Revised Standards
I have to revise my guesses. I have previously guessed that the hybrid reprints of For Better or For Worse would run on a month-by-month basis, but it appears instead to be running on a 4 week-by-4 week basis. That puts November 26 to December 22 as new material and then reprints afterwards. I hope that is not the case, because I was counting on Anthony Caine to propose to Liz Patterson before the end of the year, preferably on New Years’ Eve.
Today’s For Better or For Worse strip sets up an interesting situation of Mike signing April’s copy of Stone Season and this is the main focus of attention at the signing. Elly is even taking a picture of the event. I know that we in the snarking community have made fun of the writing for Stone Season for months after looking at the excerpts in the monthly letters. However, in the strip, the only person to have any kind of a negative viewpoint about Michael’s book was April; so it seems appropriate that she should have to be the one getting a copy to be signed.
There is a big woman in a polka-dotted shirt standing next to the table where Mike is signing the book and I don’t think I have seen her character before. I suspect she is going to turn out to be a majour fan of Mike’s or she is going to be someone who will advance Mike’s career. Either choice could prove to be quite amusing, especially if she goes way overboard.
Today’s For Better or For Worse strip sets up an interesting situation of Mike signing April’s copy of Stone Season and this is the main focus of attention at the signing. Elly is even taking a picture of the event. I know that we in the snarking community have made fun of the writing for Stone Season for months after looking at the excerpts in the monthly letters. However, in the strip, the only person to have any kind of a negative viewpoint about Michael’s book was April; so it seems appropriate that she should have to be the one getting a copy to be signed.
There is a big woman in a polka-dotted shirt standing next to the table where Mike is signing the book and I don’t think I have seen her character before. I suspect she is going to turn out to be a majour fan of Mike’s or she is going to be someone who will advance Mike’s career. Either choice could prove to be quite amusing, especially if she goes way overboard.
posted by howard at 10:07 PM
13 Comments:
Perhaps she's the woman who greenlit Stone Season in the first place and she's sort of mother-henning 'her' literary baby. The publishers, after all, invested a fair amount of cash in Mike's exercise in witless sound and fury and want things to go smoothly to protect their investemnt. I find it an annoying reversal that when it comes to signing the silly thing, Captain Overwrought is suddenly terse.
I find myself so conflicted over the Mike's Delicate Novel storyline. On the one hand, its utter unbelievability makes me alternately groan and froth at the mouth. On the other hand, the continual new heights of ludicrousness that LJ keeps pushing this to are a snarker's dream come true, and I love them for that.
Lizthony, on the other hand, just kind of makes me die inside.
- bad_latin
"...just kind of makes me die inside."
Good way to put it; it is sad as that "Wait!" strip seemed to be when Liz just died as a character for me. Now, April is being destroyed also.
LJ has managed to turn something that people could connect to into a bland pudding of bland characters.
DebJyn
DreadedCandiru2,
“The lady represents her publisher.” That is an interesting thought, because that would mean the only unsilhouetted person in the place was also a person with a vested interest in Mike’s success (like his family). As for Michael’s apparent out-of-character terseness reversal, he never misses an opportunity to smack down a sister, so I thought it was in character for him.
bad_latin (Ellie),
Let us not downplay the snarkability of Lizthony. After all, this is the same author that found it romantic for Lizthony to do ballet moves and dash barefoot through the rose bushes. Personally, I have been looking forward to snarking Lizthony for years now, even more than the overboard success of Mike’s novel.
DebJyn
Good way to put it; it is sad as that "Wait!" strip seemed to be when Liz just died as a character for me. Now, April is being destroyed also.
Surely you don’t mean April is being destroyed because she bought a copy of her brother’s book and asked him to sign it with an overly complimentary phrasing. I would go for her awkward dissolution of her band and her recently acquired disregard for her grandfather as reasons for April destruction.
As for Liz’s “Wait!” strip, she still works as a character to me, but not as a character with whom I can empathize or like. I didn’t like her poor treatment of Constable Paul Wright and her inability to see how she had treated him badly. Ditto her treatment of Warren Blackwood. Ditto her treatment of Mason the best man. If you think of Liz as the whiny, bitchy character in a soap opera, she’s a lot easier to take. I will agree that she is terribly bland now.
The notion that a representative of the publisher would be thought of as a friend by the Patterson family is also within established parameters. Most of the people they call their friends have only a monetary interest in their well-being. If said bond were to collapse, they would find that said person suddenly had no time for them.
dreadedcandiru2,
Knowing the Pattersons, I expect at some point, Dr. John Patterson made some investment in their publishing company, to which they attribute their success. That way, they would not only be friends and investors, but also sycophants --- the ideal Patterson business relationship.
Which explains April's hatred of Rebecca-with-an-H. Not only did she not obey orders and stand there shaking a tamborine for April's third-rate garage band, she sought out and achieved success without prior approval from a Patterson.
dreadedcandiru2,
You may be right. In fact, some months back, I wrote up an April's Real Blog sequence where Howard Bunt and Becky McGuire went to an alternate universe and found that Becky had become phenomenally success for precisely that reason.
Her constant hammering away at the theme of betrayal was a dead give-away that April had the same control issues that the others had. I noticed her constant denials of Jim's suggestion that that may have been the case and came to the conclusion that like the reast of her family, she can only co-operate with others if she thinks she's in charge.
dreadedcandiru2,
The theme of betrayal was carried to some pretty heavy extremes, I must admit. After all, she temporarily broke up with Gerald, for agreeing to play with Becky for a charity which Shannon Lake supported. The idea that simply playing with Becky tainted you, showed the level to which April reached on this theme.
I didn't explain it well, but yes, the recent break up of April's band and the way she forgave Gerald's creepy behavior after the make-out session is exactly what I meant by April's character being destroyed.
And you are right; I simply thought of Elizabeth as well-meaning but not too bright before the sudden "Wait!" Then it became evident that she had purposely and maliciously sought to undermine Therese at every opportunity.
DJ
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