no other messageboard offered -- a way to numerically review fan fiction stories, grading them on a scale.

Furthermore, with the help of Dr. Mike, the Daria Encyclopedia came online in easy-to-edit Wikipedia form. Even though Dr. Mike was no longer able to post it, let me make you this promise: the Dariawiki will be back in 2006.

Dr. Mike was also the first "moderator" of the 2004 Daria Fanworks Awards, also known as the "Booties". Richard Lobinske will take on the responsibility as a second set of awards will be offered in January 2006. The last time fan fiction works and fan art were systematically awarded before the Booties was by Canadibrit. The story "All My Children" by Deref and Thea Zara took the top award of Best Overall Fan Fiction and a work by Kemical Reaxion took Best Original Fan Art.

This led other fans to offer other awards. Kara Wild would offer the Crappies, an alternative set of awards that playfully offers up the "worst" in "Daria" fan fiction, and I hosted the Excellence in Fandom awards -- the latter did not get many votes at all, but Michelle Klein-Hass became the first person to be awarded the honor.

Triste Monde Tragique, a premier French fan site, went down. It promises to be back, but in the interim, "Daria" fans will have to do without its amazing collection of screen captures from the show.

New fans showed up. Naming two as representative, kaimelarfeylove and Greybird both arrived in February 2005, and Greybird became a DFB co-contributor, his first post to the Daria Fandom Blog arriving on July 19, 2005.

However, it might have not been a good year for messageboards or for their operators. Paperpusher gave up his years-long title of chief moderator of the Paperpusher Message Board, and Kara Wild took over as Head Chef at the PPMB. The SFMB faced a hacking attempt, and both messageboards were forced to deal with spam posters. The SFMB dealt with the problem by adding many new moderators to the board. However, two attempts at adding a new "Daria" messageboard, the first by The Daria Hunter and the second by Reese Kaine (a board for "Daria" and other things), seem to have (temporarily) come to naught.

Furthermore, a "Daria" messageboard saw a fan getting banned from posting for the first time since mammoths roamed the earth. (We will not write the name of the unfortunate fan, but I understand that the banning was well-justified.)

The personal lives of fans reached new milestones. I moved from Nashville to Atlanta, and went back to school. Richard Lobinske also moved. Kristen Bealer got married, and TAFKA and Lew Richardson are now officially engaged.

For the first time ever, "Daria" creator Glenn Eichler agreed to answer questions directly posted to Kara Wild by "Daria" fans, and his answers sparked debate and discussion for months. Mr. Eichler joined the writing team at Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report". Meanwhile, voice actor Wendy Hoopes saw the television show "LAX" go off the air, where she was a costar.

Both the PPMB and the SFMB moved to the same server, owned by Gamer. Unfortunately, this means that when one board is down, then so is the other.

But one of the big pieces of news for 2005 was the fact that the first few episodes of "Beavis and Butt-Head" saw new life on DVD, as Mike Judge is releasing a special "best of" collection. If "Beavis and Butt-Head" can see life on DVD, will "Daria" be far behind?

The Green Sink was inspired to update after a long hiatus. You might not think that's news, but I think it's nothing short of remarkable.

And to top it off, does anyone remember this picture?



If you've been reading the Blog, then you'd know that this obscure comic book character might have provided not only the name of Our Heroine, but also the name of her sister.

*    *    *

So 2005 seems to have gone by in a cloud of dust, with many promising developments taking place.

The fact that the Daria Fanworks Awards have survived is probably the most promising news. "Daria" fandom seems to have few traditions, and few ways to point out fan fiction of worth, aside from the occasional fan-fiction review or list of favorites.

When the DFAs came out, there was a lot of grumbling. I stated that the idea was not perfect, but it was the best we were ever going to get. The new DFA rules exclude fiction that is posted only to messageboards and not to the major fan sites, which I think is a mistake. But as I said before, I'm accepting of the DFAs, warts and all, and can't wait until Mr. Lobinske posts the final list.

