tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post2582861921547668615..comments2024-03-11T02:18:33.966-05:00Comments on Kritik: Mad World on Kritik: Mad Men Season 5.6 "A Study in Orange" Guest Writer: Lauren GoodladAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13200566567765991464noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-3255961787839362002012-04-29T11:35:54.273-05:002012-04-29T11:35:54.273-05:00Thanks, Jez B. and thanks Helena. Funnily enough ...Thanks, Jez B. and thanks Helena. Funnily enough I made mistake in what I typed above: not a Freudian but a Lacanian slip! I had intended to say that Peggy is "coming to terms in her way with the loss of the fetish"--by which I meant that she realized her fetish didn't work and was moving on (perhaps to work toward that effective way of being a working woman that she's been striving to find all along. If you're a real Lacanian then the phallus and the fetish are the same thing but I didn't intend to write that she was "coming to terms...with the loss of the phallus" simply because it feels too close to me to what is most dated in Freud: his belief that all loss goes back to castration anxiety. In any case, thanks for liking this theory nevertheless! <br /><br />I agree that the conversation between Michael and his father was v.interesting. My chapter in our book is about these themes of exile and strangeness in a strange land and I think this element of S5's storylines may entail an interesting twist on or revisiting of these themes.MPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08984136164543370547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-61488406973631322562012-04-29T00:56:59.692-05:002012-04-29T00:56:59.692-05:00Lauren, very interesting. I was wondering whether...Lauren, very interesting. I was wondering whether the mentions of ok-ness was a reference to transactional analysis? I'm ok, you're ok was published in 1967 but perhaps it was being discussed a little earlier?<br /><br />Raymond's cry to Peggy to give him what he wants not what he asks for reflects many characters' complaints to their partners. Many of them want to be heard: how could Roger not hear an invitation to take LSD? Michael wants to find others like him while his father says 'I see you' and 'I'm the original'. It's also a spin on a theme last season about the conflict between what we want and what others think we should do/be, especially for the women.Helenanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-35725749136456208112012-04-29T00:37:42.600-05:002012-04-29T00:37:42.600-05:00Interesting. Thanks.Interesting. Thanks.Jez B.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-35486960976238729332012-04-28T11:41:35.392-05:002012-04-28T11:41:35.392-05:00Jez B. you started such an interesting conversatio...Jez B. you started such an interesting conversation on Peggy at the movies - I'm not sure my "theory," such as it is works as well as the ones already suggested by Helena and Lily. But here it is for what it's worth: I am tempted to see it in terms of Freud's theory of the fetish (alluded to very obliquely in the post) which is one of the things I most value in psychoanalysis (because I think it's entirely true). Freud makes the fetish about disavowing the possibility of loss. The thing you fetishize makes you feel like you can have it all because it stands for (by blocking out through the particular defense of disavowal) all the things that might possibly be lost. For Peggy the violet candies stand for the power (borrowing from Lacan we might call it phallic power) that Don persuasively wields when he's in the situation of the pitch. After she fails to impersonate him with Heinz even despite having her violet candies nearby the reality that sinks in is a certain kind of loss that is to with her gendered situation (this is a lesson she learns many times over the course of the show--her version you might sight of the repetition compulsion). The guy at the movies finds her attractive and finds the situation exciting and makes a move. But she doesn't want a full-blown sexual affair. I think she is coming to terms in her own with the loss of the phallus - and as the Born Free dialogue says, "it's going to be okay." <br /><br />PA/Helena - gluttony - agent orange indeed!<br /><br />John M. you are talking about Danny Siegel (also Jane's name before marriage). And yes absolutely about the Heinz guy - I would have liked to have said more about how his own identification with the proposed ad mapped on to what I was trying to say about advertisers falling over themselves (in a purely instrumental way) to appeal to the youth market. It's almost as though because the ad makes _him_ feel something (which according to Don is what makes good advertising sell products) he suspects that this can't possibly be capturing the youth zeitgeist. He says something like: Stop giving me what I ask for and give me what I want!<br /><br />Thanks again everyone for kind words and great comments.MPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08984136164543370547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-27953690127948173552012-04-28T11:29:59.489-05:002012-04-28T11:29:59.489-05:00Sorry took so long - a v. busy weekend.
