Is Mike Really a Hit?
Every once in awhile Lynn Johnston puts a character in the middle of the storyline whose acerbic comments cover the inanity of the situation quite nicely. In today’s For Better or For Worse, April Patterson fills that role. I learned that the people lining up to get their books signed at the Lilliput’s book signing are all friends of the family. The lady from yesterday, turned out to be Anne Nichols, who lives next door to Mike. When I looked at yesterday’s strip and compared it with the picture of Anne Nichols on the Who’s Who directory on the website, the hair style matches Anne pretty well, although modern Anne is wearing glasses and has put on weight.
Next up was Jean Baker, who has worked the reception desk for Dr. John Patterson for years. Add to that Josef Weeder and Gordon Mayes, and you have a Patterson friend fest. My snarking sense went off that Lynn Johnston, in an effort to bring back old friends to show them off once more before the end, was inadvertently making it look like no one showed up to Mike’s book signing except for friends and relatives. But then Lynn Johnston had April Patterson say the exact same thing. It made me wonder, if Lynn was in on the joke. Is she saying, “I know Mike’s writing isn’t that good, so I’ll have April point it out that his success is due to his friends?” It is kind of like that classic moment where Candace Halloran pointed out that Deanna’s mistake which ended up being Meredith, was not really a mistake on the part of Deanna. It’s good to have someone in the strip on my side in pointing these kinds of things out.
Next up was Jean Baker, who has worked the reception desk for Dr. John Patterson for years. Add to that Josef Weeder and Gordon Mayes, and you have a Patterson friend fest. My snarking sense went off that Lynn Johnston, in an effort to bring back old friends to show them off once more before the end, was inadvertently making it look like no one showed up to Mike’s book signing except for friends and relatives. But then Lynn Johnston had April Patterson say the exact same thing. It made me wonder, if Lynn was in on the joke. Is she saying, “I know Mike’s writing isn’t that good, so I’ll have April point it out that his success is due to his friends?” It is kind of like that classic moment where Candace Halloran pointed out that Deanna’s mistake which ended up being Meredith, was not really a mistake on the part of Deanna. It’s good to have someone in the strip on my side in pointing these kinds of things out.
posted by howard at 10:59 PM
8 Comments:
It almost makes you wonder if Lynn doesn't intend Mike to be a novelist at all. I noticed in the retcons Deanna discussed his weekly column with the Valley Voice as being just as important as the novels were so we could well see him decide that he should put his ambitions aside and stick to what he'll be declared good at: writing mildly comic essays about suburban life.
... with too many adverbs.
And a sophomoric and snide attitude.
dreadedcandiru2,
The weekly column. I haven’t been through this in awhile in this Blog, but a careful read of the retcons tells a slightly different story.
Mike's Letter, February 2005
My column has been picked up by a couple more papers, which means broader recognition.
Mike's Letter, June 2005
My own writing has improved tremendously since I started my column, "Edgewise" (meaning I get to put a word in edgewise). It's in seven papers now (weekly) and as long as I don't use too much local content it could expand.
And then in October 10, 2005, Mike’s article about the Kelpfroths appears.
What happens as a result of that wonderful article? Mike says a couple of new projects and editing a movie script. Is a movie script ever mentioned in the monthly letters or again in the strip? No. What is mentioned is this:
Mike's Letter, May 2006
I write a weekly column which is in three newspapers and actually covers the groceries!
Did you notice what I noticed? After the Kelpfroth article, Mike’s column was dropped by 4 of the papers who carried it. Maybe there were some newspaper editors who noticed all the adverbs, and the sophomoric and snide attitude.
It appears the book signing is turning into what we hoped the "Congratulation Party" would be--the reunion of old characters in the strip. Of course, Lynn had to use that for Warren/Liz's non-relationship instead.
It's confusing the way Lynn can be so obtuse sometimes in the strip (showing the characters doing stupid or horrible things, and not calling them on it)and at other times lets us "in" on the gag. The inclusion of readers is more like the older strips; lately, the strange no-consequences strips and the bad behavior of the characters is what has ruined the strip.
DJ
Even if Stone Season isn't the failure my suspicions would make it, there's another peril I was just made aware of: it could be Mike's greatest success. Like Orson Welles before him, he could have a long, miserable slide down from the commanding heights.
DJ,
You could be right about the “the reunion of old characters in the strip” idea, but the characters seems a little randomly selected so far. If Anne Nichols is there, then where is Steve Nichols or their other neighbours, the Enjos? Personally, it would make it for me if Fiona Brass made an appearance. That would kill.
DreadedCandiru2
Good point about Orson Welles, although to be fair to Mr. Welles, he did do a lot of really good stuff after Citizen Kane. But you are right about Michael Patterson’s Stone Season. You can only have one “great Canadian novel,” so the “Windjammer” book is destined to be either second best or the novel that knocked Stone Season out of the top spot.
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