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Oh right! I went off on something else for the previous page, but I meant to address this. In the last page, Jane calls Marigold basic, sort of a backhanded defense against Hanna’s accusations. Fast forward a few months and there’s the question of whether Jane respects Mar. I mean clearly the answer here is no. Until this point Jane’s main interactions with Mar haven’t been positive; we last saw Mar admiring hot consumer trends just as Jane was going through an identity crisis. At this point I did have a plan for them. Jane doesn’t need to respect the women she pursues. In fact it suits her best to keep them at a distance. That’s what I’d hoped to show in the moment Jane swigs her drink: she’s made up her mind, and the only thing missing is courage. Mar (and by extension, her relationships) continued to be my favorite thing to write for a long time. To me she’s the character that most embodies the feminine. We’ve known her for a while at this point: do WE respect her? Does she respect herself? Are these questions asked so frequently of any other character? While often the object of ridicule, she’s also got that mystique that makes for a good love story. |
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Can I confess something? I had no idea that was Jane when I was first reading this. I just thought it was some random dude that took an interest in Hanna.
It's interesting how "basic" kind of means "sincere and uncomplicated," but as an insult? I was always kind of dubious about people who use it non-ironically.
I feel the same way! I feel like basic doesn't have to be an insulting term, Jane was even using it to describe Marigold as someone who wouldn't think to be manipulating!
When is the last time we saw Mar and Jane interact?
Mar earns respect–her own, Jane's, the reader's–over the course of her journey. Like many twenty-somethings, she doesn't really know who she is for a while. She tries lots of personality traits on like clothing, discarding the stuff she doesn't like, keeping what she does. She makes dumb mistakes and bad choices, does things that are gratifying in the moment but cause pain in the long run, and learns from all of it.
Eventually she grows into a self-understanding that's real, no matter what Hanna thinks of it, which allows her to connect with Jane, which in turn allows Jane to realize that Mar's not as basic as she first believed, and is worth more effort than just what it would take to maybe bang out a quick one and move on.
I never read the 'basic' comment as a sincere insult, mainly because I've made very similar manouvres to avoid getting drawn into someone else's bitching session (closed sentence underreactions ftw). Especially guilty of doing this when the subject was someone I didn't want to admit to liking as much as I did…