Val: A mind is a terrible thing to waste

Spoiler Space

5

10

15

20

25

Ok. Many people have weighed in on Val, and perhaps this is too late to put in my fork, but I really wanted to see the episode a few times before making a judgement.

Val is smart, it's just that she's incredibly self absorbed. No one will dispute the self-absorbed part, I think, so on the intelligence.

1) She says that she wrote a lot when she was Daria's age.

2) She is impressed with Daria's essay. It takes a certain amount of descrimination to choose a Daria essay over the probable tripe she got from the other contestants.

3) She says, "Smart is cool." Indulge some probable inferences here. Writing a lot as a teenager would usually be a strike against you in popularity in American highschools, yet somehow, Val wrote a lot *and* was popular. That takes a certain amount of smarts to pull off. It wasn't just a fad, like "Quinn the Brain." This is also why, I think, that when Val comes to Lawndale, she *assumes* that Daria will be cool also, since Val did it.

4) She figures out that Daria is not popular. Contrasted with the cluelessness of people like

Kevin and Brittany (Normandy), that's quite an achievement on the show. Add to it the overcoming of her own assumption that Daria will be popular, and we're talking someone with ability to draw conclusions from premises based on her observation, i.e. intelligence.

The second time I saw the episode, the thing that jumped out of my mind was that Daria could have been the same way, if she developed along the same lines as Val. What would that look like? Like the end of "Quinn the Brain" times ten. Daria could be cute if she wanted to be. She just never wanted to. The superficiality of Val, Quinn, and the fashion club crowd in general revolts her. It disgusts her even when she pretends to be that way for a brief instant in the mirror! Daria never had a desire for superficial goals in life. Substance is so much more interesting.

There are some holes in the theory that I can see already, and maybe you have an opinion as well, but I think this is an aspect of Val's character (or lack of it) that has not quite been looked into yet. What do you think?

Sincerely, Rev. Paul L. Vasquez

Rev. Paul Vasquez said:

(SPOILERS for Val) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Your arguments as to Val's basic intelligence are quite convincing ... to this I'd add that you don't wind up with your own media mini-empire by being an idiot. Val's someone who "sold out" to a lie and now believes it herself, with horrible consequences to her life. I'm not sure how much Daria understood of this, but it would make Daria feel all the more repulsion and pity if she did.

Yes. I'd argue that Daria is very deeply attractive in her own way, but it *is* her own way and a way which meshes logically with every element of her character. It is *not* a facade put on to please other people.

Insofar as she may have such desires, Val would frighten her ... Val would be a path which she would *not* want to go down. Which may be another reason why Daria rejected the opportunity to go to New York with her.

I agree.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

Spoilers!!

Well, Val can't really be TOTALLY mindless, since she has managed to start her own magazine, and DOES write, even if it's crap. I think she just tries to repress her intelligence, not unlike Quinn, in favor of being popular and- eventually- in favor of being successful, in making her magazine popular with the average teen (which obviously is a huge market). The main thing she does is soak in knowledge from all sources like a sponge and then spit it back out in little pieces which miss the entire point. Like her explanation of "edgy" is remarkably like Nietzsche's Superman, except totally removing substance, and her talk about "this whole dual POV thing" after the class on "The Sound and the Fury"... and she at least knew what existential meant without asking Daria how to coordinate it with wardrobe.

Dagny misery chick, cynic, general loony

http://members.aol.com/Eccles9697

"Did you ever get the feeling That the truth is less revealing Then a downright lie? And did you think your head is hip To certain things it's not equipped to qualify?"

(If you've read this far in the thread, you know spoilers are here.) Dear Jordan and Dagny,

I'd forgotten that. Paradoxically, Val's explanation of "edgy" actually gives me a vivid idea of what someone might be getting at when using that word.

In a way, Val can easily become an embodiment of one of my favorite cynical expressions. "You're never a complete failure; you can always be used as a bad example."

It's very easy to dismiss Val without realizing the real potential for someone with talent and intelligence to become just like her, or even something more sinister.

Sincerely, Rev. Paul L. Vasquez