Going to delve into differences between the sexes this week. Be prepared.
And I’m mentioning a book that was once featured in Oprah’s Book Club.
Don’t judge me.
I read a book by Wally Lamb called, She’s Come Undone. It’s the story of Delores Price, a young girl who lives through abuse, unhealthy relationships, and her own destructive behavior. In school, she’s the object of ridicule because of her weight, which she gained after a trauma. The book is written from Delores’ perspective and many of the choices she made left me bewildered. I would shout at the book, often and loudly, “What are you doing? Oh my God, cut that out!” My wife, however, understood Delores perfectly. To her, Delores’ decisions seemed natural, if extreme.
What I’m getting at is She’s Come Undone was written from a female perspective. Please, don’t misconstrue my acknowledgement of “difference” for a position of authority over women. I reject that assertion. In fact, most of the women in my circles are far more intelligent and capable than myself.
But, perhaps by biology alone, we are different. That difference sometimes leads us to some strange choices.
Which leads me to this week’s episode of Adventure Time. It’s Princess Day and this year’s event is hosted by Breakfast Princess. Lumpy Space Princess is bored beyond belief as Breakfast Princess delves into grievances from one Princess to another. LSP makes a scene, Breakfast Princess has an “aw, snap” moment, calling out LSP for not actually having a kingdom anymore and living in the woods. LSP crams down an entire bowl of scones before the Syrup Guards can escort her from the meeting hall. Marceline, always willing to take a walk on the wild side, follows LSP.
From there, we’re into a series of pretty destructive behavior as Marceline and Lumpy Space Princess trash Breakfast Princess’s room, make fun of her music, and push one of the Syrup Guard out a tower window! Lumpy revels in her badness and Marceline is her perfect enabler.
After nearly killing a Maple Man, the two boost a car and we are firmly in Thelma and Louise territory. Just seconds into their joyride, they accidentally hit Breakfast Princess with the car. In a scene lifted from every Tarantino movie, they stuff her in the trunk and take off. LSP and Marceline drop BP in the desert, demand she start digging a hole and our hard traveling heroes take off again.
During the drive through the desert LSP wonders if they are bad people because of the things they’ve just done. It’s a refreshing bit of contrition but Marceline asserts that “I don’t think there are bad people. I think good people do bad things sometimes.”
Not sure if I agree with that statement, but I believe that Marceline was using a generality to speak to their personal situation. Based on LSP’s humiliation from Breakfast Princess, the two acted out a revenge fantasy doing some pretty awful stuff but rationalizing it as they go. Even though some of the behavior is directed at Breakfast Princess, the Syrup Guard took the brunt of their rage. Does that make them bad people? Is their response in equal measure to the insult? I have no idea. Truthfully, this episode left me yelling at the TV just like I did at She’s Come Undone.
Did I mention Thelma and Louise? I did! Good, because the end of the episode shows their car flying off a cliff. That scene has entered into our mutual consciousness, hasn’t it? Women escaping abuse or boredom, cut loose, do morally questionable things then choose their own destruction.
But destruction isn’t really the end of Thelma and Louise, is it? They escape, don’t they? The car flying off the cliff is the rejection of male-imposed, moral responsibility. LSP and Marceline escape as well. They can both float, so a cliff really doesn’t present a problem.
Perhaps I’m wrong in my assertion that the episode is written from a female perspective. My wife doesn’t watch the show so I can’t really get her opinion. The parallels between this episode, the aforementioned She’s Come Undone and Thelma and Louise are just too prevalent for me to ignore.
What do you think?