Thursday, October 11, 2007

Connie Goes Hybrid

It is an interesting quality of For Better and For Worse, that the single mother life is praised based on the virtue of being able to go out on a date. I think it says a lot about what kind of woman Elly Patterson is and likewise, what kind of woman Lynn Johnston is.

My wife, for example, hates dating. She hates going out on dates with me. She went out on dates with me when we were dating, because I liked dating. I took a special delight in finding out where the new hot place was to eat; or which plays, movies, art, or dance was well-reviewed; so I could take a date there. Once married, my wife turned into a homebody, totally dedicated to home living, child-rearing, and whole nine yards of that. I have to struggle to get her to go out. She would much rather see a movie by rental in her own home; than to get a sitter, get dinner, go to a theatre, and make a night of it. She would not relate to Connie or to Elly in today’s strip.

When I see these early strips with Elly Patterson, it is clear to me that she has not embraced the whole motherhood, child-rearing, lifestyle. She may have gotten into it, but she doesn’t seem to like it. Many of the early strips, which are being shown in our hybrid format, reflect a time period where Elly is shown again and again, beaten down by the whole motherhood thing. I think that this is a pretty common situation for a lot of women. I remember a survey some years back where mothers were polled and asked if they would do it all over again, and a shockingly large number of them said they wouldn’t. I have a feeling this is where Elly Patterson would fall. Given it to do all over again, she wouldn’t have married John and she wouldn’t have had her kids.

Imagine if you will, Lynn Johnston, in the same situation. She starts off very dependent on Rod Johnston to provide the income to take care of her and her children, but then later on, For Better or For Worse takes off and money is rolling in. She has to be wondering what life would be like without the encumbrances of husband and children, now she no longer needs the husband for his income. Oftentimes, when I read these early strips, I see the gears turning in Lynn Johnston’s mind.

10 Comments:

Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

You, too, eh? The unspoken subtext of the earliest strips was Elly's belief that she'd screwed herself royally by getting chained down to her suburban box. This may be why she advocates it for Liz and Michael: she's punishing them for destroying her chance at a lifestyle she envies by forcing them to live the one she secretly hates.

1:35 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

I'm also thinking that maybe Lynn's recent experiences are causing her to see Connie with new eyes. ISTM that many of these early strips approached her as "poor Connie." But this flashback sequence has been framed with Elly envying Connie's freedom. Hmmmm.

4:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"She has to be wondering what life would be like without the encumbrances of husband and children."

Husband moved in with another woman? Check.

Children grown up and alienated (although one seems to have returned, one imagines temporarily)?

Mission accomplished, Lynn!

6:59 AM  
Blogger howard said...

dreadedcandiru2,

The old parental curse of being chained to the suburban box (nicely phrased). Of course, the usual parental curse is that your child will have a child like you were when you were a child.

9:43 AM  
Blogger howard said...

aprilp_katje,

Good point about the “freedom” envy. I will have to watch out and see exactly how modern Elly refers to the old Connie. I am sure it will come up again, considering we have started on a Connie hybrid. How many strips were in this sequence, by the way?

9:43 AM  
Blogger howard said...

dlauthor,

I am not so sure Lynn’s daughter is a temporary fixture, now that For Better or For Worse is set up so that it could run forever. Lynn stated in one of those interviews that if she got tired of doing the hybrid, she would turn the strip over to pure reprints. Her daughter has got to realize that in addition to helping mom out to get through the divorce, she stands to gain a substantial amount of money from any syndication rights to the reprints, which will probably be passed to her and keep her sitting pretty for decades. Just look at how long the Peanuts reprints have been going since Charles Schulz died.

9:44 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

Of course, the usual parental curse is that your child will have a child like you were when you were a child.
Considering that Meredith shows all the signs of becoming a inconsiderate, deceitful, self-righteous little asswipe who who seems to want a gormless twerp she can dominate, I'd say that came to pass.

10:32 AM  
Blogger howard said...

dreadedcandiru2,

Michael/Lynn Johnston does seem to delight in the idea that Meredith imitates him. The difference is that Michael does not get upset by what Meredith does, like Elly got upset with Michael.

11:49 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

Unless, of course, he is personally inconvenienced. If he has to go through the same 'enjoyable' things as his wife, all bets are off.

12:59 PM  
Blogger howard said...

dreadedcandiru1,

If he has to go through the same 'enjoyable' things as his wife, all bets are off.

I look forward to reading that strip, but I somehow doubt I will ever see it.

5:03 PM  

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