Eleanor 4...Sorry took so long - a v. busy weekend.<br /><br />Eleanor 4/24 (I think we may have two Eleanors posting); I like your thoughts on sleep, esp. re Peggy who less haunted by sleep than the more "guilty"<br /><br />I'm also intrigued by your finding the breakup of Roger/Jane moving. I think I dislike Roger more than many viewers do. I find him sadistic as well as selfish and narcissistic (the usual Mad Men profile as Cindy's remarks emphasize). Though it clearly was moving for him it felt to me like two empty people growing weary of no longer enjoying their arrangement of using each other with him (because he's the meaner one) positively elevated by the chance to move on and her (because she's the less mean but somehow shallower one) assenting so long as the money is there. But I guess that is a fairly limited view of Roger and I know that some people really value his dapper style and sharp sense of humor. He clearly matters to the show's creators as he is hardly ever not in an episode.<br /><br />Zina - thanks as always for your illuminating thoughts. I like and agree with what you say about the cathexis. I'd add that there can't be too much melodrama (or at least not for me) because it's also important that these characters were first rendered in realist terms and continue to be realist characters even as the narrative gets more experimental in certain ways. Too much melodrama, I think, and you end up with the later seasons of Big Love (a show I liked more at the beginning but have by now seen almost through the end of the final season). At that point if you're still cathected its to what's going to happen and how that will feel rather than (also) what impact will those events have on this character on behalf of whom you are vicariously experience these events. Does that seem right to you.<br /><br />Sandy - thanks for great HoJo link. It made me realize (as I think our own captures did as well) that there is a real residue of modernist elegance to this psychedelic kitsch moment as well--whatever that structure is, it's not a big box!MPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08984136164543370547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-42985268009288594382012-04-26T09:46:03.803-05:002012-04-26T09:46:03.803-05:00Hello. I think we also knew Jane was Jewish, or pr...Hello. I think we also knew Jane was Jewish, or probably Jewish, because of her diminutive cousin (I've forgotten his name) who worked at SCDP as a copywriter last season. In The Suitcase, Harry chides him for complaining about paying for tickets he himself got free, 'You're such a Jew.' to which the cousin replies, 'You're the Jew.' <br /><br />Someone upthread, or perhaps it's the main article, mentioned that Don and Roger both live out childhood memories in different ways here. The Heinz man does too: 'I have that memory,' he says about Peggy's beans beach party concept, 'That's for me, that's not for young people.' Peggy's maybe reliving something as well: 'Young people have memories too. In fact, she and Abe, with whom she's just had an argument, got together after a trip to the beach.John Mnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-88596012027274900362012-04-25T23:29:36.861-05:002012-04-25T23:29:36.861-05:00PA : Agent Orange!PA : Agent Orange!Helenanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-36823272237332614292012-04-25T17:48:56.967-05:002012-04-25T17:48:56.967-05:00I don't have a complete thought here, but I wa...I don't have a complete thought here, but I was struck by Michael's "martian" comments, mostly because he presents them not as an allegory, but as the literal truth. The overall effect is that there is something quite literally "other worldly" about his comments—they come from a "far away place" and take Peggy to another far away place. We know that he is not a "real Martian," of course, but I think in many respects he understands himself as a "stranger in a strange land," to cite the title Heinlein's hugely influential 1961 science fiction novel about Valentine Michael Smith, a human who is raised by Martians and returns to Earth to discover how very different he is. (One might also think about <i>My Favorite Martian</i> (1963-66), or even where Roger and Jane end up—namely, <i>Lost in Space</i> (1965-68), the many shows that sketched out our futures in the 1960s, including the big one about "far away places" that should be appearing soon, <i>Star Trek</i>.) The show has always had a curious "science fiction" element to it, from the "Tomorrowland" that closes last season, to Ken Cosgrove's otherworldly parables, to Jane's galactic garments. If the common mistake about <i>Mad Men</i> is to think that it's a show about the past when it's really speaking about the present, perhaps one should stop and consider how much time it invests in thinking about the future. You grok?Rob Rushingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-75441760092235255982012-04-25T17:48:40.548-05:002012-04-25T17:48:40.548-05:00Great article. Don't quote me on this, but I t...Great article. Don't quote me on this, but I think the colour orange is also associated with gluttony. (If that is correct...) how perfect is it that Megan would shovel the orange sherbet down her throat? Which physicalizes Don's gluttonous appetite for her/to dominate her. Even to the point where he won't let her go and see her family (which I found so interesting as they made a point of mentioning twice that the HoJo was only 1 hour away from her parents house).