Is booze the only thing keeping her from full on madness? Is that the trick?
It’s nice to see that Sergio may actually be sane, though. I think he’s the first non-mad genius we’ve seen in this universe. (Artie may count, but he’s a special case as a product of madness.)
Actually, I’m not sure that joining Anasigma to “minimize harm” qualifies as sane. That’s like a bit like joining Hydra because you want to help superheroes. ^_^;
To be fair, they had apparently already built the reality-warping machine Sergio insisted should never have ever been built and he joined originally with the claim of going to deactivate it. Which he did, eventually.
Thanks for making me smarter, Ed. I’ve known this song since I was a kid—it was a popular standard in the ’60s. I’ve also been a huge Petula Clark fan since the ’60s—she was one of my role models as a singer. Yet I never associated the song with her until now, and here it was written for her!
Terrific filk, by the way.
…..for a given value of ‘Mad’, of course. If ‘Mad’ means cackling wildly while you ride your giant mechanized platypus named Pierre through East L.A., stomping police-cars and taxis into thin metal Frisbees as you go, then no; she’s not ‘Mad’ at all, she just likes to make zombies. 😀
She’s not really lowercase-s sane, but she is capital-S Sane. She’s not entirely all there, either by nature or by exposure to mad science, but she doesn’t suffer from the mental disorder characterized by mad science.
She is NOT insane. Let me ask you this; If someone offered you a job and funding to create an homocidal undead abomination, who here could truthfully say they would turn that down? I thought so.
“We’ve all seen things we can’t explain. Hell, we’re all DRINKING thinks we can’t explain.” – Captain May Carter, Atomic Robo: the Flying She-Devils of the Pacific #2 (of 5)
I’m not the only one who thinks the shadowy and morally-challenged government superscience agency Majestic 7 in those comics is a branch of Anasigma, right?
I hear Dr Lee’s last line in the voice of a 12-year-old describing how her Science experiment went in front of the rest of the class. “It was a bit icky what happened to the bystanders, but Teacher said I shouldn’t worry about that.”
It’s a tricky distinction. Dr. Lee has been stated to be involved in reverse-engineering the work of mad scientists. If we take “mad science” to be a field of study, then it is clear that she is a student of it, and thus a mad scientist in the same way that a person who studies physics is a physicist. On the other hand, it’s also been stated back in Narbonic that the methodology of mad science is completely different from that of sane science: where the latter is concerned with controlled studies and reproducible results, the former is more about the ecstatic state of inspiration that lets you wrest the very secrets of creation from the cosmos. Considered thus, the mere fact that she’s replicating the results of mad science puts her on the sane side.
That said, it should be noted that the whole notion of “mad science” is a relatively recent coinage. The term “mad scientist” originally just meant a scientist who is mad, not a practitioner of a special kind of science. In this sense, the “mad” part is orthogonal to what kind of science you do. I wouldn’t call Dr. Lee outright mad in this sense, but it’s clear she’s got issues.
As you’ve implied, It doesn’t help that “mad scientist” covers both practitioners of “mad science” and insane scientists. Narbonic was filled with people who filled both definitions, i.e. insane practitioners of “mad science” – but even then, it should be noted that for much of the run of Narbonic, Dave was a sane mad scientist; so it’s perfectly possible that Virginia could be a sane mad scientist – and she may remain so for a while, given that Dave was employed by a mad scientist and was surrounded by it daily, whereas Virginia has only engaged in two major projects to date (that we know of) and spends a significant portion of the working week playing an MMORPG…
It’s canon that Madness has an onset in the Narboniverse, but that mad projects can occur before that point. Ref- Dave’s portal in the microwave, Helen’s viral science fair project (don’t remember the virus off hand). Since this is down timeline of Narbonic, it may be that someone used Helen’s research to be able to stabilize someone in the pre-mad state, rather than the true mundane state her work allowed.
I wouldn’t call Dave pre-breakthrough “sane”. From at least the time he “fixed” the death ray, he was practicing Mad Science, but he was deluding himself about the nature of his activities, mentally and emotionally incapable of recognizing or admitting to himself what he was doing. In my book, that’s crazier than… well, maybe not crazier than ranting about the three-legged hyena cicadas, but definitely crazier than someone practicing Mad Science fully cognizant of what they’re meddling in – e.g. Helen or Madblood for the run of Narbonic, Dave post-“SANE UP!”
I think it’s more likely she’s a neurotic “normal” (non-Mad) scientist. There’s a lot of room between sane and insane, they’re not really binary states.
Having been re-reading Narbonic recently, it’s notable that even “sane” Dave had this thing that if something was “cool” it over-ruled his self of self-preservation, something he didn’t seem to have if the madness cure had been administered to him. such in the case of his close. So, I’m not sure there’s any such thing as sane Mad science, it’s just some people are less far on the continuum of crazy.
Actually, not as tricky as all that. As Dr. Lee herself said earlier (IIRC), Malological Insanity has specific DSM-IV criteria in the Narboniverse. Whether or not she’s sane, she doesn’t meet the criteria for ‘Mad Scientist.’ Ergo, her science is not Mad, and neither is she.
