NAOMI NOTION

[Midnite]

MB?.....Midnite?.....be sure to let me know when I've exhausted my allowable posts on a single thread......I MUST be getting close here!

Hi,

The only limit is 10 posts within a 24 hour period, though it goes by the forum clock which is on GMT, which means it started over again a little over an hour ago (I'm typing this at a little after 5 p.m. West Coast time).  But other than the 10 posts per 24 hours, you're free to post within a topic as much as you want.

[VAM]

I have to admit that I never thought this query would solicit so many interesting responses. Maybe VAM should continue to show a serious side?

Birdie, I am sorry to hear about your nephew. He has my prayers.

[Midnite]

Birdie, please don't feel bad!  I'm glad you feel comfortable around the rest of us to share personal stuff.

[Nancy]

Nancy, I would absolutely agree with your position on this.....no argument from me that one act of kindness could possibly make up for the way Joshua has obviously behaved for many years.

Except for one thing.....

In my opinion, the scene, as it was played in today's episode,  was MEANT to be a denoument, a revelation, for Naomi.  If it WASN'T intended to be played that way, then Joan Bennet sure as hell took it into her own hands to MAKE it appear that way.  

It comes across that she IS forgiving him....probably because she knows she's going to leave him.  THAT's the part I have so much trouble with:

He loves her.  He admits it.  She realises it.  She forgives him.  Now....they have a son in terrible danger....what does she do?   She abandons him.

On top of the fact that I cannot fathom that behavior from a mother, I simply think the thing is badly written.  If they wanted us to accept that she was utterly despairing, they should have never had that intimate and revealing moment between Joshua and Naomi take place.  After that scene, her suicide just rings false.  IMHO.

Rainey

Rainey,

Yes, I can see your point.  I finally saw the eps you are talking about and the only thing I could come up with is that Naomi declared her love for Barnabas, and he begged her to not do that.  Of course, she already took the poison.  Did Joshua ever declare his love for Barnabas? If he didn't, that's how he survived.

I agree with you now - the way the scenes were written and constructed left much to be desired, and I see why you are so dissatisfied.

nancy  

[Raineypark]

Midnite.....I was KIDDING!  There really IS a limit to the number of posts you can put on a single thread?!!  

Well....learn something new every day!!

Nancy, Ladies, I think we all did a grand job of dissecting poor Naomi's psyche!  

Rainey

[Gerard]

Naomi committed suicide because of the curse.  It makes no sense as to why she would do so otherwise.  Granted, she went to hell and back, but common sense as per her headstrongedness dictates that she would take the bull by the horns to do whatever she could to make her son a normal guy once again.  She died because of the curse - that anyone who loves Barnabas would die.  She was under its influence, and was not culpable.

Gerard  

[Gerard]

Oh, and Birdie, I'm so sorry about your nephew!  My thoughts are with you and your family.

Gerard

[Luciaphile]

Wow, what a lot of really interesting comments.  I'm tempted to stay out of this one, but restraint has never been my strong suit  

I think a strong case can be made that Naomi is suffering from some sort of depression.  Admittedly we haven't seen some of the more serious symptoms--she has been able, for instance, to manage to get out of bed, function, etc. She has shown signs of despair, however.  She's expressed loss of control, feeling hopelessness.  I don't get the sense that this character has felt joy in a very long time.  I do get a profound sense that she feels lost and alone.

Her husband can't or won't express emotions.  The child she would like to take care of wants to go back to his own home.  Millicent's losing it and she's got people like Trask (or did) and Nathan twisting the knife.

But she's lost two children in the space of a short period of time.  Seeing your son come back from the dead, has got to mess with your mind on some level.  Of course, we can only speculate about this here as it's not like it's ever happened to anyone we know.

The Collins family is never shown to be particularly religious, but I think it's arguable that Naomi would have a fairly conventional set of beliefs and values.  When all of that has been turned upside down and back again and then thrown into the equivalent of an Osterizer and set on puree, well, again, that's got to cause damage.

When you're suffering from those kinds of problems (and I haven't even touched on the alcoholism), well, it's sadly plausible to me that Naomi would choose to kill herself.  

I don't believe that this is an act of cowardice.  Cowardice to me would be her packing up her bags and going to Boston to leave her husband with the mess.  

She just can't handle it anymore.  The woman was in pain.  She feels lost.  She's alone.  When you're depressed, the slightest thing can make you break down, and here she's been handled more pain in a couple of months than most people get in a life time.

Birdie, I'm so sorry about your nephew ((((hugs))))

Luciaphil

[Midnite]

Midnite.....I was KIDDING!  There really IS a limit to the number of posts you can put on a single thread?!!  

Well....learn something new every day!!

Oops.  

But my point was that there's no limit on the number of posts you can put in a single thread... only on the number made anywhere on the forums each 24 hour period.

Nancy, Ladies, I think we all did a grand job of dissecting poor Naomi's psyche!  

Agreed!  You all did a great job, and Gerard too!!

[Josette]

No one seems to have mentioned the fact that Naomi actually saw what he was doing to Millicent.  As she first said to Joshua, "he's like an animal!"  It's not just that he's still alive and maybe has a chance, but she's had a quite graphic indication of what his life is.  And Joshua seems to have indicated that he wasn't successful in Boston.  Her reply indicates that she doesn't believe there's any hope for him.

And, as others have said, she does it before her meeting with him.

I think it was on another thread that someone asked if she might have been carrying the poison around, waiting for an opportunity to use it.  I think she just prepared it now when all this has happened.  The deliberate way she prepared the note for Joshua, then refrained from taking it until she could take care of Vicki, I'm sure she just prepared the poison shortly before this.