<br /><br />I didn't know that Jane was Jewish until this episode. What a great point of the parallel between the Star-Trek outfit and Ginsberg's Martian identity!! Much more astute than my original thought on seeing her (Liz Taylor in Cleopatra).PAnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-17688594218923056802012-04-25T17:12:29.400-05:002012-04-25T17:12:29.400-05:00I liked the comments that Helena and Lily made too...I liked the comments that Helena and Lily made too but want to hear what you think anyway (if you can). Good comments from a lot of people on this blog.Jez B.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-34082134452987946722012-04-25T16:53:46.072-05:002012-04-25T16:53:46.072-05:00This very interesting discussion makes me realise ...This very interesting discussion makes me realise that Ginsberg's Jewish = Martian comment is echoed in Jane's star-trekky = Martian get-up.Eleanor Robsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00176357819375308947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-73369443790956348522012-04-25T13:00:08.215-05:002012-04-25T13:00:08.215-05:00this is a little off flight :
since you are all re...this is a little off flight :<br />since you are all referring to the "Souvenir" episode, I wish Betty stayed in Italy and worked as an interpreter/translator or as a flight-attendant...she would have had her own life finally... <br /><br />best,<br />apologize for my pedestrian "womanly" commentMrs. Harris (the mother)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-56372316649838434992012-04-25T11:46:13.933-05:002012-04-25T11:46:13.933-05:00One of the prevailing themes in Mad Men continues ...One of the prevailing themes in Mad Men continues to relate to the show's title. The men are mad. Their madness takes the form of being chronically unable to be satisfied. In their desperate longing to be loved, have their masculinity validated and to find meaning to their life they reach out to women. The women are meant to complete them and assign value to them. Of course they cannot. In the end the women disappoint.<br /> Nowhere is this clearer than in the serial marriages that Roger engages in. He can admire his second wife's beauty as she sleeps in their bed and simultaneously know he must leave. Whatever hope he had that she could "light up his life" rescue him from his emptiness has somehow gone which transforms the marriage into a trap he must escape.<br /> Pete, too, is feeling trapped in his Cos Cob home. His wife now drives him to the station in a bathrobe and wears rollers to bed. Where in this is the message he needs from the prostitute "you are the king." Now he has a child, who also appears to offer him no solace. Another mad man.<br /> Don appears to be in love with Megan. But his narcissism forces him to ignore the fact that she might want anything in her life beyond him. He needs her to lose her commitment to the team, deny her own ambition and get lost in his HoJo fantasy weekend. And he wants to make a baby with her. Yes, it will assure him of ownership and remove the problem he has with her love for work competing with her love for him. Ah, but then out come the rollers and the bathrobes and the neediness and gone is the independent and elusive trophy wife. No,he tried that with Betty and we saw how that worked out.<br /> I do not overlook the plight of the women but the name of the show is after all not Mad Women.cindynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-54554566116578939662012-04-25T06:40:15.541-05:002012-04-25T06:40:15.541-05:00An article about Howard Johnson's in the 1960s...An article about Howard Johnson's in the 1960s that might interest you: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/04/23/howard_johnson_s_on_mad_men_why_the_chain_was_cool_in_the_1960s.htmlSandyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06854916064336492187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-78616883706146723752012-04-24T22:15:16.978-05:002012-04-24T22:15:16.978-05:00Thanks for these great comments and kind words. I...Thanks for these great comments and kind words. It was fun to write on this episode and reading these comments have made it more so. <br /><br />Anonymous: yes, I think you're exactly right about the men; they don't have much to gain from change - this crosses over to one of Lilya's great comments - about the music - I had wanted to say some things about the music (a topic that often interests me) - one the songs that Jane and Roger dance to was all about being wrong for the times which I thought was ironic since I'm not sure that the mismatch between R & J had much to do with their age difference so that both in a way seem wrong for the times (she seems premature middle aged I guess which I suppose could be the effect of fast-moving times despite her "kinda-now-kinda-wow" clothes. Does that make sense?<br /><br />Lilya: love the letter arriving at its destination!<br /><br />Stephanie: Welcome (back?) to Kritik and thanks. I always liked Mad Men's slow pace but I agree that this season is stronger so far than some of last. What's working esp. well for me is something interesting going on with characters that enables the episodes to be quite moving--as I think the last two especially both were. I gather though that people have been writing about more happening in each episode and happening more quickly? (I haven't had much time to read anyone else's blogs - very busy semester!)