Teasing Lizzie - The Week of
Today’s For Better or For Worse begins a series of “Michael teasing Lizzie” strips and falls into the category of “word play my kids would know better than to ever do with me”. When a parent is furious with you, most kids have the good sense to be quiet or deny culpability. Michael Patterson, however, is so unused to being punished with anything harsh, in the face of his mother’s parental anger, he actually raises the issue of whether or not the punishment he might receive from his mother, would be so light as to make it worth his while to continue to experience his pleasure in teasing his sister by pulling her hairs.
My son, with his Asperger’s Syndrome, used to do something very much like this. He was unable to read people’s emotions very well, so the usual things that parents do, like grabbing your misbehaving child by the shoulder and giving him the evil eye so they understand that you are unhappy with him, did not work with him. Elly’s question of “Are you going to stop teasing Lizzie, or am I going to have to punish you?” is a question that my son might try to think about. At age 5 however, he would not have understood so complex a question.
I don’t think Lynn Johnston is trying to portray Michael in 1979 as having Asperger’s Syndrome, so what comes off is a Michael who clearly has no fear of or respect for his mother’s anger. His question seems to be a genuine question as to what kind of punishment she has planned, so he can make his decision based on the facts of the matter. The humour is either that Elly doesn’t realize until this point how literal-minded her son is or that she is surprised at how indifferent he is to a punishment she might give.
My son, with his Asperger’s Syndrome, used to do something very much like this. He was unable to read people’s emotions very well, so the usual things that parents do, like grabbing your misbehaving child by the shoulder and giving him the evil eye so they understand that you are unhappy with him, did not work with him. Elly’s question of “Are you going to stop teasing Lizzie, or am I going to have to punish you?” is a question that my son might try to think about. At age 5 however, he would not have understood so complex a question.
I don’t think Lynn Johnston is trying to portray Michael in 1979 as having Asperger’s Syndrome, so what comes off is a Michael who clearly has no fear of or respect for his mother’s anger. His question seems to be a genuine question as to what kind of punishment she has planned, so he can make his decision based on the facts of the matter. The humour is either that Elly doesn’t realize until this point how literal-minded her son is or that she is surprised at how indifferent he is to a punishment she might give.
posted by howard at 11:10 PM
10 Comments:
It should not come as a surprise that Michael would not have any respect for her seeing how readily she caved in to John or, for that matter, himself. I remember one strip that featured him hoping she punished him instead of his father because he knew that she wouldn't quite go through with it, that she'd always flinch from making a punishment stick.
dreadedcandiru2,
It's interesting that the strip had this "Elly is too mild to punish" start, when it would eventually reach a point where everyone in the household (including John) would flinch into obedience at her open-mouthed shrieking. Lynn Johnston seems so mild on her interviews, I can imagine how I would feel in her presence if this quiet, little woman were to start screaming bloody murder. I can see doing what she wanted in order to get her to stop. I wonder if it was a personal revelation to Lynn to learn that she could get people to do what she wanted by yelling at them loud enough, which she then translated this character of mild Elly into battleaxe Elly.
I can picture Lynn having a bad day roughly twenty years ago that ended up with her screaming non-stop at everyone. Once she calmed down and noticed how quickly people gave her what she wanted when she wanted it when she hollered loud enough and long enough, she was delighted to have found such a handy-dandy way of keeping people in line.
dreadedcandiru2,
I can see that happening. I wonder how she learned about throwing coffee cups at people's heads.
The shrieking and other behaviors, I would say she had modeled for her. It's sad that Lynn says her mother was a verbal abuser and that now she actually laughs and says she's "turning into my mother".
debjyn
It's sad that Lynn says her mother was a verbal abuser and that now she actually laughs and says she's "turning into my mother".
It could be good therapy, if you consider she is taking a dark moment in her life and is able to make light of it.
OTOH, she could probably use some good therapy if the idea of becoming her mother inspires anything other than terror.
aprilp_katje,
Well, the other aspect of it we have discussed before, which is whether or not Lynn's stories about her mother are based mainly in fact or based mainly in imagination. Like the "Aaron films the sunset over the tree-hanging" vs. the "Aaron films the car crash" stories, an inconsistent view of her mother would be consistent with the way Lynn sometimes tells stories about her life, particularly when there is no one to confirm or deny them.
It seems odd that such a person as Lynn should be praised for telling the truth about the world when she cannot even do so about her own past.
Lynn seems to have a very tenuous handle on reality and fantasy. I still find it bizarre that she dismissed a 20 year plus marriage with "I made him up". That's just weird.
Post a Comment
<< Home