Joan of Arcadia - "Anonymous"

This immanent Iris vs. Joan antagonism is beginning to look quite interesting, if only from an academic angle. Their respective interactions with Adam at the start of the episode were especially illuminating; Iris kept interjecting with remarks that hung awkwardly in ignored silence, while Joan prattled on in her family-drama-speak. Coupled with my prior musings on Iris vis-à -vis her "baby voice" (even though it looks like I came to the conclusion that the voice is a fiction, it is a very realistic and psychologically motivated fiction), the two girls are being sorted out into two camps: reality, and dramatic contrivance.

This new development parallels the basic premise of the show: high schooler gets visitations from God, and the subsequent juxtaposition of "only on a tv show" and putative reality. As though in some effort to get back to this foundation (since Joan's action has grown into "What adults think a teenage girl might speak like," something archly fabricated), the writers are creating this new division between Iris and Joan. Whatever their intent with Iris's newfound awkwardness, I'm finding myself empathizing with her more than I am with Joan, who comparatively comes off as tv-shallow and banal.

And by the way, I only listened to it once, but Grace's poem had some wonderful images. (Hell, I have it on tape, if I really wanted to get the text of it, I could transcribe it and thereby increase my Googability even further!) Which goes to show, Grace is still the best realized character on the show.

Ok, so I copped out and looked for it on TWOP.

Sewer walking

You and me, we used to talk
like a river underground,the sewer
where we used to walk
The hole at the end empties out to the pier
where paper boats disappear

Me, I try to send this note
float it like a paper boat
but paper sinks and words are weak
I try but I dont speak

The lines, "The hole at the end empties out to the pier / where paper boats disappear" are genuinely beautiful. I do wonder who wrote this. Apparently it's an original-to-Joan piece. Lovely.