Eating Crow, Not Crane
When Elizabeth Patterson last left Mtigwaki, back in January, 2007, she left on a pretty sour note, essentially blaming the entire town for not letting her know that her boyfriend had been cheating on her. Her indictment was to tell Paul Wright, if you ever need a friend, there are some great people here in Mtigwaki. That could be taken as “I am no longer your friend, Paul”, but it could also be taken as backhanded insult of the town who kept Paul’s secret.
Lynn Johnston was the 2004 recipient of the Debwewin Citation for excellence in Aboriginal-issues journalism for the stories involving the Ojibway she had written in her strip in 2004 and prior. After the business with Paul Wright in her comic strip, I wondered how her friends in the The Anishinabek Nation and her friend Perry McLeod-Shabogesic took her sudden implication of the town in communal guilt over Paul’s cheating, her statement that Paul Wright was incapable of moving to Southern Ontario, and the discovery that Elizabeth’s favourite student was a thief. I might be a little upset. I might even tell Lynn I was a little upset. Since 2008 is the year where Lynn tries to fix all those things about which people complain, here come the Mtigwaki characters to the wedding.
The characters are Paul and Vivian Crane, the principal of the Mtigwaki School and his wife, and Liz’s closest friends in Mtigwaki. Perry McLeod-Shabogesic, Lynn’s comic strip artist friend who helped her create Mtigwaki is from the Crane Clan, and from that we get the name of the character. I think Lynn decided to have those characters come all the way from Mtigwaki to Milborough for Liz’s wedding to show everyone that there are no hard feeling between Liz and the lying scum from Mtigwaki.
The funny part about Lynn Johnston’s efforts to correct mistakes and put things into a different light, is that they often have the exact opposite effect. Today’s For Better or For Worse is one of the best examples of that I have ever seen:
1. Lynn thinks she remembers the characters’ last name and she doesn’t bother to check it. Instead of calling the character by the Crane Clan homage last name, she has jumped to Crow as the last name.
2. The joke that Lawrence Poirier is making compares “Who’s Who” to “Who’s that?” A “Who’s Who” list is a list of the important people. Since Michael did not know who Mr. and Mrs. Crow were, Lawrence has indirectly said that the Mtigwaki characters are in the "Who's that?" In other words that they are not "Who's Who" and unimportant.
I don’t know if the Anishinabek Nation were upset, and if they were, if this will placate them. What I can say for sure is that Lynn did not bother to get the name right, and she did not did not think about the implications of that joke.
I am quite delighted. I knew that Lynn would do some of her worst work in the final month of this strip, and she has not disappointed me.
Lynn Johnston was the 2004 recipient of the Debwewin Citation for excellence in Aboriginal-issues journalism for the stories involving the Ojibway she had written in her strip in 2004 and prior. After the business with Paul Wright in her comic strip, I wondered how her friends in the The Anishinabek Nation and her friend Perry McLeod-Shabogesic took her sudden implication of the town in communal guilt over Paul’s cheating, her statement that Paul Wright was incapable of moving to Southern Ontario, and the discovery that Elizabeth’s favourite student was a thief. I might be a little upset. I might even tell Lynn I was a little upset. Since 2008 is the year where Lynn tries to fix all those things about which people complain, here come the Mtigwaki characters to the wedding.
The characters are Paul and Vivian Crane, the principal of the Mtigwaki School and his wife, and Liz’s closest friends in Mtigwaki. Perry McLeod-Shabogesic, Lynn’s comic strip artist friend who helped her create Mtigwaki is from the Crane Clan, and from that we get the name of the character. I think Lynn decided to have those characters come all the way from Mtigwaki to Milborough for Liz’s wedding to show everyone that there are no hard feeling between Liz and the lying scum from Mtigwaki.
The funny part about Lynn Johnston’s efforts to correct mistakes and put things into a different light, is that they often have the exact opposite effect. Today’s For Better or For Worse is one of the best examples of that I have ever seen:
1. Lynn thinks she remembers the characters’ last name and she doesn’t bother to check it. Instead of calling the character by the Crane Clan homage last name, she has jumped to Crow as the last name.
2. The joke that Lawrence Poirier is making compares “Who’s Who” to “Who’s that?” A “Who’s Who” list is a list of the important people. Since Michael did not know who Mr. and Mrs. Crow were, Lawrence has indirectly said that the Mtigwaki characters are in the "Who's that?" In other words that they are not "Who's Who" and unimportant.
