Race Relations Part 1
In today's strip, Lynn Johnston, after apparently establishing that Paul and Liz belong together, begins to deal with the sticky issue of race. So in part 1, she has Gary Crane play the part of devil's advocate, by initially playing with race names as a source of ...well, I can't exactly call it humour. To address this, I had my characters mix words together all day.
qnjones popped back in towards the end of the day, after taking a week off and immediately had her Becky jump into an attack on Jeremy and a break-up with him over something he said. The last time this happened, Jeremy whined and complained he was being misunderstood to no good effect. I figure Jeremy has grown up enough since the last time, to not fall into this situation again. Instead, he took a more defensive and caustic stance. In other words, he is thinking, "Not this again." The claim was that Jeremy had said he would follow after his ex-girlfriend to the States, if she asked him to, which he did except he was kidding and was trying to tease Liz. Oddly enough, aprilp_katje posting as April came to Jeremy's defence. I find the whole idea of April defending Jeremy against Becky very amusing.
A while back I posted Eva talking to Jeremy about his ex-girlfriend's motivations for breaking up with him, and since that time, he has not mentioned her by name. My overall goal is to get Jeremy to a point where someone new to reading April's Real Blog will recognize my characters and they will not have a backstory too involved to understand, or in other words, not deviating too far from the material in the For Better or For Worse strip or letters. I try to do the same thing with Constable Paul Wright when he talks about Mtigwaki. Howard is more of a problem, since he has become essentially a made up character. The strip Howard is so radically different from ARB Howard, it is impossible to reconcile the two.
Tomorrow's strip: Liz spouts off about races, and has never appeared stupider.
qnjones popped back in towards the end of the day, after taking a week off and immediately had her Becky jump into an attack on Jeremy and a break-up with him over something he said. The last time this happened, Jeremy whined and complained he was being misunderstood to no good effect. I figure Jeremy has grown up enough since the last time, to not fall into this situation again. Instead, he took a more defensive and caustic stance. In other words, he is thinking, "Not this again." The claim was that Jeremy had said he would follow after his ex-girlfriend to the States, if she asked him to, which he did except he was kidding and was trying to tease Liz. Oddly enough, aprilp_katje posting as April came to Jeremy's defence. I find the whole idea of April defending Jeremy against Becky very amusing.
A while back I posted Eva talking to Jeremy about his ex-girlfriend's motivations for breaking up with him, and since that time, he has not mentioned her by name. My overall goal is to get Jeremy to a point where someone new to reading April's Real Blog will recognize my characters and they will not have a backstory too involved to understand, or in other words, not deviating too far from the material in the For Better or For Worse strip or letters. I try to do the same thing with Constable Paul Wright when he talks about Mtigwaki. Howard is more of a problem, since he has become essentially a made up character. The strip Howard is so radically different from ARB Howard, it is impossible to reconcile the two.
Tomorrow's strip: Liz spouts off about races, and has never appeared stupider.
posted by howard at 11:57 PM
4 Comments:
Liz spouts off about races, and has never appeared stupider.
And sadly, we are probably meant to admire her speech.
The speech was more than a little odd, particularly considering to whom it is being delivered, i.e. her boss and a full-blooded Ojibway like Gary, who is married to the very white-looking Vivian. If I were to read this with any belief the Lynnions knew what they were doing, I would say that since Gary and Vivian have met Elly and spent some time talking to her, that perhaps Gary sensed something about Elly that caused him to ask Liz the question in the first place. Elly has also met Paul, and she doesn’t seem to be that hot on him. Back in November, when Elly was talking to Connie about Liz, Elly expresses no opinion on Paul, but rushes on to talk about the other men in Liz’s life, including boys she saw in Spruce Narrows. Not only that, but during the Christmas time together, it is Mike and Dee who are interested in Liz’s discussion about Paul, not Elly and John. Elly’s favourite is Anthony, after all, so there may actually be some reaction from Elly in the strip, when Liz finally says, “Paul and I are engaged, and we will be raising our children in Mtigwaki.” But I doubt it.
Fortunately, that doesn't stop us here in April's Real Blog. However, our society has come a long way from doing humour about the loveable drunken Indian.
A McMiqmaq! Good grief. Lynn reflects contemporary social values in her belief that all of the races should assimilate, but its a little childish. You don't see the British royal family integrating with say, Arab lines. Or, ah, if you do it doesn't last. What can I say? ;)
I used to really respect and admire Lynn's work. But there is a subtle politics about it that is really sad. People should be free to do what moves them, not guided by heavy handed didacticism in what can only be termed Pleasantville.
Post a Comment
<< Home