"Daria" fan fiction, however, seems to be stuck in two ruts. The first rut is the new emergence of the serial as an art form: the serial being a sort of open-ended (and perhaps, unfinished) "Daria" fan fiction story. Some of the new stories have 10, 20, even 30 chapters and show no signs of stopping. The only good thing that could come out of it might be that, maybe, we'll actually see the first "Daria" novels. (Sigh. So much work, and so few readers.)

The second rut is the move away from "canon". Nearly every significant "Daria" fanwork, it seems, is centered in either fantasy, alternate universes, or science fiction. This could be just a cyclical move. Perhaps, two years from now, we'll be complaining about TOO MANY canon stories, and ask, "Whatever happened to whimsy?"

I see the release of "Beavis and Butt-head" as big, huge, major news. However, that major news is cancelled out by the fact that The N has been scaling back its showings of "Daria" to a few showings late at night beyond the bedtime of most young teens.

I have been accused of forecasting The Death of "Daria" Fandom too prematurely, and my wife wrote that "Daria" fandom was in danger of becoming a "cargo cult". You might think that both of us are embarrassed -- but no, we are not. We stand behind most of our original predictions. As long as "Daria" has the chance of being seen by someone, if it is broadcast or exists in DVD form, then "Daria" stands a fighting chance to remain in the public eye.

But if The N drops "Daria" and the hoped-for DVD release faces further setbacks, then "Daria" fandom remains in the same kind of jeopardy that it faced in 2002. As long as "Daria" is broadcast or is on DVD, it stands a chance of surviving. If it goes off the air, the new supply of fans will dry out and ten years from now, there will be a total of five people on the messageboards and me (and perhaps Greybird) writing the epitaph at the Blog.

However, we now have the DVDaria Blog. "Daria" fandom has not given up in seeing these works in permanent form. Almost all of the episodes now have transcripts. (And what the f**k is keeping the rest from being transcribed?) The "fanbase" is becoming stronger, with people actually meeting each other, talking on the telephone, and taking down the fannish barriers that might have kept "Daria" fandom mired in the swamp of being an "online" fandom.

There is still work to be done. We still need to do it. And I still intend to act like the Arbiter of All That Is Right and Good and remind you of it, and have you (and Greybird, of course) argue with me about how, or if, or when it is to be done, less to say what that work should be. And what gives me that right? Nothing. But I'll take it up anyway, because who doesn't like a good fight?

Is it time to bury "Daria" fandom? Not yet. But my only advice is to keep moving. Here's a hearty toast of pepper spray in the eyes of the Ferryman! May Jane keep painting, may Kevin remain dumb and may Daria and Quinn remain as unattainable to the young men of Lawndale as they always have.

See you in 2006.

--CINCGREEN, 26 December 2005

Yes, this Blog has been percolating away, like Jake's coffee pot, for one year as of today. As Daria said about Quinn's "A" in English, we admit to being "proud, as in stunned."

James the founder, a.k.a. CincGreen, will have his own notes when he returns from his holiday travels. I'll note for now that it's been an utter pleasure working with him for the past five of these twelve months. That he so readily let someone else take part, with only a year of being even a lurker in this fandom, speaks highly of his generosity of spirit. I want to thank him once again for it.

I admit, in more general terms, to being surprised, even a bit stunned, about "Daria" fandom. Most of all, that there's so much of it, nearly four years after the last original show was cablecast. I was a latecomer, first watching it at length through the sliced-up versions on an unnamed (N)etwork starting 18 months ago. (My low opinion of MTV had never let me get past being bemused by a few scenes and some alter-egos, in passing, during the original series run.)

I quite frankly hadn't thought there'd be much of a fandom, once again forgetting about the possibilities of the Net to concentrate interest. A blaze of activity with the last show that had held me captivated this much, "My So-Called Life," had declined steadily over most of a decade to just one, now very quiet Website.