<br /><br />Jez B. you've gotten some great answers already - I'd like to continue hear what others think on the topic - I do have some thoughts but I liked hearing Lily's and Helena's more. what do you think btw?<br /><br />Mrs. Harris: De Rien (Is your name perchance a reference to Joan's ex-mother-in-law btw?) I would say that Jane was quite young when she and Roger met in S2. So I think it likely that both she and Ginsberg are supposed to be in mid to late 20s. I suppose he might be a couple of yrs. older. I would not have put the two together had you not mentioned it but one thing that has always interested me about MM in general is the many characters who you're just supposed to know are Jewish. There have been two explicitly Jewish characters (Rachel and now Ginsberg) but many more whom you're supposed to guess or "know" are Jewish (according to Matthew Weiner that is in an interview I read in the NYT). I found that very interesting with Bobbie and Faye but less so with Jane whose original name (Siegel) was supposed to be the giveaway I guess (again referring to the NYT piece). And in this episode she thinks she must have been speaking Yiddish. So one thing she (apparently) shares with MG is Jewishness. Though he seems to want to distance himself from that ethnicity and perhaps even with being human. I suspect this will become more developed as these Jewish themes often do (most esp. in the great season 1 episode "Babylon"). Not sure if that is the kind of tie you meant though. Her Star Trek like 60s styling really was something though; and so different from Megan's chic clothes (the two different orange dresses and then the black one she changes into) from the same period.<br /><br />I'll check back tomorrow for other comments and also zina... thanks again.MPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08984136164543370547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-22870871340614153322012-04-24T16:51:12.925-05:002012-04-24T16:51:12.925-05:00MM functions constantly on parallelisms, mirror im...MM functions constantly on parallelisms, mirror images, and echo effects. This episode struck me as doing that even more than the usual: the parallel between the two couples (Roger-Jane, and Don-Megan) have been underlined arguably since the announcement of the engagement in S4, and this season has been even clearer. <br /><br />Characters constantly mirror each other at different times of their trajectory (Pete-in-the-suburbs as Don from S 1-3; Peggy-on-the-job-drinking-and-having-illicit-sex as the other Don from S1-3).<br /><br />This episode, as you show Lauren, also quotes explicitly other episodes: "Souvenir", in a "second time as farce" sort of way; the events of "Long Week End" are mentioned by Don; Don wants to repeat the exhilaration of "Tomorrowland". <br /><br />I would add a couple more : when Roger and Jane dance, it reminded me of "My Old Kentucky Home", when they dance together very tenderly at the end of the party, enviously watched by Don - this image brings together the beginning and the end of the romance. When Peggy washes her hands in the bathroom, it is the same image and she wears the same coat as in the Suitcase: she was there to help Don through his breakdown, but now she goes through her own alone (although, contrary to the Suitcase, she does not break up with her boyfriend).<br /><br />This hall of mirrors quality of MM forces us as viewers to interpret and decide which parallel is the more telling and the more significant. As attentive viewers we have to make decisions constantly as to the importance of some elements (images, phrasings, colors), not in themselves but in relation to other parts of the show (present or past). I think that this choice on the part of the show adds considerable depth to the psychology of the characters, or adds "subtext". <br /><br />But this subtext is to some extent undecided, or, to be clearer, we have to make decisions about its content; that may help explain the very animated, and sometimes heated, online conversations about the psychology, sometimes the pathology of the characters, their moral responsibility, etc. (I wonder if any other show generates so much discussion). <br /><br />I think that we invest a lot in these melodramatic elements because we have to work and to invest time and energy to understand them. I wonder if the formal elements (parallelism and echo effects in episodes, and across episodes and seasons), by taunting us and tempting us to decipher them, are not an essential element of the cathexis of the show, that seems to me to be unusually strong.zinanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-29001258302238304162012-04-24T15:35:03.257-05:002012-04-24T15:35:03.257-05:00I found Roger's LSD scene the most moving, as ...I found Roger's LSD scene the most moving, as it modulated from surreal comedy through thoughtfulness and then a surprisingly tender breakup. (Though Jane only remembers it as trauma, something she'd forgotten and then has to try hard to remember.) <br /><br />The episode suggests that sleep can help cure neurosis, almost as well as love. Peggy sleeps sweetly, alone on the couch, and when she wakes up her rage is gone. Roger & Jane fall asleep together & when they wake up they can move forward emotionally. But Don and Megan don't get any sleep, so you don't believe they've healed, although they look unbelievably rested when they show up for work the next day.Eleanornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-73651997194844469762012-04-24T15:25:34.507-05:002012-04-24T15:25:34.507-05:00Lily, I