Relief for Iris
Now we begin a sequence in For Better or For Worse, which appears to be Lynn Johnston's answer to the regular complaint by For Better or For Worse readers about the Patterson family’s seeming inability to help out Iris Richards in the care of Jim Richards after his stroke (or really even before his stroke too). When we were getting monthly letters on the website, I sensed a real disparity between the handling of Grandpa Jim in the letters and in the strip. In the letters, the Pattersons were constantly doing things to help Iris with Grandpa Jim; but then the strip would turn around and show Iris in despair that no one was helping and she did not have anyone to talk to. The strip on May 17, 2007, where she tried to beg the speech therapist to stay to talk to her was particularly good at spelling out this point.
Oddly enough, Lynn Johnston’s response to this now appears to be a second stroke to get Grandpa Jim in the Sunset Manor long-term care facility, where there is a staff hired to help him out and alleviate the stress on poor Iris. Lynn could have had some strips showing the Pattersons helping out Iris, but has chosen a different path. It seems like a missed opportunity to show her characters caring for another character; but on the other hand, I will have to admire Lynn’s understanding of the personalities she has created. We have had Grandpa Jim recovering from stroke #1 for the last year, and we have been shown the Pattersons’ caring and giving side with respect to him (and the lack thereof). If she turned around and had the Pattersons suddenly pitching in, then it really would be out-of-character for her creations.
Speaking of that, in today’s strip, Elly Patterson comes off as morbid, cold, and aloof to her dad’s situation, but if she showed any real concern, then it wouldn’t be Elly. The final joke with respect to the direction of death is pretty dark, but Elly has shown us in the past, there is no subject about which a joke cannot be made.
Oddly enough, Lynn Johnston’s response to this now appears to be a second stroke to get Grandpa Jim in the Sunset Manor long-term care facility, where there is a staff hired to help him out and alleviate the stress on poor Iris. Lynn could have had some strips showing the Pattersons helping out Iris, but has chosen a different path. It seems like a missed opportunity to show her characters caring for another character; but on the other hand, I will have to admire Lynn’s understanding of the personalities she has created. We have had Grandpa Jim recovering from stroke #1 for the last year, and we have been shown the Pattersons’ caring and giving side with respect to him (and the lack thereof). If she turned around and had the Pattersons suddenly pitching in, then it really would be out-of-character for her creations.
Speaking of that, in today’s strip, Elly Patterson comes off as morbid, cold, and aloof to her dad’s situation, but if she showed any real concern, then it wouldn’t be Elly. The final joke with respect to the direction of death is pretty dark, but Elly has shown us in the past, there is no subject about which a joke cannot be made.
posted by howard at 11:01 PM
9 Comments:
That joke was pretty awful but, as has been pointed out, it could have been worse. As for today's demonstration of Elly's lack of any real concern for for her father's plight, her token simulation of empathy for anyone who isn't her, her husband and two adult children who are the same way, a teenager who's getting to be as cold-blooded as those around her, it reinforces my recurring suspicion that Lynn secretly holds her characters in contempt, that she's deliberately depicting a family of sociopaths and chortling at her worshippers for their ignorant belief that the Pattersons are meant to be admired.
Speaking of that, in today’s strip, Elly Patterson comes off as morbid, cold, and aloof to her dad’s situation, but if she showed any real concern, then it wouldn’t be Elly.
I freaking hate today's strip. Elly just makes me ill today.
dreadedcandiru2,
Sociopaths? What the Patterson family is increasingly reminding me of, is some moments on the old live-action Batman TV show from the 1960s, where the characters would occasional stop and marvel at how they had saved the world again, after they had particularly bungled it with some sort of hilarious thing having gone wrong with their saved victim(s). Of course there, it was to mock the comic book hero self-righteousness. In For Better or For Worse, I can't really tell how Lynn feels about her characters; however, I am beginning to suspect your suspicion is the correct viewpoint.
aprilp_katje,
Not just in today's strip for me. If you take this sequence as a whole, she starts off by pointing out she knows something is wrong with Grandpa Jim, moreso than usual, and has done nothing about it. Then at the hospital her comfort to Iris is for her not to think bad things about the future. And then today caps it off. She comes off as being anxious to be rid of her father.
They even feed on one another, as you no doubt recall. I remember last autumn with Mike's "Absence makes the heart go wander" crap. The only regret he had was that Liz didn't laugh at the joke: herself.
dreadedcandiru2,
Liz’s weak spot has always been her love life, and the other characters have always hammered her about it. Now she is with Anthony her weaknesses are essentially gone. The best insult any of her family has come up with since is “Remember that harmonica?”
Yeah. Maybe she should do for real what whoever wrote April's retcon for February said she did and buy a replacement from a second hand store without anyone else's knowledge. That would, she'd be able to mend fences with Baby Sister will still allowing Jesse to keep his trophy.
dreadedcandiru2,
Liz would never take that kind of action herself. However, I could see someone giving her a harmonica.
Perhaps a former moustache-wearer. That could be how he gets to prove himself to the Kool-Aid drinkers and Yahoovians.
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