DARIA FANDOM'S GOETTERDAEMMERUNG? ============================================================= A Refutation of Allegations and Charges Levied by RuthlessBunny Against the "Daria" Fan Community ============================================================= By Peter W. Guerin ============================================================= "Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her." --John 8:7 (Today's English Version, a/k/a the Good News Bible) ============================================================= Originally this essay was going to be my explanation as to why I decided to retire from writing "Daria" fan fiction, much like C. E. Forman did in his essay "Writing Where It Hurts". However, having read RuthlessBunny's trilogy of essays blasting the Daria fan community ("Living in a Box", "Fandom as a Cargo Cult" and "Where Do We Go From Here?"), I decided that there were bigger issues involved here; the gross accusations and charges levied by her in these essays call for the strongest refutation possible. If anyone is into opera (and I should know, my own mother is an admitted "opera freak"), you know about Richard Wagner's tetralogy called "The Ring of the Nibelung" (it's kind of ironic in a Daria-esque way that Wagner was cranking out sequels like movie studios do today, but then again, Sophocles wasn't above writing two sequels to "Oedipus Rex", either); the fourth and final opera in the series is called "Die Goetterdaemmerung", or "The Twilight of the Gods". In this opera the chickens essentially come home to roost for the Norse gods when the events of the first three operas come to a head. For those who don't have the slightest idea what I'm talking about, I'll give a brief explanation. The underlying plot of the four operas centers around a magic ring made from some enchanted gold taken from the Rhine River (and you thought Rhinegold was the name of a beer! :-) ); however, since this gold was stolen from its original owner, it was cursed, and quite a few people get killed over it. The curse, not to mention some underhandedness and hubris running amok among the Norse gods and some incest, comes back to haunt everyone when a shocking series of murders and suicides ultimately takes the lives of the two biggest heroes in the series, Siegfried and Brunhilde. For the Norse gods, they realized that the jig was up, and did themselves in by putting their castle Valhalla to the torch--with themselves in it. What did the Norse gods in were their selfishness and their constant bickering and backstabbing. Now take a look at the state of the Daria fan community today. Not a day doesn't go by unless someone flames a post at Paperpusher's Message Board over even the most trivial and inconsequential of matters, and if that person stands up to defend his or her point of view, he or she gets even more scorn heaped upon him or her. Also, as of late, the same thing has been happening in the #Daria+ chat room, but there has also been incidents where people have said things there whose sole purpose has been to gross out the other people in the room, and when the ops try to assert their authority to restore order in the room (by kicking and/or banning said persons), they're called fascists or worse at the message boards. However, the lowest blow has been recorded by RuthlessBunny's trilogy of essays that levied very serious charges against the "Daria" fan community. If this state of affairs keeps up, by the time the series-ending movie "Is It College Yet?" airs, the fan base will certain head to its own "Goetterdaemmerung". I shall analyze each of the essays. "Living in a Box" RuthlessBunny seems to be painting a rather broad brush in describing some "Daria" fans here. Granted, the one thing that does bind this community together is the fact that we like the show and that we can commiserate with Daria in many ways. However, to suggest that we've become compulsively obsessed with the show like a bunch of Trekkies needing a lecture from William Shatner is petty and demeaning. I also take umbrage to her stating that most fans are isolationists. Of course some of us had lonely childhoods, but if Daria was really ultra-isolationist, she wouldn't have made the friends she's had like Jane, Tom, and to some degree, Emilia and Jodie. What RuthlessBunny forgets is that all because some of us are like Daria--ironic, cutting people down to size, anti-social--doesn't mean that we can't have friends--in the Internet or on the street. To me, the fan base out there is very much like the friends my stepfather made when he was stationed in Germany during the late 1950's and early 1960's. The friends he made he's kept for life; he even won over his drill instructor, a Southerner who thought that "Yankees were no damn good". He keeps in touch by letters and E-mails, and every two years they have a reunion. The "Daria" fan base works in the same way. The "cons" that we have in various places are no different from my stepfather's Army buddy reunions. All because some of us are like Daria doesn't mean we can't make any friends. It just means we're just a bit choosier than most others. As for myself, I admit that I have it more difficult than others to make friends due to my behavior problem. All because of something that is an accident of birth, I was singled out and picked upon by the other kids