So I didn't do much to seek out fan ferment about "Daria." And I didn't know what I had missed! Sometimes brilliant, occasionally infuriating, often inspiring, always articulate people. A rich tapestry of fan fiction and fan art. Completing my episode {ahem} collection, which I value. Discussion foils, acquaintances, and new friends that I value far more.

Several months of lurking led me, partly through the very links at left in this Blog, to many adept and near-heroic fan Website efforts. I've had my spare Web and reading time largely consumed since, as I know many of you have for years longer.

Kudos to everyone in this fandom who's kept the focus going on these versatile, sharply limned, satirically potent, and highly malleable characters ... their stories both as first told, and as newly re-created. A heartfelt thanks to Glenn Eichler and his associates, for the rarity of creating characters and stories of such intelligent, vivid, comic texture -- itself a modern media miracle.

And thanks to those of you who read and have appreciated our efforts here. This Blog is about you, the fans, and your creativity makes our reporting and commenting worthwhile.

Kara Wild has now revived Outpost Amy on her site, though she may change the domain name for it later.

Deref of Oz is back with great pics from a Summer holiday and, in news as I write this post, his mother-in-law's sudden but not unexpected passing. Our condolences to the family.

At the PPMB:

~ Movies that Daria "would hate," or maybe not, are being suggested. (Oh, the memories of some of those "civic virtue" shorts ... yikes.)

~ The Angst Guy is up to chapter XX of "Outcasts from Beyond." As to XXI, he begs abjectly, "Stop torturing me!" We aim to please {g}

~ Lawndale Stalker has a quick vignette of a "helpful" Lawndale student "Saving the Spotted Owl."

~ MsHand has finished "Priceless" with parts 11 and 12. Others chimed in with postscripts!

~ Iron Chefs that keep truckin' (car-rin'?) include "The Old Drive-In" and "Drivers' Education."

~ Holiday art fest! Robin Sena added a Sandi Claus with a Club chorus, and Quinn and Daria next to the tree. MDetector5 has Quinn filling the stockings. And Wouter promises a seasonal comic shortly, when his computer is better behaved.

At the SFMB:

~ Ostragoth added to chapter 8 of "Estrangesters."

~ Psychotol posted more art for "Living Dead Girls."

~ Sleepless has added chapter 36 to "Yuki-onna."

~ Scissors wanted to show how Stacy made other wishes {gulp} before she got Sandi to lose her voice. QuickTime movies are linked in the "Is It Pulp Yet?" thread in the adult section.

~ DJ dishes out some "Payback," also in the adult section.

At fanfiction.net, A440 has posted a short Christmas parody dedicated to Kevin.

In a head start on New Year's resolutions, Jake broadens his reading horizons ...

Sick Sad World updated December 19th.

ahmygoddess is back on the PPMB after a power outage caused by an ice storm in Georgia. The DFB hopes that things get better for him; it has truly been The Week From Hell for him.

At the PPMB:

Richard Lobinske completed "John Lane 13: Movie Magik".
MsHand completed Part 10 of "Priceless".
Angelboy added another part to "Diary Entries".
sleepless completed Part 13 of "Broken Connections".
The Angst Guy completed Chapter XIX of "Outcasts from Beyond".

At the SFMB:

The Great Saiyaman added another part of "Party at Lindy's", the on-going adult comic, in the hidden section.
Roentgen posted Chapter 5.8 of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes".

Fan art: Mistress Robin Sena illustrates the dangers of drinking too much eggnog. (Full-size pic is here.)

The Green Sink has updated with a review of "The Many Loves of Thalia Gillis".

Australian fan Deref is off to the beach for one week.

At the PPMB:

Micka finished Chapter 1 of "Another Damn New Kid Series".
The Daria Hunter finished Part 2 of "Star Wars: The Lawndale Menace".
Richard Lobinske completed Parts 2 and 3 of "John Lane 13: Movie Magik".

At the SFMB:

The Great Saiyaman added a new page to "Party at Lindy's" in the hidden section.
ostragoth began Chapter 8 of "Estrangesters".

Fan art: By ~zwammy, at DeviantArt. (Link is here. Full sized pic is here.)