I don’t know if the Anishinabek Nation were upset, and if they were, if this will placate them. What I can say for sure is that Lynn did not bother to get the name right, and she did not did not think about the implications of that joke.
I am quite delighted. I knew that Lynn would do some of her worst work in the final month of this strip, and she has not disappointed me.
posted by howard at 11:20 PM
24 Comments:
This is the kind of slip-up that I tend to make. I find Lynn’s mistake to be amusing, and I can’t believe that her staff didn’t catch it. I didn’t remember anyone called Crow, and the way Yahoo colored the characters didn’t help. Howard, thanks for clarifying the mystery. BTW, it’s Vivian and Gary (not Paul).
Anon NYC
Wow. Lynn is really a stupid hack. This cinches it.
What makes this even more horrible is that 1) Liz left Gary and Viv on a sour note, and 2) there's been no indication that she's spoken to them since, and 3) they would have had very short notice to 4) spend a lot of time and money on a long trip to Milborough for this wedding where they will 5) likely not spend much if any time interacting with Liz. Now we can slap a final indignity on top of it all--they aren't even going to be called by the correct last name.
Mike is also a douche for being so cavalier about his lack of interest in Liz's non-Milborough life. He never visited her in Mtigwaki. In a normal family, a person might feel guilty about such an omission. Mike seems proud of it.
qnjones,
Mike is also a douche for being so cavalier about his lack of interest in Liz's non-Milborough life. He never visited her in Mtigwaki. In a normal family, a person might feel guilty about such an omission. Mike seems proud of it.
Of course he's proud of it. His muse requires him to cut himself off from the world, you see. If he were to drive all the way up to the Frozen North to be near peolpple he's convinced are extras from a Mountie Movie, it's entirely possible he might have real-world experience to draw on and thus not write glurge and drivel. That wouldn't do at all.
howard,
The funny part about Lynn Johnston’s efforts to correct mistakes and put things into a different light, is that they often have the exact opposite effect.
I know. I'm still holding out hope for the ultimate failed attempt to correct a perceived mistake: the biography of Anthony Caine. I know that it will be so implausible and filled with absurdities and plot holes as to make Anthony look like a ridiculous chump instead of a tragic victim who needs Liz's love to make all his problems go away. Its explanation of Therese's motives, for instance, will be so far removed from normal human beings behave as to make it certain that his personal take on his past is nothing more than the self-justifying ravings of a Nice Guy[tm].
::headdesk::
When Mike flubbed that name, I expected he'd be corrected and there'd be an "eating crow" pun. But no, it just passes, as if that's their name now. Ugh. I can't believe Lynn couldn't be arsed to check her own "Who's Who" page, while making that stupid joke. She'd better not have Steph revise it to make Mike correct. ::grumble::
april_patterson,
I can't believe Lynn couldn't be arsed to check her own "Who's Who" page, while making that stupid joke. She'd better not have Steph revise it to make Mike correct.
I expect to see their name be re-accuratized; after all, she changed Mike's middle name and the names of characters like Mira and Andrea. What's two more alterations the named of established characters whose names have been published and cannot be altered?
Anon NYC,
This is the kind of slip-up that I tend to make. I find Lynn’s mistake to be amusing, and I can’t believe that her staff didn’t catch it.
I have gotten the impression that Lynn’s staff does not do any checking for these kinds of things. Gary (not Paul, showing I can make the same kind of mistake) Crane is an easy fix, and as you have shown, easily caught. The strip has to go through 3 sets of hands on her staff after Lynn’s, but it could well be that these persons consider their job to be to ink, letter, colour and process the strip and not to try to correct it.
qnjones,
Mike is also a douche for being so cavalier about his lack of interest in Liz's non-Milborough life. He never visited her in Mtigwaki. In a normal family, a person might feel guilty about such an omission. Mike seems proud of it.
There was a long stretch from Liz in university and in Mtigwaki, where she had almost no interaction with Mike. I used to make jokes about how Auntie Liz had never been shown to meet her nephew, and had only met her niece once, and never visited her Grandpa Jim during this stretch of time. This was because Lynn Johnston’s focus for Elizabeth, when she was back in Milborough, was her relationship with Anthony Caine to the exclusion of almost everything else.