in school. Something like this doesn't exactly instill confidence in your fellow humans. I have this hang-up about meeting new people because of lingering fears that they'll know about my problem and eventually use me or mistreat me due to it. But I do have friends in real life, among them a former reporter for a local newspaper. I admit I'm perhaps choosier than most, but that doesn't mean that the task is impossible, and that applies to others in the fan community. "Fandom as a Cargo Cult" I was also deeply offended by this essay. It made the assumption that most "Daria" fans were mindless worshippers. Of course we knew the end was coming. Those of us in the know knew it was coming. Michelle Klein-Häss was among the first to know because of her contacts with series creator Glenn Eichler. She even told some people at the #Daria+ chat room weeks before her article in Toon Magazine appeared. All because the series is coming to the end doesn't mean that the fan base is going to disappear. If that was the case, "Star Trek" fandom would have fizzled out after 1969. Thankfully for Trekkies, they have nine movies and three other TV series (as well as comic books and novels) to sate their thirst, with a tenth film and a fifth TV series on the way--all of this due to their perseverance. Now by all means I'm not asking Glenn to pitch something like "Daria: The College Years" to the MTV brass, but there are still strong fan communities for other shows that haven't have runs as long as Daria has. The cult classic "The Prisoner" lasted for only eight episodes, but to this day fans are still arguing and trying to figure out the symbolism of the show. I'm pretty sure the same thing will be with "Daria"; we'll probably be discussing the symbolism and meaning behind some key elements and moments of the show thirty years from now. All because new episodes have ceased doesn't mean that there won't be anyone who likes the show anymore. I also take issue of her singling out Martin J. Pollard and Michelle Klein-Häss for criticism. Neither of them are the arbiters of what is right about "Daria" or about "Daria" fandom, just as much as I'm not an arbiter of those realms myself. Sure, I have my disagreements with these two, but I have never meet more honest and fair-minded people in my life. However, to continue to heap scorn on people like them will lead them to perhaps shut down their Web sites (Outpost Daria and Lawndale Commons) devoted to the show much like Rowena Stubbs, Katherine Goodman and Wraith did with their sites Planet Daria, alt.lawndale.com and Sick, Sad World, respectively (though to be fair, Michelle did shut her site down temporarily after a rather nasty incident on her message board, and Wraith eventually brought his back). To call Martin a "pope" over his own Web site is dangerously close to calling him a fascist, not to mention that it smacks of anti-Catholicism. "Where Do We Go from Here?" This essay is the one I take issue against the most. For one thing, Martin does have standards that have to be met for one to be a "Featured Author". However, by request, one's series can be given "Other Series" status, which is just a step below in honor. That was the case for my own "Daria: The OAVs" series. Of course I was given "Featured Author" status in Tawny_Puma's Definitive Daria site, but that's a tale for another time. Do I really care if I'm a "Featured Author" at Outpost Daria? Frankly, it doesn't make a hill of beans difference to me. Also, other people's works do get noticed at the site; the incident surrounding SSBED.D's stories does come to mind. Further, Canadibrit's stories were attracting a lot of attention before she was conferred "Featured Author" status. As for me, I think the only thing that kept me going as a Daria fan fic writer was the fact that my stories were still up at Outpost Daria as well as FanFiction.Net after things went to pot over at my site, Mark Zero Fan Fiction, Unlimited (as Jake would say, "Lousy damn GeoCities screwing up my Web pages I made on Netscape Composer! GAH!" @-0). I still get responses to my works, even the earliest ones like "The Misery Senshi Neo-Zero Double Blitzkrieg Debacle" and "Triumph of the 'Retart'". Also, I take issue about RuthlessBunny's complaints about what goes on at #Daria+. I'll admit it, we don't always talk about the show, but the one thing that does bind us in the room--like I said earlier--is our love for the show and the fact that we were or are like Daria in some ways. It is because we have such a diverse group of people that makes the chat room community strong. There are people interested in computers like Martin and Michelle, aspiring screen writers like Kara Wild; fan fiction writers extraordinare like C. E. Forman and Canadibrit, and even a Roman Catholic priest in Father Martin Sylvester. As for me, I'm a man who works in his family-owned print shop somewhere in the vast wasteland called the Adirondack North Country of Upstate New York, and I have problems and concerns like the rest of us. We do talk about our problems sometimes, but only because we know there are people who feel as we feel, who've been through what we've been through, and perhaps they can help us in some small way. However, the unkindest cut of all was a personal attack levied against me by RuthlessBunny. She belittled the fact that I