Birdie - I'm so glad all came out well for your daughter, but am so sorry to learn of your nephew.

[Cassandra]

Birdie, Im so sorry to hear about your nephew. I can't even imagine what you're sister in law and her family are going through. My heart goes out to them.  Im glad that your daughter recovered and is doing fine now.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Midnite.....I was KIDDING!  There really IS a limit to the number of posts you can put on a single thread?!!  

There's no limit to the number of posts that can put in a single thread. Threads can actually go on for pages and pages if you people come up with things to post in them. But as Midnite has said, there's a limit of 10 posts per 24 hours. The actual beginning and end of the period varies depending on the time zone. For instance, in EDT, the period runs from 8p.m to 8p.m. the next day. In CDT, the period runs from 7p.m. to 7p.m. the next day. And so on with the other time periods.

There are a few reasons why this feature is built in to the forum's system, but the most helpful side benefit for Midnite and myself is that it allows the forum to stay a bit  more manageable for us at the moment.

Believe it or not, the forum averages more than 100 posts a day (there were 136 on April 25th). Midnite basically reads each and every post every day, answers e-mails, IMs and the occasional question directed at her on the forum, and deals with the occasional crisis - both on the forum and behind its scenes. I've given up on trying to keep up with all the posts and have focused on trying to answer the more technical questions that come my way in e-mail, IM and on the forum, while I'm also putting together the daily montages and Robservations captures, and dealing with many behind the scenes things, like twice daily forum backups, managing new member's files, keeping apprised of YaBB modification releases (there are more than 100 mods that I have yet to open to see if I think any of them might be something we might be interested in installing here), and adding my own tweaks to hopefully improve the way the forum's system runs for us.

Now, don't get me wrong, what Midnite and I do here is definitely a labor of love for both of us. And quite honestly, we're very grateful the forum has such enthusiastic members, and we're especially grateful that all of you have made this the most successful forum we've ever worked on. But we no longer have the luxury of VantageNet or eboards4all to run to with our problems. Everything on dsboards is our responsibilty, and I'm not ashamed to admit that sometimes it's a little daunting, which is why we're trying to keep things as manageable as we can until such time as we might find a third (and possibly fourth) person to help us out, mostly with some of the behind the scenes work.

Hmmm...by any chance would any of you know someone who loves DS, has at least a working knowledge of HTML, Java and Perl (more than a working knowledge would be a major plus), is willing to devote themselves to a project simply for the sheer enjoyment it brings them, and most importantly, lives on the East or West coast so they can be handling tasks at times when Midnite and I are respectively dealing with a small matter like our real lives? If so, tell them to send phone numbers and resumes to webmaster@dsboards.com, and they too can enter the rewarding field of DSIT (Dark Shadows Internet Technology)! .

[Raineypark]

Okay....that's it....I'm done.

Somebody just slap me.

First we have the tender and intimate moment when Naomi realises that Joshua loves her......

And the NEXT DAY we have Joshua informing Barnabas that he stopped loving Naomi long ago....in fact, he's probably never loved anyone in his whole miserable life.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Which, needless to point out, nullify's my entire day-long argument regarding Naomi's state of mind and choice to commit suicide.....though if I'D been married to that cold-blooded, duplicitous louse I'd have killed HIM instead of ME.

Gerard (and anyone else who mentioned it) you got it exactly right when you said Naomi had to die because of the curse, and Joshua wouldn't.

Tell me again that people got paid coin of the realm to write this stuff.  

Rainey, who will be retiring to Bedlam  

[jennifer]

Wow, what a lot of really interesting comments.  I'm tempted to stay out of this one, but restraint has never been my strong suit  

I think a strong case can be made that Naomi is suffering from some sort of depression.  Admittedly we haven't seen some of the more serious symptoms--she has been able, for instance, to manage to get out of bed, function, etc. She has shown signs of despair, however.  She's expressed loss of control, feeling hopelessness.  I don't get the sense that this character has felt joy in a very long time.  I do get a profound sense that she feels lost and alone.

Her husband can't or won't express emotions.  The child she would like to take care of wants to go back to his own home.  Millicent's losing it and she's got people like Trask (or did) and Nathan twisting the knife.

But she's lost two children in the space of a short period of time.  Seeing your son come back from the dead, has got to mess with your mind on some level.  Of course, we can only speculate about this here as it's not like it's ever happened to anyone we know.

The Collins family is never shown to be particularly religious, but I think it's arguable that Naomi would have a fairly conventional set of beliefs and values.  When all of that has been turned upside down and back again and then thrown into the equivalent of an Osterizer and set on puree, well, again, that's got to cause damage.

When you're suffering from those kinds of problems (and I haven't even touched on the alcoholism), well, it's sadly plausible to me that Naomi would choose to kill herself.  

I don't believe that this is an act of cowardice.  Cowardice to me would be her packing up her bags and going to Boston to leave her husband with the mess.  

She just can't handle it anymore.  The woman was in pain.  She feels lost.  She's alone.  When you're depressed, the slightest thing can make you break down, and here she's been handled more pain in a couple of months than most people get in a life time.

Birdie, I'm so sorry about your nephew ((((hugs))))

Luciaphil

I agree Luciaphil it is depression. Losing a child (Sarah) was a terrible blow but losing a second child and then finding out his fate for just too much for her. Maybe it was impulsive and if she thought it through she might have stayed to help Barnabas but I believe she just couldn't take it at that moment and chose that fate.
maybe she felt He was doomed and wanted to join her children in death. Very sad.
Also Birdie my heart goes out to you and your family.
a hug from me also Take care

jennifer