Mike’s pride, oddly enough, seems to be based on the idea that his sister would actually know people that he does not, who would come to her wedding. It’s an odd kind of thing to be proud about. When I went to my sisters’ wedding (both of them) there were lots of people I didn’t know. Actually at my wedding there were lots of people I didn’t know (relatives from my wife’s side I had never seen before or seen since).
dreadedcandiru2
His muse requires him to cut himself off from the world, you see. If he were to drive all the way up to the Frozen North to be near peolpple he's convinced are extras from a Mountie Movie, it's entirely possible he might have real-world experience to draw on and thus not write glurge and drivel.
There’s a parallel there to a certain writer we know of. The lady who can’t bother to get off her chesterfield and check that it is Crane, and not Crow, comes to mind.
aprilp_katje
She'd better not have Steph revise it to make Mike correct. ::grumble::
I would hope not. You would think it would fly in the face of the homage to Perry’s Crane Clane. On the other hand, there were all kinds of revisions to the events in Mike’s wedding strips made in the text on the Mike and Deanna: A Love Story web page. On the Real People web page, Grandma Marian was listed as dying from cancer, like Lynn’s real mother did, but not like Grandma Marian did in the strip, where she died of heart failure. Such a change does have a precedent.
Another layer of stupidity, on Mike's part in the strip but ultimately on Elly's part outside the strip:
The two characters are obviously Native American. Mike's sister spent years in a Native American community, whereas Anthony spent his time at Gordon's auto-empire and ignoring his wife at home. So Mike, can you really not figure out whose friends these are by yourself? Can you not, I dunno, make an educated guess with that writer's inty-lect of yours? And if you're an usher (which is unclear), did you not familiarize yourself with the guest list ahead of time, just a bit?
No. Because you're an idiot, and your creator is a hack.
howard,
Mike’s pride, oddly enough, seems to be based on the idea that his sister would actually know people that he does not, who would come to her wedding. It’s an odd kind of thing to be proud about.
Mike's an odd person who has no real idea how the world works. Since he was raised by parents who spent most of their lives surprised by the blindlingly obvious, it's clear that this is the first time the notion that Liz knows people he doesn't has ever occured to him.
dlauthor,
The two characters are obviously Native American. Mike's sister spent years in a Native American community, whereas Anthony spent his time at Gordon's auto-empire and ignoring his wife at home. So Mike, can you really not figure out whose friends these are by yourself?
I am not too critical of Mike on these points. These are aspects of Lynn Johnston trying to reintroduce the characters, and not like a real dialogue. It’s more like soap opera speak, here the conversations constantly repeat character’s first names, so the audience will know who they are. Gary and Vivian Crane have not appeared in the strip since January, 2007, and you have to go back to May, 2006 to see Elizabeth teaching in Mtigwaki. Lynn is actually doing a better job of making the connection for the readers to the Cranes than she did for Anne Nichols, from last week. I suspect she thinks she has readers familiar with the strip from way back (when Anne was a regular) and not so familiar with more recent strips (when the Cranes were regulars).
dreadedcandiru2,
Since he was raised by parents who spent most of their lives surprised by the blindlingly obvious, it's clear that this is the first time the notion that Liz knows people he doesn't has ever occured to him.
Lynn has inadvertently shown how low an opinion Mike has of his sister and her ability to make friends. As usual with her writing, she wants to show Mike proud of his sister, but achieves the opposite effect.
I remain critical of Mike on the point dlauthor brought up, though. Sure, the Cranes are being re-introduced, but even so, if it were a real Earthling, the conversation would go like, "Good morning, I'm the bride's brother Mike. I'm just guessing, but are you folks from Mtwakgki?" or even, "did you folks have to travel far?" if you didn't want to racially profile. Or even, "Hi, I'm the bride's brother, Mike." which inevitably leads the other people to introduce themselves.
It's lazy, sucky writing, because if she couldn't stretch to imagining it, Lynn could have a) evesdropped at any wedding or other social event b) watched a wedding video, or a movie or a tv show, or c) made a couple of her nodding yes-men minions do some basic role-play.
It's that she writes out of her own experience, and that that experience is clearly so odd and limited, that makes this surreal. The fact that so many people on Coffee glurge claim these same experiences only means that there's a lot of socially-limited, terrible friends/citizens/parents out there.
I'm beginning to think that the first question a mental health therapist should ask is, "do you read FBOFW, and do you truly identify with the characters?" It'd save such a lot of time.