agree with you about Peggy and the movie g...Lily, I agree with you about Peggy and the movie guy. I felt she was taking control of him and the situation having lost control at work and been thrown off the beans account which in typical MM style was phrased oddly, 'you're off the business'. She'd been told off by Raymond from Heinz as tho she was a little girl. So, having been jerked around by men she decided to jerk around a stranger. At that moment, we hear Virginia McKenna in the movie say it's like watching our daughter on her first date and the scene climaxes, as it were, with a lion's roar. Which, now I think about it, was rather like one of the sound effects in Roger's trip.Helenanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-8082547892732285962012-04-24T14:59:52.668-05:002012-04-24T14:59:52.668-05:00thank you, Lauren, in advance .thank you, Lauren, in advance .Mrs. Harrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-75319094154009825772012-04-24T14:53:17.178-05:002012-04-24T14:53:17.178-05:00Grand merci for re-grouping and dissecting the psy...Grand merci for re-grouping and dissecting the psychedelic and all over the place episode! I also like very much your title for it “a study in orange” because it refers back to the mysterious M. Rothko’s painting in Bert’s office, which is as a Chekhovian rifle is now shooting… with its color…<br /><br />A question: Do you think are Mike Gainsbourg (Ginsburg?) and Jane Sterling of the same age? Is there any connection between Jane’s otherworldly attire and his confession to Peg of his “marcian origin” ?Mrs. Harrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-50939971350995017472012-04-24T13:24:10.608-05:002012-04-24T13:24:10.608-05:00What about the theme of sex as power? Peggy didn&...What about the theme of sex as power? Peggy didn't let her new "friend" kiss her but what she does could be seen as a form of agression/retribution toward men after having her passionate advocacy of her ad dismissed as inapppropriate by her male clients and colleagues. I loved the way she literally washes her hands of him! And Don once again physically pursues Megan and throws her to the ground (like he did in the lingerie scene) which In some ways establishes his dominance but also "reduces them" as she astutely points out.Lilynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-70772816683564651822012-04-24T12:00:03.765-05:002012-04-24T12:00:03.765-05:00Very good blog and episode. But what about Peggy ...Very good blog and episode. But what about Peggy at the movies. I know you said don't tell but what is that about?Jez B.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-56384129464147942672012-04-24T09:45:18.799-05:002012-04-24T09:45:18.799-05:00Great job, Lauren. Loved this episode...can't ...Great job, Lauren. Loved this episode...can't wait to watch it again. I'm enjoying the appropriately paced new episodes.<br /><br />-Stephanie<br />VCS @ SAICStephaniehttp://www.twitter.com/boxsquatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-21868808766432129112012-04-24T09:39:56.704-05:002012-04-24T09:39:56.704-05:00Anonymous, thank you for comment and welcome to Kr...Anonymous, thank you for comment and welcome to Kritik. We welcome anonymous posting but as you please to choose initials or name you make up. That way we don't have a number of different anonymous commentators on the same thread.Unit for Criticismhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13327108669066779344noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8617857852696675419.post-57530744601320571362012-04-24T09:11:08.537-05:002012-04-24T09:11:08.537-05:00Looking over the pictures, it's amazing how we...Looking over the pictures, it's amazing how well Megan fits into her surroundings at HoJo's--she is entirely orange to go with the turquoise & orange color scheme.<br /><br />This time, the color matching of this episode is basically directly on the surface--as so many things this season, subtext becomes text--but the point is well taken, it's about fitting in, having a place (or perhaps, knowing your place, as in the case of Peggy). Here the orange dress and coat are meant to show the way Megan does *not* in fact fit into to the role Don is trying so hard to put her in, despite looking the part. I think it's important that the next time we see her, she is wearing black & white: again, things are a little more clear now, a little more stark. <br /><br />Nabokov once wrote that the color combination of pink and blue for him signified "poshlost'"--something at the same time vulgar and banal--I think after this episode, it's turquoise and orange together, or maybe, just the orange sherbet.<br /><br />Roger's LSD trip is one of the more awesome pieces of this series so far: since the episode is all about revelations (the truth of people), Roger's trip is not about snakes or multicolored lights, but about stepping outside himself. Thus the message to self: help me! Again, the letter arrives at its destination.<br /><br />I loved that the hallucinations are done entirely via sound--in particular, the full jazz orchestra in the vodka bottle and the cigarette as a sax. Like Lacanian psychoanalysis, the point here is entirely about hearing--you can only hear yourself when your own words are repeated by someone else.lilyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11438969810941139483noreply@blogger.com