Why Pattersons Can't Talk to Each Other
Why Pattersons can't talk to each other: Puns.
I have made comments on various occasions how the only person in For Better or For Worse who ever seemed to compliment April Patterson on her performance was Grandpa Jim. Then much to my surprise, in today's strip, John Patterson tells April that "You two sang like there's no tomorrow."
Instead of interpreting this as an apocalyptic prophecy, I interpreted it as "John Patterson just complimented his daughter on music." This was significant. April's involvement with her band or her music has mostly been portrayed as music intentionally created to irritate her parents. For John Patterson to give her this kind of acceptance, hasn't happened since the days when April performed with Mr. Bergan, her guitar teacher.
But does April recognize this landmark event? No. Instead she makes a pun, like what my 12-year-old son would make. Now I know why John Patterson never compliments April, if that's the reaction he gets.
I have made comments on various occasions how the only person in For Better or For Worse who ever seemed to compliment April Patterson on her performance was Grandpa Jim. Then much to my surprise, in today's strip, John Patterson tells April that "You two sang like there's no tomorrow."
Instead of interpreting this as an apocalyptic prophecy, I interpreted it as "John Patterson just complimented his daughter on music." This was significant. April's involvement with her band or her music has mostly been portrayed as music intentionally created to irritate her parents. For John Patterson to give her this kind of acceptance, hasn't happened since the days when April performed with Mr. Bergan, her guitar teacher.
But does April recognize this landmark event? No. Instead she makes a pun, like what my 12-year-old son would make. Now I know why John Patterson never compliments April, if that's the reaction he gets.
posted by howard at 10:13 PM
10 Comments:
For John Patterson to give her this kind of acceptance, hasn't happened since the days when April performed with Mr. Bergan, her guitar teacher.
Yes, and that was in the days before (as Elly put it) April started playing "headache music."
But does April recognize this landmark event? No. Instead she makes a pun, like what my 12-year-old son would make. Now I know why John Patterson never compliments April, if that's the reaction he gets.
But this is the sort of response John and Elly model and encourage. Bed. Made. Lie.
"But does April recognize this landmark event? No." Sure she knows it's a compliment - she's just responding like a teenager.
But I rarely find puns to be funny and Lynn is resorting to too many of them these days. Although I rolled my eyes when I read the last panel, this would have been the kin of response that I would have given at that age.
aprilp_katje,
You're right. John Patterson shouldn't have had that storm cloud over his head. He should have been proud his daughter is following his example.
Anonymous,
Now that I think about it, I was quite old before I learned to graciously accept a compliment. I work on that all the time with my kids, when someone compliments them and they stare back blankly.
As for the quality of the pun, it really is the kind of joke my 12-year-old boy would make, because he makes those kinds of jokes all the time. I recently spent a day at Six Flags over Texas with his almost 16-year-old, constantly sullen cousin, and the way she would have responded would have been more like, "Yeah, right."
I just looked at Coffee Talk and I finally got one in! Whoo hoo!!
It was interesting to read Coffee Cup (which I generally do not). Seems to me that you were the only one to comment on April and Becky’s relationship. My own interpretation of April’s peer friendships is quite different. In my imagination she has many friends but we only know about those in her band because there’s a limit to the number of characters that can be introduced.
I think that Becky has been on the outs with April for this length of time primarily because “Rebecca” has been obnoxious, not because she left the band.
The one thing we ALL agree is that we’ll feel the loss when the strip goes to reprints. In fact, many of us already feel it…
Anonymous,
I definitely agree with your one thing we ALL agree. As for your other points, I would have to disagree.
It is easy to imagine April has other friends than her fellow band members. She's pretty, dates a jock, and has her own band. Those kinds of things should attract friends. However, I love to analyze this strip based solely upon what is presented. It is from this I drew my conclusions.
I can go along with the statement April has other friendships, if there was something to corroborate it. For example, I know Gerald has more friends than just those in the band because (a) We have seen them and (b) We have been told Gerald plays basketball and hockey, so he is bound to have friends from his sports associations. I could make a similar statement about Eva Abuya, because (a) We have been told she plays tennis and (b) She got her information about Gerald playing at the telethon with Becky from one of her other friends. I can’t make any of those kinds of statements about April.
Not only that, but there are moments that show April the other way. Shannon Lake is her friend and I would like to imagine they have done things together aside from those hallway conversations. However, when April sits down to eat with Shannon Lake and the special needs kids for lunch in the June, 2007 strips, it is clear this is the very first time in the 3 years she has known Shannon, she has ever done this.
As for Becky and April, April has already shown she can accept friends with faults. Gerald called the special needs kids “retarded” and supposedly told stories about April which made her seem slutty. Duncan gossiped maliciously about Becky and Jeffo Bray. In the year prior to Becky leaving the band, she said and did far worse things than being obnoxious and yet April and Becky still remained friends. If I read the strip sequence from September, 2005 where Becky and April broke up exactly as it appears, April says to Becky, “How can you talk about being friends when you said our band wasn’t good enough for you? How can we be friends when you treated us like dirt? We can never have a true friendship again, Becky.” I don’t disagree Becky is egotistical, because she talks about herself in every strip appearance she had after that. However, based solely on what has been presented, Becky’s leaving the band is clearly the reason for the break.
I will go one further on the proof for band member = friend for April. Eva Abuya is introduced as April’s new friend in November, 2005. Between then and April, 2006 when she is introduced as a new band member, how many times does Eva appear socializing with April in the halls or at lunch time? The answer is none. Likewise, April did not start having lunches or eating at the mall with fellow band member Luis Guzmán, until after he joined the band.
I would like to second guess what Lynn Johnston really thinks about her character of April, but that is what I got out of the April / Becky relationship based on what Lynn Johnston has presented.
Question: In recent years, have we been told about new friendships that were formed by any other members of the extended Patterson family? Have we seen Liz or Michael with new friends?
You present a compelling argument, as usual! I recognize that I add much of my own personality and character into these characters.
I attended a very large high school in Manhattan and I often referred to my classmates as friends. My mother once told me that “These are not friends, they are acquaintances; friends are people you also spend time with outside of school.” Well, I didn’t agree; I knew that my classmates were a very important part of my life and I recognized that I was very happy to see them in school - that made them friends. In my adult years I have formed similar friendships at work.
anonymous,
Question: In recent years, have we been told about new friendships that were formed by any other members of the extended Patterson family? Have we seen Liz or Michael with new friends?
I suppose part of this is how you define “recent years”. Liz and Michael made new friends each time they changed their venue to university or employment, but is not a fair comparison. A more apples-to-apples kind of comparison would be if we are shown Liz or Mike with friends outside of their core group while staying in the same venue. January, 2003, Liz went back to university after her winter break with some fairly well-delineated characters who were all not in her core group, and who never showed up again. Mike, on the other hand, has pretty much closed off any new friends, after he got married, unless you count Lovey and Morrie Salzmann, or Carleen Stein.
I agree with your assessment of school and work friends--you don’t necessarily have to spend time with them outside of school or work for them to be friends. Even in this area, April is shown to be limited. No one sits with April on the school bus or at the lunch table except her core group. Even when someone else not in the core group speaks to April, they always initiate the conversation, and oftentimes that conversation has something to do with something April finds embarrassing like hairspraying her hair over her zits, or that whole special needs-at-lunch sequence, where some of the people were insulting April for sitting with them.
Thanx, I thot so!
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