It's the first fan-activities update in a week, after a lot of interesting discussion here, so thanks for your patience.

Many posts, though, are being lost or slowly entered for some people at PPMB, along with the continuing server, reloading, and other errors noted recently for both main boards.

So you'd do well to avoid any loss by composing and saving posts off-line in a text editor -- and only then copying and pasting them into a posting window.

The Irony Maiden's "Daria International" page has updated its TV-showing listings. Apologies to Fr. Martin for not digging a bit deeper!

At the PPMB:

~ Reports on my Blog partner's mini-Daria-con in Atlanta last weekend are entirely congenial. (I've already invited CincGreen and his spouse to dinner some day in L.A., by the way!)

~ Bluu has begun a "Who are ya?" introduction thread, a great icebreaking idea for any fandom, so reveal yourself! (Just age and gender. Sheesh {g})

~ Musings are being made on the timeline and contributors for Jake's repression.

~ Kara Wild and The Bug Guy are debating whether "Falling Into College" shows a Daria on a trajectory that makes her "pragmatic, content, and sociable." Many others chime in, including notes on other college paths for Our Heroine.

~ The new thread of the perennial "Scenes That Should Not Be" has, apropos of the season, become "Scenes That Keep On Giving."

~ The Angst Guy has reached chapter XVII of "Outcasts from Beyond." A behind-the-scenes post is also in the works, but will take time, he says.

~ MsHand completed Part 9 of "Priceless." Discussion of college options also is sneaking in here.

~ Micka began "Another New Damn Kid Series" with five parts for chapter 1.

~ Kara has finished posting "Tomorrow Never Knows," DWU part 22, and has included a note on apocrypha and cut scenes.

~ The Daria Hunter has begun "Daria's Star Wars: The Lawndale Menace."

~ RLobinske has begun "John Lane" part 13, "Movie Magik."

~ Ranger Thorne has posted chapter 6 of "Shadow of a Cynic."

~ Lawndale Stalker has a witty movie-alluding scene that may or may not have been in a draft of "Aunt Nauseam"!

~ Reese Kaine discovered a crossover of "Daria" with "The League of Gentlemen."

~ Greystar has a new chapter 13 of "Daria 3059." She's included a "Butcher's Bill" summary for her MechWarrior Academy, which surprised some readers ...

~ D.T. Dey suggests that gaming-channel G4 host Morgan Webb is very much a "real-life Daria," especially as to "her sarcastic streak." I'd say she's got the hair, at least! (Not a game maven here, I fear.)

~ A news discussion with overtones of Ms. Li is about a new use of surveillance cameras. They would have scotched that Talking Toilet, as Jane called it, methinks ...

At the SFMB:

~ Roentgen put forward part 5.7, with a bird's-eye view, of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes."

~ Psychotol has concluded "Living Dead Girls 5: Twister Harvest."

~ Angelboy has added another part to chapter 3 of "Diary Entries."

~ Sleepless posted a new chapter 35 to the suspenseful "Yuki-onna."

~ DJ has nude sketches of Daria and Quinn in the adult section.

~ The Great Saiyaman (Wouter) has pages 39 and 40 of "Party at Lindy's," these two entirely non-erotic but still a delight, here in the adult section and at PPMB as well.

And the entire mostly-erotic "Lindy's" story is available (or will be at the next update) here in "Comely Comics" at The Sh33p's Fluff. The many page links in the SFMB thread are nearly all not working.

I hope my erstwhile co-contributor doesn't mind me stealing his thunder for a bit.

First, I've added a link to the long-forgotten Green Sink on the left-hand side. We might do some reshuffling of that part of the page, so don't be surprised if things change.

Furthermore, I have added a review of Brother Grimace's "The Trouble With Veronica". The original story is here, and my review of the story is here.

The PPMB and the SFMB are both having intermittent problems, and have been since at least late Wednesday: resisting page reloading, "403 Forbidden" errors, Internal Server Errors. So you're not just imagining things.

