CSotD: Tabula Wrasa
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Every once in a while, a comic scores on every level without being at all cosmic on any of them.
Today's Baby Blues does just that, and I think the key is the blankness with which Wren absorbs the things around her.
On one hand, this appear to be a variation on the strip in which a character goes to the store, repeating the list of things to buy, and the list gets corrupted by distractions along the way so that, on arrival, it is gone.
But note that she simply says the last thing she encountered. She is making no judgment about which thing was most impressive, loudest, scariest, funniest, most enticing … just what came last.
Most baby gags are based on the baby having a complex inner life that isn't being verbally expressed yet, and I like both Thatababy, in which the baby's inner life is fully formed, and Dog Eat Doug, in which Doug's personality emerges at the level of the dog, Sophie. Meanwhile, over at Stone Soup, Luci occasionally voices thoughts, but almost always expresses emotions at a level that is linguistically adult but contextually appropriate for a baby.
Today's Baby Blues was first set up back whenever Scott and Kirkman decided Wren should be depicted as a wide-eyed blank.
Wren is just taking it all in, and, while she can enjoy a good baby-giggle, she's still at that bald-headed staring stage.
I don't know how long they plan to leave Wren at this level, but I like what it allows them to do with her. She was a handy prop for some funny gags this past week, and this one put me on the floor, especially the continued blankness in that last, perfect panel.
As older parents continually say to parents of infants, "Enjoy it, because it doesn't last."
They eventually learn the broad meaning of the words and phrases they've picked up, and, soon after that, begin to understand the concept of context.
For example, my eldest, when he was our only, demonstrated his general grasp of how to use the F-bomb when he toddled through the kitchen one day and got a playful smack on his diapered butt. He stopped and turned, and, in a moment of tiny, infant outrage, shot an F-Y at the smacker.
Excellent use of the idiom.
Except that the smacker was his grandfather.
Thus did he learn the importance of social context.
And thus did we learn the importance of trying to monitor what we were feeding into that little blank slate.
So this one goes out to you, Wren MacPherson. I believe you already know the chorus, but you may want to study and learn the choreography, 'cause it's really bitchin' (Oh, and don't use that expression with Mommy):
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