Day vs. Gately: Charlotte Treat's defenseless slogans

Charlotte Treat is the register's opposite pole from Day — nine weeks clean, "clueless," deploying the slogans with prim total sincerity ("You need to ask for some gratitude," "Easy does it," and the pun she produces "finally," as if playing a trump). She has no irony to defend herself with and no idea she's being filleted; Day's wit runs rings around her. But the scene refuses to let cleverness win on points: Charlotte is doing the thing that works and Day is doing the thing that kills, and her defenseless earnestness — she "looks over to Gately for some sort of help" — is on the side the book backs. Sincerity here is not smart, and its not-smartness is not the disqualification irony assumes it to be.