I'll try to do a Blog update tomorrow, if the boards become better behaved so we can all read them. Paging Dr. Gamer!

In the meantime, the "IIFY?" symposium topic is the success of Sandi Griffin's mother in training her about proper courtesy and deportment. Discuss!

This is in answer to Greybird's post "Three-D (or Remade) Misery Chick."

I actually think we're talking about two different things here.

Levitz's Law is a law of plotting -- "Anything can be explained away." How is Superboy fighting crime in the 30th century when they've now decided in the 20th century that Superman was never Superboy? Well ... it wasn't really Superboy, that's why. Everyone just thought it was Superboy. Oh, and we'll kill him now, just so that you don't get confused, even though we've been telling these Superboy stories for over 25 years.

There. That oughta clear things up!

Science fiction does this a lot, particularly in TV shows and comics. It becomes a big problem when you have multiple people writing the same series, or making episodes, or worst of all, when an actor comes back. The worst problem is with soap operas. Patrick Duffy wanted to come back to "Dallas" after a year, even though the producers had killed him a year earlier so that he could leave the series.

No problem! Have one of the secondary characters wake up and reveal that Season Two of "Dallas" -- the one without Duffy -- was just a bad dream!

Literally.

Plot contradictions and "retcons" are such a joke that TV shows like "The Simpsons" now mock the concept. Witness Lucy Lawless's explanation for any "Xena" plot contradiction at the BiMonSciFiCon as "A wizard did it." Or when the Simpsons own a horse (again), and Comic Book Guy points out that "The Simpsons" devoted an entire episode to this several seasons ago, Homer asks the assembled crowd, "Does anyone really care what this guy thinks?"

We're fortunate as "Daria" fans that there aren't any blaringly obvious contradictions in the show that need to be explained away. What helped was having Glenn Eichler running herd over the process for five straight years. It helps when you have a guiding force to keep Kevin at the appropriate level of stupidity, or Daria at the appropriate level of sarcasm.

I think what you're asking is not "Do fans act in contradiction to established events?" but rather "Do fans act in contradiction to established characterization?" Do they just remake a character in their own eyes, and slap the character's name on whatever comes out?

This brings us back to Ye Olde Dispute about "canon." Generally, "canon" is invoked when someone takes the "Daria" characters out of their natural setting (high school), situation (dealing with parents and dumb classmates), genre (light comedy with just a dash of drama), and timeframe (Daria from sophomore to senior year of high school).

Thomas Mikkelsen, a great "Daria" writer no matter what else you might say about him, railed often against writers deciding to shuffle "Daria" characters out of one (or all) of these realms. And God help you if you decided to write an alternate-universe "Daria," where the timeframe of events was irreversibly altered from events as they happened on TV (for example, Daria shoots someone).

So what is "canon characterization"? The problem is that there is no really good definition of it. We have seen all of the "Daria" characters -- to varying amounts of screen time -- behave in ways that make them generally predictable. Daria is sarcastic, cynical, hostile to her parents' attempts to change her. Jane is Daria's buddy, and she likes art. Kevin and Brittany are dumb. Sandi is a jealous bitch. Trent is a vacant stoner.

Bad canon characterization is when characters behave in non-predictable ways with no explanation. Brittany being smart with no explanation as to why. Sandi crossing the line from bitchy to interfering to committing acts that are downright evil in its purest sense. Daria crossing the line from passive-aggressive rebellion against her parents ("The Big House") to overt rebellion. Helen being moronically stupid and inflexible as a parent. Stories that, when you read them, make you think that the author had some fatal misunderstanding as to what the character was about. (Probably because they didn't see all the episodes.)

Another definition of bad canon characterization -- although I suspect that fans would disagree with me -- is when characters become too stiff and unvarying from their "core" characterizations. Bad canon characterization is "Daria would never do that!", because, by the sacred tablets handed down by Glenn Eichler, Daria must be sarcastic, cynical, only like Jane, etc., etc., etc.

