That's what's behind the simplicity of most culture clashes. One having to fit in the other where one doesn't fit.
Joan. She had an analogy of the original Peggy. Joan didn't fit in when it came to accounts and being not just sympatico with the big boys anymore, but one of the big boys herself. It was somewhat of a culture clash, she had her role but now wanted another. So she took measures into her own hands. That's what I felt the Chicago background was about and why she has a different reaction of seeing it rather than that of for example Megan. Joan had her voice heard. Culture clashes are about force and colliding, not combining. Joan seemed inspired to her version of force. Sometimes force works.
However on the other hand, just making your voice heard doesn't therefore mean you're right and good. It's just means your voice was heard. It doesn't end there. She very well may have fd this up. As Peggy said, she better hope they call. If you want your voice heard you always have to think... ok, then what? Joan caused trouble because she felt she was right, but did it actually work? She had to be bailed out by someone she partially stepped over. In theory Joan was right. But in function and how she handled it was she? You can be right all you want but that's only half the issue. The other half is how you go about and handle it toward others moving forward. Many people miss that latter part however. We'll find out if they do in fact call.
Don and Roger didn't fit in. Don made an attempt to fit in with a culture which, of his outside Don-ness, he doesn't fit. Roger didn't fit and handled it opposite, by not trying to fit in and instead sticking to his own self and what he knows. We saw this a lotof ways but most notably dealing with Danny/Daniel; speaking of which, a guy who himself didn't fit in in his prior attempt at getting a life. It's probably likely that Danny/Daniel attempted and succeeded to fit in by being a sheep lost follower as opposed to how Don tried here. Don momentarily joined as per the evening rather than mindlessly followed. All of this is part of the idea of fitting in and all the tangents and consequences of all the ways that it can be explored among a society of culture clash.
Culture clashes can also be about identity and the search and fight for it. That's what has been one of Peggy's hangups all series long, her search for an identity. Here, that basic idea to me was further explored now with others. It's been looking like Pete has been losing his identity, losing at home, losing at work. So he gives in, broken, and steps his big toe into another identity's pool. Joan is trying to create a form of identity. Danny, oh wait a minute, now it's Daniel. Harry is always complaining about being in yet outside with his place at the agency, here he is in his identity and element and can contribute. Ginsberg is having a meltdown over pesonal idenity regarding the account in addition to now not feeling this environment is what he wants to identify with. And the biggest example, the whole thing about naming the agency. What's their identity and how will they fit all these different parts together; a major analogy of the time here. Identity. Cultures. Fitting in.
They decide in the endgame to come to a compromise for what's best for their agency's greater whole, and shake on it; while the outside culture (which of course is high and mighty and smarter and knows everything and is well above the suit wearing business culture) is however rioting in the streets.
Idenity. Who do you think you are, who do you want to be, exploring and observing others and discovering who are you really inside. And more importantly how you handle that going forward...
Remember when Megan says go for a swim? He does in fact do that now doesn't he. In past seasons we've seen him swim, with a voice over of his own writing. Apparently it's one keyhole look we have into what lies inside him. The voiceovers back then were about it allows him to think, allows his mind to speak, alone underwater with for that time bing a free mind. Maybe when his mind is free, that's when it works. Remember also the visual of him wading into the water when he visited Anna, arms open to the water.
So here, he went for a different kind of swim now didn't he. But the way I saw it, it was the same result. It freed his mind to work. However what his mind brought up he couldn't control like he did in the prior seasons of his voiceover swimming. Here, due to drug induced semi-lucidity he was alone with his own mind but not in control of it, probably literally the worst thing for him.
So when he couldn't be alone with his own thoughts and in control of those own thoughts, where did his thoughts meander to?
Guilt.
We've seen the idea of death and guilt being a theme before, hence the soldier returning and the soldier's prior role in the symbol of Don's guilt over killing and then worse stealing from the original Don. No matter the situation, the party, the business, the home or the women, it's always right there underneath. And guilt through being of course the cheat he is, but now it's not hidden from Megan and she's present in his mind right there as he's a cheat. And what comes with being a cheat in guilt? Consequences. Now that spurs a debate: if Megan is pregnant, is that joy, a grounding for him, a foundation for the home we've seen he's never had and searches for... or is her being pregnant a negative consequence and in a way punishment for a man who has a hard element of needing to be free spinning around and around.
An interesting note is Pete and Peggy together on a seasaw. One is up, one is down in movement up and down opposite each other now. Peggy seems in a lot of control, being recommended constantly, Pete being ignored like Peggy when she first started. Same with Peggy and Joan as well in their own way. What's a seesaw? Being settled then the other half upsets you, then you upset them and be settled up and down over and over. Kind of an underlying Mad Men idea, that of a seesaw with these lives.
Another little side note was the idea of two different sides in the form of the age old theme of the boys vs girls. Did you notice the Peggy and Joan meeting, and the guys' meeting gave the same speech? Roger tells Carnation, "We're sorry your last girlfriend hurt you". Peggy says,"What do you think of the current work besides that it's not working". It's identifying you're unhappy, making you admit it, so come with us. Outside the nuts and bolts of pitching, outside of Joan and her story and everything it involved in that pitch, part of it was the idea of if a boy can do it a girl can do it. And do it without the boozing and other words this site would edit. I like the way they did it, if I'm actually right and that was part of it, (remember this season is about the idea of different sides) because it wasn't forced on us, or even what the primary motivation was on the surface. But yeah I think that's what it was underlying about with these two. Joan more self interested as primary motivation but Peggy a little more depth in motivation probably. But still, if the boys can pitch so can the girls.
2 comments:
Identity, cultures and fitting in.
