Introspective Grass
Is the grass, mowed down by a hungry cat,
happy that it will live longer,
or sad that it will never go to seed?
The cat is contented.
DoM: March 1, 2020
Post thumbnailGARDENING
I started a mini-greenhouse full of seeds on February 27th, 2020–three days ago–and the mustard greens are showing a lot of little sprout tops. I’m having second thoughts about the turnips and how many I planted. Maybe I can snip the extras off as microgreens? I mean, I’ll have to thin them anyway.
WRITING: Thoughts on Fiery Francine (Did You Know Denatured Alcohol is Flammable?)
Despite knowing it’s a problematic show that is part of a more systemic problem, and that it might actively be conditioning young watchers to be cynical and misanthropic, I still have a fondness for “American Dad.” There are parts so shockingly distasteful that I sometimes have to change the channel, but on the whole it’s populated by likable characters and headed by a patriarch that definitely deserves his comeuppance.
There are life lessons to be learned in most every episode. The fact that Stan can’t seem to manage to understand those lessons or that he misinterprets them, that’s a callback to the way he was raised. He was a very gullible child with a negligent mother and a somewhat abusive father that abandoned them when Stan was young. In the “I Ain’t No Holodeck Boy” episode (Season 9, Episode 13) it is shown that Stan looks at the world–and the memory of his childhood most especially–through rose colored glasses.
His childhood was shown to be one of deprivation and horror. He lives in a rundown house with a dad parked in front of the TV drinking beer and offering disparaging comments. The street on which young-Stan lives could have come from a post-apocalyptic nightmare, and was terrible enough that Stan was able to see and poke at his first dead body.
After his father Jack abandons them, Stan and his mother Betty move to an apartment that doesn’t accept pets. Betty spins Stan a story about dog cancer and suffering, culminating in Stan “mercy killing” his beloved dog, Freddy; instilling in him a lifelong aversion to dog ownership (with Steve mentioning the dog the family had in the first season, but Stan glossing over it).
Stan has a lot of problems. I don’t think he’s sanely dealt with any of them, choosing instead to abuse his CIA rank and contacts to make problems disappear. Or in the case of his wife Francine, he has his science buddies tamper with her memory multiple times and has, himself, entered her subconscious and destroyed large sections of her psyche.
Throughout the course of the show, Francine has gone from a cheerfully ditzy yet somewhat responsible mom to something of a wreck. I don’t know if it’s because of the memory erasures or the many times Stan has scrambled the timeline, but Francine has definitely received the bulk of his ineptitude.
Beautiful, intelligent when she focuses, possessing of a powerful ability to survive, and anchored to the cement block that is her enduring love for Stan, Francine Smith nee Ling (born Francine Dawson) is a very interesting character to me.
She was abandoned as a toddler by her rich parents, Nicholas and Cassandra Dawson, when they discovered children weren’t allowed in the First Class section of the plane. Unwilling to give up their vacation, they give up Francine instead. Handing her to the ticket agent, they happily get on the plane and never look back. Francine ended up being raised by nuns in an orphanage until her parents Ma Ma and Bah Bah Ling could save up enough money to adopt her when she was seven.
Born left-handed, the nuns taught Francine that “left-handers are the Devil” and would beat her with a piece of beef, or mackerel on Fridays, whenever she used her left hand. As a result, Francine shows an aversion toward left-handed people in the “Office Spaceman” episode (Season 3, Episode 14) that her children Hayley and Steve misinterpret as racism toward Black people. With their help, she faces her psychological trauma and the episode ends with her sloppily writing with her left hand, happy to be herself.
Francine has a history of drug use and promiscuity, likely because of her youthful days as a band groupie. She had relations with several famous people, and would have had a song written about her by Dexys Midnight Runners if the lyricist had remembered her name correctly (he thought it might have been Eileen). She revealed in the “When a Stan Loves a Woman” episode (Season 2, Episode 16) that she’d planted a rose bush for every man she’d ever slept with, which was later revealed to be the biggest sex garden in North America.
When she was in high school, Francine was trying to be cool and stole one of her sister’s cigarettes, resulting in her accidentally starting a fire in the science lab and burning the building down. Being kind to Francine for perhaps the first and only time ever, Gwen says that she started the fire, thus starting her life of crime, with Francine always covering for Gwen and providing her with money and anything she needs.
Francine has experienced a lot of misplaced guilt in her life. She was shown as a young child having fallen down a well and catching the nation’s attention as “Baby Francine.” She’d lived for decades with the horror of a fireman dying to get her out of that well (he turned out to have been surviving down there for decades and after so long doesn’t want to leave) and feels desperately ashamed that she hasn’t accomplished anything. It’s only when the presumed-dead fireman absolves her of her guilt that she lets go of that burden.