It doesn’t matter if it’s true. It only matters that it’s written down someplace.
…and this is the only time I think I’ve ever heard “I injected myself with UNITY’s blood” and “it worked out okay” in the same sentence. I think that this juxtaposition puts Dr. Lee squarely sitting on the fence between “Mad Science” and “Sane Science”. With her legs dangling over the “We’re All Mad Here” side!
From Alice in wonderland:
Alice: What if I don’t want to go about around mad people?
The Cheshire Cat: Oh you can’t help that were all mad here. You may have noticed I’m not all there myself! (said as he’s disappearing)
I thought it’d been long since established that the reason Dr. Lee was so prized by Anasigma is because she’s the only (or one of the very few) ‘sane’ scientists who can comprehend Mad Science well enough to reverse engineer parts of it into ‘sane’ science usable by everyone?
She’s sane, just very… borderline in it.
My operating theory is that someone in Anasigma is fully aware that Virginia Lee is a latent mad scientist, and is trying their own form of Helen’s Tinasky Study to see precisely how long it takes her to crack. Her ability to reverse-engineer ‘mad’ science into something theoretically reproducible is merely a side benefit.
Does anybody else ever wonder if maybe Anasigma is a project that the original Helen Narbon (the mom, not her clone-daughter) started and then abandoned when she got bored?
You are confusing her ability to turn Mad science “sane” with her being sane herself. The one does not depend on the other. Just because she can make Mad science reproducible by sane scientists does not make her sane. If anything, it proves she is Mad.
If we consider her solution to her problem with Unity, I’d say it was an a act of desperation rather than insanity, considering the alternative.
Then again, engaging in truly bleeding-edge science is the equivalent of sky diving, which I consider to be borderline.
Is booze the only thing keeping her from full on madness? Is that the trick?
It’s nice to see that Sergio may actually be sane, though. I think he’s the first non-mad genius we’ve seen in this universe. (Artie may count, but he’s a special case as a product of madness.)
i’m pretty sure dr lee isn’t mad. she may be evil, but that’s different.
Actually, I’m not sure that joining Anasigma to “minimize harm” qualifies as sane. That’s like a bit like joining Hydra because you want to help superheroes. ^_^;
To be fair, they had apparently already built the reality-warping machine Sergio insisted should never have ever been built and he joined originally with the claim of going to deactivate it. Which he did, eventually.
(TUNE: “Call Me”, Petula Clark)
Though I work for evil forces,
Though their goals are mean and naughty,
Still, my fav’rite part, of course, is
Animating some dead body!
[CHORUS]
Zombies!
I get to make my own zombies!
Stitching up parts to make zombies!
Hunger for brains, can’t contain!
When I get into a scuffle,
Threatened by my own creation,
I just shout “Blueberry waffles!”
Causing neural irritation!
[repeat CHORUS]
I put a guy’s brain
Into a big plane!
Made it so he cannot swear!
Now we play “Rock Star”,
I’m on the gui-tar
While I’m letting down my hair!
Took my zombie’s blood component,
Then injected it within me …
Beat my funky girl opponent!
Notarized her for the win, me!
[repeat CHORUS]
Thanks for making me smarter, Ed. I’ve known this song since I was a kid—it was a popular standard in the ’60s. I’ve also been a huge Petula Clark fan since the ’60s—she was one of my role models as a singer. Yet I never associated the song with her until now, and here it was written for her!
Terrific filk, by the way.
I only know it because of “The Splendid Table” (God, now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d ever write).
And we’re sure Dr. Lee is sane why exactly?
Sane is a relative term. She’s just not Mad…
…..for a given value of ‘Mad’, of course. If ‘Mad’ means cackling wildly while you ride your giant mechanized platypus named Pierre through East L.A., stomping police-cars and taxis into thin metal Frisbees as you go, then no; she’s not ‘Mad’ at all, she just likes to make zombies. 😀
His name isn’t Pierre, it’s Perry. But you can call him Agent P. 🙂
No, no, I was talking about Perry’s French cousin twice removed. Common mistake. ^_^
She’s not really lowercase-s sane, but she is capital-S Sane. She’s not entirely all there, either by nature or by exposure to mad science, but she doesn’t suffer from the mental disorder characterized by mad science.
She is NOT insane. Let me ask you this; If someone offered you a job and funding to create an homocidal undead abomination, who here could truthfully say they would turn that down? I thought so.
The flaw in your argument, Dewy, is the underlining assumption of sanity on our part.
I would definitely turn that down. No way, no how am I creating a killer zombie.
Of course if iRobot wants to hire me to create terminators, I am so there. Biology is just icky.
She’s not insane, she’s just irresponsible.
“We’ve all seen things we can’t explain. Hell, we’re all DRINKING thinks we can’t explain.” – Captain May Carter, Atomic Robo: the Flying She-Devils of the Pacific #2 (of 5)
I’m not the only one who thinks the shadowy and morally-challenged government superscience agency Majestic 7 in those comics is a branch of Anasigma, right?
I hear Dr Lee’s last line in the voice of a 12-year-old describing how her Science experiment went in front of the rest of the class. “It was a bit icky what happened to the bystanders, but Teacher said I shouldn’t worry about that.”