Harlan Ellison had righteous contempt for people who would say "Kirk would never do that" or "Buffy would never do that." In Ellison's eyes, a lot of the things human beings did they found explanations for later -- no action was out of the range of human possibility, and to put such restrictions on characters limited their humanity. "Never" is a mighty long time.

I belong to Ellison's camp here, to a degree. Every "Daria" character can wander off the reservation, but too many wanderings might lead one to believe that we're not looking at the same character. Sooner or later, we must see something that reminds us, and reminds us the majority of the time, that this is Daria, or Jane, or whomever.

So what is good canon characterization?

The answer is that from all we've seen in the 67 episodes of "Daria," of all the acts we've seen Daria and Jane and Quinn and Trent and the Fashion Club commit, there is something in the background that we can only rarely peek at -- character motivations.

For an example, let's take Sandi Griffin. You can like her, or you can hate her. However, what we don't know is "why." Why is Sandi Griffin the way she is? Why is she so snotty, why so hostile to her supposed "best friend" Quinn, why is she so controlling, why is she such a fussbudget?

Glenn Eichler knew that a good writer doesn't stop the story to give a five-part series called "The Life of Sandi Griffin, Complete With Vignettes That Illustrate the Reasons for Sandi's Bitchiness." What he can do is hint, give us peeks into what he thought made Sandi Griffin Sandi Griffin. Since Sandi doesn't get much screen time, we get very few hints.

We know something about Sandi's family. Her mother is a take-charge, take-no-prisoners kind of woman who likes to brag about both her own (real) and her daughter's (supposed) accomplishments. Her father is a cypher. Her brothers run out of control, but Sandi's mother keeps her on a short leash, or tries to.

Furthermore, we had a flashback into Sandi's youth, where Sandi was trying to help with a party ...

Young Sandi - I'll never work on another dance again! They expect you to do stuff, and now everything's messed up and the whole school's going to blame me. Plus, I haven't even had time to find sandals to go with my new halter dress!

Young Linda - Sandi, I warned you. To volunteer is to say, "Use me."

Sandi still shivers to the core whenever anyone says the unholy words "dance committee." Clearly, this episode, and the "lessons" she learned from it, might be a key to explaining Sandi's behavior. Certainly, not all of it, and definitely, not as an excuse for it. But Sandi's emotional reactions to this flashback mean that this episode, whatever its interpretation, is an important part of her background that shouldn't be overlooked.

Good core characterization makes sure that characters have good motivations for doing what they do. If the motivations for an act are based in facts that exist only in the writer's head (a traumatic pre-school experience for Jane, for example), then those truths must come out sooner or later in the story.

Any interpretation of the character must be plausibly based in what we've seen on the screen. If Brittany secretly has an IQ of 160, then we must know why she acts dumb, and we must keep her acting dumb, at least for the first part of the story. The series's interpretation of Brittany is the Dumb Cheerleader, and this isn't a persona that should be discarded with a glib explanation, or no explanation at all.

Finally, if characters stray from their core personas -- and I believe that all characters have the right to do that -- one should explain either the magnetic force that pulls them away, or at least give an Ellisonian explanation that their reptilian hindbrain took over their good judgment, at least for a few minutes.

I like Robert Pirsig's explanation that the part of the brain we share with reptiles is millions of years old, and the part of our brains that we associate with logic and reasoning is only a few thousands of years old, and it works over the reptile brain like a rodeo cowboy hanging on to a bucking bull. Every now and then, the rider gets thrown, and the party reptile takes over.

Note that I avoided the word "reason," as in "Characters must have good reasons for what they do." Reason is a word that implies "clearly thought out," as if the characters, before doing anything, went to an Excel spreadsheet and calculated pluses and minuses like a robot.

I am now tired of writing this reply. So I'll stop. Comments?

When searching my old Usenet posts on Google Groups, I found a felicitous scrap of thought -- playing on Isaac Newton, alluding to comic books, but applicable elsewhere, perhaps to almost any serial story:

For every shortcoming of a comics character, there is an equal and opposite piece of rationalization.