I’m not sure if the Well Incident is from before or after she was adopted, but I think that the guilt from the well and from Gwen taking the blame left an indelible mark on Francine. It both drove her and held her back. She had a great deal of potential but no belief in herself, and has a subconscious need to self-sabotage her every success as she doesn’t think she deserves it.
A loving mother to Hayley and Steve, she is by turns clingy and desperate for a taste of LIFE. She was a real wild woman, but settled for being a housewife and the codependent partner to a madman.
She fascinates me.
Family Guy: Meg
I think the true tragedy of “Family Guy” isn’t that Peter Griffin adversely effects every life he comes into contact with, but that Meg is going to have a powerful effect on the future world.
She is a fucking wrecking ball.
The underlying message behind “Family Guy”–to my always “seeking a reason why” brain–is that the Griffin children are doomed to be figures of tragedy.
Stewart Gilligan “Stewie” Griffin — A genius baby that acts out on the blatant hostility in his household, he grows up to be a mediocre man-child until he actively changes the course of his life. If his baby-self never time traveled to the future, he would have wasted all of his potential due to a crippling fear of death. With the time change, there’s a possibility at this point that he could go either way with his inventions: saint or sinner. Unless he falls in love and decides to live a normal everyday life.
Christopher Cross “Chris” Griffin — By turns receives praise and recriminations from his father. “My one beautiful child”-type stuff to needle at the other kids, interspersed with derisive commentary and physical violence. Seemingly actively reviled by the bulk of his schoolmates for his bad haircut and unwashed state, there have been several attractive characters that have shown interest in him, proving that he has the potential to find a true happiness if he overrides his attraction to overbearing women and refuses to follow ANY advice his father gives him about the treatment of a relationship partner or a friend.
Megan/Megatron “Meg” Griffin — At the beginning of the series, she is a sweet and malleable girl that gradually sours into the Meg we know today. Constantly ridiculed by her parents and used as the whipping boy of her family, she is by turns self-conscious of her looks and aggressively sexual with her approach toward partners of interest. If she doesn’t end up returning to prison for sexual or physical assault, she is an intelligent girl that lacks educational support from her family. Which is why we’ll be coming back to her.
Lois Patrice (Pewterschmidt) Griffin — Born into a family of wealth, she was given every material thing she wanted, but was denied the love of her parents. From my view, it looks like her mother is a distant socialite and her father is a cruel and heartless Republican businessman. As a result, Lois glomped onto Peter as the first truly open person she’s come across–he is what he is, warts and all–while her sister Carol bounced around from marriage to marriage, always looking and not quite finding love. Lois is both an enabler and an aggressor, her character having progressed from a stern mother keeping her family in some semblance of order to yet another source of chaos for her children.
Peter Griffin — A simple-minded man with a streak of cruelty and an odd, literal cunning. Classified as mentally disabled in the 4th season, he takes his diagnosis as an excuse to do every depraved thing he wants with the expectation of being forgiven due to his condition. After the episode, things basically go back to the way they were, though his diagnosis is mentioned in several later episodes.
Peter is the main character of the show as he is the guiding force of the family. He is, quite literally, “the Family Guy.” Without him, his children would not have been born, Brian would not have been taken into the Griffin household, and the future of Peter’s fictional world might have been completely different.
Because from where I’m sitting? Meg is going to destroy them all.
Allow me to explain:
In the course of the show, Meg has:
- joined a suicidal cult
- physically assaulted numerous characters
- kidnapped and attempted to sexually assault Brian
- attempted to have a boy rape an unconscious Chris
- planted a gun on Bonnie Swanson so she’s arrested at the airport
- possibly killed her aunt in a wrestling show with a folding chair
- trained to be an Olympic biathelete (skiing and rifle shooting)
- been sexually predatory toward house robbers
- beaten up a man that crashed into the car she was driving
- mentioned strangling cats
- taught Chris how to poison squirrels
- made out with Chris
- expressed homophobia
- expressed white nationalist sentiments
- received mail as part of a group that yearly “fucks up” the Anne Frank house
- shown incredible talent playing the saxophone, drums, and cello
- displayed an amazing ability to whistle
- pretended to be a rich heiress and left Brian and Stewie with $18 million dollars worth of debt
- said she likes to pull carp out of the pond to suffocate them
Constantly bullied by her family, Meg has incredible physical capability. She has shown raw talent in numerous fields and can speak in multiple languages and play multiple musical instruments.