It’s a tricky distinction. Dr. Lee has been stated to be involved in reverse-engineering the work of mad scientists. If we take “mad science” to be a field of study, then it is clear that she is a student of it, and thus a mad scientist in the same way that a person who studies physics is a physicist. On the other hand, it’s also been stated back in Narbonic that the methodology of mad science is completely different from that of sane science: where the latter is concerned with controlled studies and reproducible results, the former is more about the ecstatic state of inspiration that lets you wrest the very secrets of creation from the cosmos. Considered thus, the mere fact that she’s replicating the results of mad science puts her on the sane side.
That said, it should be noted that the whole notion of “mad science” is a relatively recent coinage. The term “mad scientist” originally just meant a scientist who is mad, not a practitioner of a special kind of science. In this sense, the “mad” part is orthogonal to what kind of science you do. I wouldn’t call Dr. Lee outright mad in this sense, but it’s clear she’s got issues.
As you’ve implied, It doesn’t help that “mad scientist” covers both practitioners of “mad science” and insane scientists. Narbonic was filled with people who filled both definitions, i.e. insane practitioners of “mad science” – but even then, it should be noted that for much of the run of Narbonic, Dave was a sane mad scientist; so it’s perfectly possible that Virginia could be a sane mad scientist – and she may remain so for a while, given that Dave was employed by a mad scientist and was surrounded by it daily, whereas Virginia has only engaged in two major projects to date (that we know of) and spends a significant portion of the working week playing an MMORPG…
It’s canon that Madness has an onset in the Narboniverse, but that mad projects can occur before that point. Ref- Dave’s portal in the microwave, Helen’s viral science fair project (don’t remember the virus off hand). Since this is down timeline of Narbonic, it may be that someone used Helen’s research to be able to stabilize someone in the pre-mad state, rather than the true mundane state her work allowed.
I wouldn’t call Dave pre-breakthrough “sane”. From at least the time he “fixed” the death ray, he was practicing Mad Science, but he was deluding himself about the nature of his activities, mentally and emotionally incapable of recognizing or admitting to himself what he was doing. In my book, that’s crazier than… well, maybe not crazier than ranting about the three-legged hyena cicadas, but definitely crazier than someone practicing Mad Science fully cognizant of what they’re meddling in – e.g. Helen or Madblood for the run of Narbonic, Dave post-“SANE UP!”
I think it’s more likely she’s a neurotic “normal” (non-Mad) scientist. There’s a lot of room between sane and insane, they’re not really binary states.
Having been re-reading Narbonic recently, it’s notable that even “sane” Dave had this thing that if something was “cool” it over-ruled his self of self-preservation, something he didn’t seem to have if the madness cure had been administered to him. such in the case of his close. So, I’m not sure there’s any such thing as sane Mad science, it’s just some people are less far on the continuum of crazy.
Actually, not as tricky as all that. As Dr. Lee herself said earlier (IIRC), Malological Insanity has specific DSM-IV criteria in the Narboniverse. Whether or not she’s sane, she doesn’t meet the criteria for ‘Mad Scientist.’ Ergo, her science is not Mad, and neither is she.
It doesn’t matter if it’s true. It only matters that it’s written down someplace.
…and this is the only time I think I’ve ever heard “I injected myself with UNITY’s blood” and “it worked out okay” in the same sentence. I think that this juxtaposition puts Dr. Lee squarely sitting on the fence between “Mad Science” and “Sane Science”. With her legs dangling over the “We’re All Mad Here” side!
From Alice in wonderland:
Alice: What if I don’t want to go about around mad people?
The Cheshire Cat: Oh you can’t help that were all mad here. You may have noticed I’m not all there myself! (said as he’s disappearing)
If Dr. Lee’s line in that last panel isn’t proof that she is, in fact, quite Mad, I’ll eat my hat.
I thought it’d been long since established that the reason Dr. Lee was so prized by Anasigma is because she’s the only (or one of the very few) ‘sane’ scientists who can comprehend Mad Science well enough to reverse engineer parts of it into ‘sane’ science usable by everyone?
She’s sane, just very… borderline in it.
My operating theory is that someone in Anasigma is fully aware that Virginia Lee is a latent mad scientist, and is trying their own form of Helen’s Tinasky Study to see precisely how long it takes her to crack. Her ability to reverse-engineer ‘mad’ science into something theoretically reproducible is merely a side benefit.
Does anybody else ever wonder if maybe Anasigma is a project that the original Helen Narbon (the mom, not her clone-daughter) started and then abandoned when she got bored?
That would explain the shoe polish video, the traps, and the razor eye chimps.
You are confusing her ability to turn Mad science “sane” with her being sane herself. The one does not depend on the other. Just because she can make Mad science reproducible by sane scientists does not make her sane. If anything, it proves she is Mad.
If we consider her solution to her problem with Unity, I’d say it was an a act of desperation rather than insanity, considering the alternative.
Then again, engaging in truly bleeding-edge science is the equivalent of sky diving, which I consider to be borderline.
But injecting herself with Unity wasn’t her solution. It was Unity’s. She just went along with it because she really had no choice.