live with my mother, stepfather and stepbrother and that I collect SSI and disability benefits due to my behavior problem. Unless one has been through what I've been through, one cannot understand my problem, not even RuthlessBunny. At least she has the luxury of not having her sleep jarringly interrupted by nightmares of the abuse one suffered so long ago; she doesn't have to see the tormentors surrounding her, shouting "Know your place, you retart!" and beating her up. At times I can still hear the smack of the fist onto my body. They beat me up in every conceivable place a person can be hit: on the head, the cheeks, the rib cage, the breadbasket, the base of the spine, the groin, the testicles, the kneecaps, the elbows, the shoulders, the shins--you name it, I was hit there. She doesn't have to relive one horrifying moment of having someone slam his head into a blackboard so hard it almost broke his nose and skull while shouting "Retarts are worse than niggers!". The Jews who survived the Holocaust keep saying "Never forget"; that is my own motto as well. The only way we can spare succeeding generations from the abuse I suffered is to retell these stories as a lesson to our children in tolerance. In one regard she is right about something. We like to pride ourselves as Americans that everyone has freedom and opportunity; however, when that freedom and opportunity becomes conditioned on what color skin you have, what your gender is, what religious beliefs you subscribe to (if you do at all), what country your ancestors came from, what your sexual orientation is, and whether you have physical, mental, emotional, behavioral or social disabilities, those words "freedom and opportunity" become rather hollow, meaningless words. When this nation fails in its obligations to protect the freedoms it cherishes for the least and weakest of its members, then we are all at risk. As far as I am concerned, America failed in its obligation to protect my rights and freedoms from those who think I'm not entitled to them because of something I was born with. It's the same thing as being told to sit at the back of the bus or stand at the lunch counter because you're "colored". Call me unpatriotic or communist or whatever, but that is how I feel. Yes, RuthlessBunny, this country does owe me something. It owes me the rights I should have that were denied me because of my behavioral problem. If you don't like it, then you can go to Red China, because they treat people far worse there than they do here. I also take issue with RuthlessBunny's criticism of #Daria+'s ops. Because of her criticism, the board experimented with being opless, but that fell apart because some people took advantage of that fact to start flame wars and say things just to get people pissed off or gross them out in general. Ops have a thankless job. They're supposed to keep order in the chat room, and in those occasions where they do exercise their power and kick and/or ban someone, they're instantly compared to Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Hideki Tojo, Mao Zedung, Pol Pot or Idi Amin Dada. It's like what Martin Luther once said: "If the burgomaster does his duty, there will scarcely be four people who will like him. . .the prince has nothing for his pains." If RuthlessBunny has so much to complain about, why didn't she ask to be an op herself? However, she should be forewarned that "op begging" is a kickable offense in some rooms. I think an op should be of good moral integrity and use the power conferred to him or her judiciously. As for me, I've never sought to be an op at #Daria+ and I never will, despite my being in this room for almost four years. I only became an op at #Lawndale because Tawny_Puma was looking for some people, and I had sent him an E-mail asking to consider my case. All she did in her tirade is to belittle and hurt people like Michelle, Martin and Diane Long. Of course, there are other issues as well, such as the bickering at the message boards, the continued 'Shipper/Anti-'Shipper/Fence-Sitter and Season Oner/Character Developer controversies. The whole point I'm trying to make is this: Being fans of "Daria" is pretty much like the Rhinegold: It's a pretty good thing, but some of us won't realize it until everything comes crashing to the ground in flames. We've got a pretty good thing here, and some of us are squandering it. Also, RuthlessBunny, most of us do have real lives. Perhaps she should spend less time finding fault with the Daria fan community and spend time with her other friends, since she seems to value the friends she made in the "Daria" fan community very little. Ultimately, what I am calling for is a truce in this situation, for all sides to cease hostilities, as it were. Because I fear that once the final movie airs, there will probably be renewed conflicts among the 'Shippers and Anti-'Shippers as well as other factions of the fan base, perhaps resulting in a fatal blow to our community. Once something is gone, only then do most people realize they had something special. Let's not make that mistake here, people. Once again, I want to thank everyone I've met in the Daria fan community over the years. Most of you are very wonderful people, really. Therefore, on that note, "Let's be careful out there." Peter W. Guerin Hudson Falls, New York July 2, 2001 9:09 PM