That's what's behind the simplicity of most culture clashes. One having to fit in the other where one doesn't fit.
Joan. She had an analogy of the original Peggy. Joan didn't fit in when it came to accounts and being not just sympatico with the big boys anymore, but one of the big boys herself. It was somewhat of a culture clash, she had her role but now wanted another. So she took measures into her own hands. That's what I felt the Chicago background was about and why she has a different reaction of seeing it rather than that of for example Megan. Joan had her voice heard. Culture clashes are about force and colliding, not combining. Joan seemed inspired to her version of force. Sometimes force works.
However on the other hand, just making your voice heard doesn't therefore mean you're right and good. It's just means your voice was heard. It doesn't end there. She very well may have fd this up. As Peggy said, she better hope they call. If you want your voice heard you always have to think... ok, then what? Joan caused trouble because she felt she was right, but did it actually work? She had to be bailed out by someone she partially stepped over. In theory Joan was right. But in function and how she handled it was she? You can be right all you want but that's only half the issue. The other half is how you go about and handle it toward others moving forward. Many people miss that latter part however. We'll find out if they do in fact call.
Don and Roger didn't fit in. Don made an attempt to fit in with a culture which, of his outside Don-ness, he doesn't fit. Roger didn't fit and handled it opposite, by not trying to fit in and instead sticking to his own self and what he knows. We saw this a lotof ways but most notably dealing with Danny/Daniel; speaking of which, a guy who himself didn't fit in in his prior attempt at getting a life. It's probably likely that Danny/Daniel attempted and succeeded to fit in by being a sheep lost follower as opposed to how Don tried here. Don momentarily joined as per the evening rather than mindlessly followed. All of this is part of the idea of fitting in and all the tangents and consequences of all the ways that it can be explored among a society of culture clash.
Culture clashes can also be about identity and the search and fight for it. That's what has been one of Peggy's hangups all series long, her search for an identity. Here, that basic idea to me was further explored now with others. It's been looking like Pete has been losing his identity, losing at home, losing at work. So he gives in, broken, and steps his big toe into another identity's pool. Joan is trying to create a form of identity. Danny, oh wait a minute, now it's Daniel. Harry is always complaining about being in yet outside with his place at the agency, here he is in his identity and element and can contribute. Ginsberg is having a meltdown over pesonal idenity regarding the account in addition to now not feeling this environment is what he wants to identify with. And the biggest example, the whole thing about naming the agency. What's their identity and how will they fit all these different parts together; a major analogy of the time here. Identity. Cultures. Fitting in.
They decide in the endgame to come to a compromise for what's best for their agency's greater whole, and shake on it; while the outside culture (which of course is high and mighty and smarter and knows everything and is well above the suit wearing business culture) is however rioting in the streets.
Idenity. Who do you think you are, who do you want to be, exploring and observing others and discovering who are you really inside. And more importantly how you handle that going forward...
Don goes for a swim an other points of interest
Remember when Megan says go for a swim? He does in fact do that now doesn't he. In past seasons we've seen him swim, with a voice over of his own writing. Apparently it's one keyhole look we have into what lies inside him. The voiceovers back then were about it allows him to think, allows his mind to speak, alone underwater with for that time bing a free mind. Maybe when his mind is free, that's when it works. Remember also the visual of him wading into the water when he visited Anna, arms open to the water.
So here, he went for a different kind of swim now didn't he. But the way I saw it, it was the same result. It freed his mind to work. However what his mind brought up he couldn't control like he did in the prior seasons of his voiceover swimming. Here, due to drug induced semi-lucidity he was alone with his own mind but not in control of it, probably literally the worst thing for him.
So when he couldn't be alone with his own thoughts and in control of those own thoughts, where did his thoughts meander to?
Guilt.
We've seen the idea of death and guilt being a theme before, hence the soldier returning and the soldier's prior role in the symbol of Don's guilt over killing and then worse stealing from the original Don. No matter the situation, the party, the business, the home or the women, it's always right there underneath. And guilt through being of course the cheat he is, but now it's not hidden from Megan and she's present in his mind right there as he's a cheat. And what comes with being a cheat in guilt? Consequences. Now that spurs a debate: if Megan is pregnant, is that joy, a grounding for him, a foundation for the home we've seen he's never had and searches for... or is her being pregnant a negative consequence and in a way punishment for a man who has a hard element of needing to be free spinning around and around.
An interesting note is Pete and Peggy together on a seasaw. One is up, one is down in movement up and down opposite each other now. Peggy seems in a lot of control, being recommended constantly, Pete being ignored like Peggy when she first started. Same with Peggy and Joan as well in their own way. What's a seesaw? Being settled then the other half upsets you, then you upset them and be settled up and down over and over. Kind of an underlying Mad Men idea, that of a seesaw with these lives.
Another little side note was the idea of two different sides in the form of the age old theme of the boys vs girls. Did you notice the Peggy and Joan meeting, and the guys' meeting gave the same speech?
Roger tells Carnation, "We're sorry your last girlfriend hurt you". Peggy says,"What do you think of the current work besides that it's not working". It's identifying you're unhappy, making you admit it, so come with us.
Outside the nuts and bolts of pitching, outside of Joan and her story and everything it involved in that pitch, part of it was the idea of if a boy can do it a girl can do it. And do it without the boozing and other words this site would edit. I like the way they did it, if I'm actually right and that was part of it, (remember this season is about the idea of different sides) because it wasn't forced on us, or even what the primary motivation was on the surface. But yeah I think that's what it was underlying about with these two. Joan more self interested as primary motivation but Peggy a little more depth in motivation probably. But still, if the boys can pitch so can the girls.
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