Leaving aside the whole “being a Russian sleeper agent” thing, on her own Meg has the greatest potential for destruction than anyone else in her family. Because while Stewie could wipe out all life on Earth, Meg has it in her to warp society.
She has been shown to have a way with words–to the point that Chris used her words to win an essay contest–and while she doesn’t have a personable nature of her own, I could see her as the take no prisoners personal assistant of a horrible politician. If they had her loyalty, I don’t think there’s a limit to what she would do.
She went super hardcore Christian, and immediately people were following her example, which resulted in book burning and Brian having to burst her religious fervor with one of his speeches.
The only thing that saved the world from Evangelical Meg was a dog.
Treated badly by not just her family but nearly everyone in her life, Meg has the potential for both great and terrible things. She has an indomitable will, that when shoved down strikes back at everything standing in her way, even those simply trying to live their everyday lives. With a bit of aim, she could destroy everything in her path.
And that’s kind of terrifying.
Though the show is called “Family Guy,” I think it’s the story of Meg. What makes and shapes her into who she is and what she becomes. Because if someone gives her a bit of love and attention, she’s willing to do anything to keep that favor. Even kill.
She has the same gift as Peter to get what she wants. And as the series progresses, she seems to only lose more and more of that original sweetness.
It feels like “Family Guy” is the decades long origin story of Meg.
I’m both terrified and excited to see what she will become. I have always loved fictional drama. If she were real, I’d run the other way.
12 Days of Xmas: The Bread of Hope
Post thumbnailThe Bread of Hope
by Harper Kingsley
The bread had come out a little lop-sided on top. Otherwise it was a beautiful loaf. The first bread machine bread made since the end of the world.
Standing at the counter, staring at the bread like it was an Old World TV, Wendy was in the midst of an emotional storm. There were so many feelings, and for once loss wasn’t the most important one.
This single loaf of bread represented hope for the future.
And the thought of cutting into fresh hot bread made her mouth water. It had been so long…
Before the End of the World she’d eaten bread every day. Her fancy wooden bread box with its slide out cutting board had always been full.
There had been no truer heaven than bread on demand. She’d regularly used her bread maker, but there had always been the option of going to the store to buy any kind of bread she wanted.
This post-apocalypse loaf was a plain white, but she’d grown the wheat herself and churned the butter from her lonely cow. She figured once the milk dried up she’d be eating 4-ingredient bread (flour, yeast, salt, and water), but until then she would enjoy a last taste of the world Before, when everything was in such abundance.
Wendy brushed her fingers lightly over the not-too-hard, seemingly just-right crust. It radiated heat, the only reason she was willing to wait.
The last thing she wanted was to mash the bread as she sliced it. Which meant waiting for it to cool down.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. It would be another 10-minutes at least. Then delicious chewy bread in her mouth.
She would enjoy the first couple slices plain, then use the rest for sandwiches.
She’d gathered wild strawberries and figured she’d make a bread machine jam. It hadn’t been something she’d ever tried before, but bread and jam sounded so good right now.
She’d been living alone for a long time. She hadn’t seen another human in close to 8-months, and that had been through monoculars and she’d seen him dying his last. It had been one of the deciding factors that kept her from leaving isolation. The Plague was still out there.
Wendy wasn’t a doctor. She wasn’t a scientist. She hadn’t read nearly enough Wikipedia articles or medical site information to know when the sickness was or would be dead. So she’d decided she was on her own.
Which was why a single loaf of bread was so important.
It represented her hope for the future. And it contained her belief that she could make and handle things alone. She could and would survive, because any hardship could be overcome if she worked hard enough.
She’d scavenged parts and managed to cobble together an electrical generator. It relied on an old car at this point, but she was hoping to figure out an alternate charging method–gasoline was only going to last a while and she planned to be around for a long time.
Because she might not have been a “fighter,” but she was a survivor.
The second hand on the clock swept up to touch the 12 and Wendy couldn’t wait.
Snatching up the bread knife, she quickly sawed the end off the loaf. It steamed a little, but didn’t mash or tear. It was cooled down just enough.
That first bite made her groan. The second bite made her laugh.
She had survived the end of the world to eat a slice from the bread of hope. Everything might never be “okay” again, but she knew it could only get better than it had been recently.
Because she had bread, and soon she would have jam, and eventually she would use other gadgets that ran on electricity, and she would raise a garden and make her own vegetable oil. And there would be bread every day.
Because life could only get better from here.
She would make it so. Because she could do anything she stuck her mind to. This after the apocalypse bread was proof of her fortitude.
It tasted delicious.
=THE END=
