Go, John! Go!
In today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse, we get to see a moment where Elly would have to take a trip to get away from her kids. When I was growing up, my parents occasionally took trips like this, and would hand me and my sisters off to my grandparents for a few days. Not knowing the context of this strip with respect to the others, I don’t know where Elly is and if she is making a trip to visit her mom, or if she is just getting away from John and the kids, like John is saying. Nevertheless, I am struck by the idea. My mom in the 1960s and 70s would have never made a trip by herself to get away from her children. However, my wife has taken several trips like that. They are usually under the auspices of going to visit her antisocial brother in Los Angeles, or weekend training conventions for her home-based business of Homemade Gourmet.
I also find it interesting that Lynn Johnston is showing a strip where John Patterson is presented positively and shown to be somewhat competent. Personally, I think he is a crazy man to strap his daughter onto his back to mow his yard, when spreading out a blanket in the yard and putting her on it where he could see her, would be eminently more practical and a whole lot safer. I also note that little Michael is sitting on a counter right next to a hot stove where John is cooking eggs and getting egg all over everything. Little Lizzie also seems a little disturbed by John’s diaper-changing, probably because he doesn’t have a hand on Lizzie while he is doing it. So, we have mild incompetence and a hint of danger; but we don’t see John throwing up his hands and desperately calling Elly, as we did with Michael calling Deanna just recently. In fact, in this one strip, you see Dr. John Patterson doing things with Michael and Lizzie that Michael has never done with his own kids.
I also find it interesting that Lynn Johnston is showing a strip where John Patterson is presented positively and shown to be somewhat competent. Personally, I think he is a crazy man to strap his daughter onto his back to mow his yard, when spreading out a blanket in the yard and putting her on it where he could see her, would be eminently more practical and a whole lot safer. I also note that little Michael is sitting on a counter right next to a hot stove where John is cooking eggs and getting egg all over everything. Little Lizzie also seems a little disturbed by John’s diaper-changing, probably because he doesn’t have a hand on Lizzie while he is doing it. So, we have mild incompetence and a hint of danger; but we don’t see John throwing up his hands and desperately calling Elly, as we did with Michael calling Deanna just recently. In fact, in this one strip, you see Dr. John Patterson doing things with Michael and Lizzie that Michael has never done with his own kids.
posted by howard at 12:29 AM
7 Comments:
Ah, yes. He even did them willingly, even if only to keep Elly pacified. Why did not Michael follow in his footsteps? Simple. Every time John did something that did noy meet with Elly's exacting standards, he got yelled at and had heavy objects hurled at him. Having borne witness to that, young Michael came to the conclusion that he should never, ever help around the house. Elly's self-defeating behavior is a curse that keeps on cursing.
dreadedcandiru2,
Having borne witness to that, young Michael came to the conclusion that he should never,
ever help around the house. Elly's self-defeating behavior is a curse that keeps on cursing.
It is an interesting comparison. Deanna is not a yeller or coffee cup hurler, like Elly was. In many respects, she is the woman Connie Poirier was talking about, having to work a job and then come home to housework (as we saw with her crawlspace cleaning). Moreover, she is supposed to be the pretty girl, and does not have the large hipped physical attributes of Elly. How do you figure this character exists in this land of complaining Elly? It's as if Michael Patterson deserves a woman for a wife who is the ideal woman Elly never was, but complains about having been.
howtheduck:
It's as if Michael Patterson deserves a woman for a wife who is the ideal woman Elly never was, but complains about having been.
That is strange. It's as if he was being rewarded for his years of antisocial behavior and selfishness by getting married to a Mary Sue.
dreadedcandiru2,
It's as if he was being rewarded for his years of antisocial behavior and selfishness by getting married to a Mary Sue.
Even stranger is the idea that Lynn Johnston would write such a character in her strip, after writing over 30 years of her main character complaining and moaning about the precise things that Deanna does without any complaint, and looks good while she does it (complaints about her bowl hair cut aside).
It is almost as if Lynn secretly despises Elly and regards her as a noisy, sullen, self-destructive failure as a wife, mother, daughter and human being. In short, our annoyance with some of her weaknesses is as nothing to the active and bitter hatred her creator might have for her.
dreadedcandiru2,
In short, our annoyance with some of her weaknesses is as nothing to the active and bitter hatred her creator might have for her.
Lynn Johnston has said in interviews before that the size of Elly’s nose is directly in proportion to how Lynn is feeling about her own appearance at the time. I did find it a little odd that after having Connie and Elly do their complaint strip about how their men made them do all the work, that one of the reprint strips showed young John Patterson taking care of the kids by himself, while Elly took time off.
Mmm...maybe Lynn realized "you don't always know what you got til it's gone".
Post a Comment
<< Home