Thursday Next
It's that she writes out of her own experience, and that that experience is clearly so odd and limited, that makes this surreal. The fact that so many people on Coffee glurge claim these same experiences only means that there's a lot of socially-limited, terrible friends/citizens/parents out there.
Not only is this a dead give-away that she's an anti-social weirdo, it's, as you said, a revelation that she's a lousy writer. One of the most basic principles of writing is, in fact, to have people talk like normal human beings would in a given situation. The payoff of the strip should have been Mike taken it as a given that he isn't going to recognize half of the guests.
I gave up on the strip about a month and half ago, but something compelled me to check in today.
And all I could think was: "Is this Mr. and Mrs. Jim Crow?"
Thursday Next,
It's lazy, sucky writing, because if she couldn't stretch to imagining it, Lynn could have a) evesdropped at any wedding or other social event b) watched a wedding video, or a movie or a tv show, or c) made a couple of her nodding yes-men minions do some basic role-play.
I will not try to argue the point that the dialogue-writing was good. Far from it. Instead it looks like she got the dialogue from a book on generic wedding etiquette. Mike comes off as the wedding greeter robot. My point was only that Mike did not instantaneously recognize who the people were, only to help the reader out.
I'm beginning to think that the first question a mental health therapist should ask is, "do you read FBOFW, and do you truly identify with the characters?"
A lot would say, “Yes.” Quite a few of them are like, “I had a kid about the same time April was born and I watched my kid grow up, just like April.” Just by virtue of that similarity you’re going to get anyone who had a child about the same time as any of the Patterson kids were born. The other one is Grandpa Jim and his stroke. With that one, you get everyone who had an older relative who had a stroke. For some reason, a lot of people reading this strip feel a need to connect with the characters. It certainly isn’t the writing or the art that keeps them coming back day after day.
DreadedCandiru2,
The payoff of the strip should have been Mike taken it as a given that he isn't going to recognize half of the guests.
If you come from the perspective that Mike is an idiot, then the payoff is that Mike realizes his sister has friends he doesn’t know. Honestly, the strip today does not work, unless you assume Mike is an idiot. How else do you explain, “My sister has a lot of friends, Lawrence. Some of them I’ve never met before.” My 10-year-old would respond to that with, “Well, duh!”
James
I gave up on the strip about a month and half ago, but something compelled me to check in today.
Now is the time to be reading For Better or For Worse. The train is no longer headed for a wreck, but is actively wrecking.
And all I could think was: "Is this Mr. and Mrs. Jim Crow?"
If I understand correctly, in Canada, there were no Jim Crow laws and legalized system of racial segregation. However, I thought the exact same thing when I first read today’s strip.
howtheduck, following up on yesterday and Maxine Hébert, I confess I'd forgotten the January 2001 reference to Judy. I'd only been reviewing September 2001 strips. I will hazard a guess that Lynn, too, forgot she'd had Dee say "Judy" and assigned the name "Maxine Hébert" after the wedding strips had been run. I don't think anyone has been addressed by that name in the actual strips, but (of course!) I could be mistaken. :)
Maybe someone will clue Lynn in on the significance of "Jim Crow" to her neighbo[u]rs to the south--and maybe this will inspire her to at least make sure she corrects "Crow" to "Crane" in the collection.
aprilp_katje
I will hazard a guess that Lynn, too, forgot she'd had Dee say "Judy" and assigned the name "Maxine Hébert" after the wedding strips had been run.
There are many discrepancies between the strips and the website writeup of Mike's wedding, so I don't know if it's a case of just forgetting.
I don't think anyone has been addressed by that name in the actual strips, but (of course!) I could be mistaken. :)
That is the curious part about it, because Maxine has her own spot in Who's Who with a picture obviously not taken from the wedding strip, and skin colour which would distinguish her from the rest of the bridesmaids. Normally Lynn doesn't do that for characters that never appeared.
I just did a search at the AMU Reprints site, on [Maxine AND Hebert], for all available dates, and got no results.
I agree--it is out of character for Lynn to do a Who's Who page for someone who has never even been named in a strip. But this might just be a special case.
The AMU Reprints site goes back to before Deanna was reintroduced to the strip. I discovered that site just this year and spent a little while going through all the strips that were prior to 2002. I do not recollect ever seeing a Maxine Hebert in any of those strips. On the Who's Who page, she seems to be set up as Deanna's single friend, but given Deanna's storylines (almost always about her and the kids), I don't know how that would have worked. Maybe Maxine was flushed once Carleen was introduced.
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