I called this "Levitz' Law," in facetious allusion to a "Pocket Universe" that the "Legion of Super-Heroes" writer created. It was used to explain how Superboy could die heroically in the 30th Century, but we could still see Superman in the 20th. (Yeah, it was nearly as preposterous as it sounds ...)

That alternate continuum was done to satisfy "continuity" concerns at DC Comics, with their reducing matters to having only one Superman (no AUs, in other words) after a mega-crossover.

But doesn't fan fiction often work this way, as well, amigos y amigas?

Many tales are spun to bring those we've seen on screen closer to our heart's desire, or to the "better" romantic partner, or just toward less inconsistency.

The best fan fiction may well be that which hides this motive. I believe that it's more of a sign of respect to the original creators of the source material to keep this in check.

Yet I'm sure -- from earmarks of it, after reading over 50 MB of Dariafics in the past year -- that it's more widespread than any of us want to admit. Many "realistic" fanfics get Daria made over, literally with contacts and lipstick, figuratively with a change of demeanor.

Food for thought, maybe. Is this a proper motive for writers, admitted or not? Does it help in becoming motivated to tell a tale? Should it be prominent, or even visible, in a tale?

§    §    §

Scissors, yesterday in comments on James's post, mentioned a painted-wood Daria figurine that he'd seen. I think this may be it, but I didn't store the URL for it, either. (Please claim credit as the creator, if you're reading.)



What's she standing on, though? A piece of cheese? That much would catch any squirrel ...

All,

I have a request mailed to the Daria Fandom Blog. It reads as follows:

Hey,

I'm looking to purchase a Daria doll/figurine (I'm not sure of the correct terminology) for a friend as a gift. I checked eBay and MTV's site for any inventory and couldn't find any.

Has something like this been created? Do you know where I could find one?

Thanks,

Joe

My response:

Joe,

Unfortunately, as far as I know, MTV has never offered Daria figurines or dolls for sale, nor have any such items been mass-produced.

The closest we have ever come to finding one is here:

http://www.mwctoys.com/FEATURE_092000.html

I told him that this was a custom-made Jane doll and not a mass-produced one. I have tried to contract the creator of the doll with no luck. If anyone out there knows where Daria dolls/figurines are being produced, please let the DFB know.

Gracias.

As you can see, we're linking to message-board threads now. If you'd prefer links that open a new browser window, please tell us.

If you'd rather not be taken away from this Blog page -- and who wants to? {g} -- you might open such links in new tabs. And if you'd like to try the utter convenience of tabbed browsing, you need the innovative, secure, and just-updated Firefox browser! {here endeth gratuitous plug}

At the PPMB:

~ Attachment posting for graphics has been added, as part of upgrading the board software, but it currently only works for the default "SubSilver" board style. You can also now host your avatar at PPMB itself, rather than hot-linking one from another site.

~ The Angst Guy is at chapter "sweet" XVI of "Outcasts from Beyond."

~ Ranchoth and others set up an Iron Chef based on an item about Russian squirrels attacking a dog. Jake is beside himself even now, o'course ...

~ RLobinske has finished "Falling Into College" 41, "Run, Jane, Run."

~ Bro. Grimace has sent an "open letter" addressed to the collegiate Daria of "FIC," offering loads of free advice, and others (including Richard, who has something to say about it) have responded. You can vote in a poll on the level of angst you'd prefer.

~ Kara Wild has now posted acts 3, 4, and 5 of her "Tomorrow Never Knows."

At the SFMB:

~ Angelboy has added two lengthy parts to chapter 3 of "Diary Entries."

~ Roentgen posed some "dirty blind items," for imaginative Dariafen minds, in the adult section. So ponder, for example: "Who likes being tickled ... a lot?"

~ Atimnie has a new chapter 6 of "Daria's Christmas Carol," also in the adult section.

Today's "Is It Fall Yet?" outtake is brought to you by Friends Don't Let Friends Grow Antennae!