Friends Forever
I made fun of the awful, touchy-feely dialogue with which Lynn Johnston saddled Gordon Mayes and Anthony Caine; but little did I suspect that in today's For Better or For Worse she would be equally as bad with women’s dialogue. I am not a woman, and yet I can tell that the conversation with Elizabeth and her bridesmaids seems more like the conversation you would have in a Hollywood film featuring 12-year-old girls.
When I write up conversations between characters, part of the fun is to see if I can figure out what that particular character would say in that situation, based on their personality and history. Especially with the usually acerbic Candace Halloran in the mix, there could be some fun dialogue, i.e. raunchy dialogue. Even during Shawna-Marie Verano’s wedding she made an off-colour remark about her corset. Instead we have dialogue that comes from essentially once voice and it isn’t even Lynn’s this time. A 60-year-old lady would not be thinking “Friends forever”.
The best part of the whole strip is the last panel, where Lynn goes for the joke and once again, completely misses the underlying meaning. Liz says, “But first…let’s make it through today!!” That essentially means that she does not know if she can make it through the day being friends with her bridesmaids. I think Lynn was going for a “if I survive this day” meaning, but the way it comes out is so much funnier. When you get right down to it, Liz has barely had any interaction with these characters since she graduated from high school and university (for Candace); so the premise of them being or wanting to be friends forever makes little sense. Liz has called on them because they are the only friends she has. So, for her to call into question whether she will still be friends with them to the end of the day, seems to me to be astonishingly appropriate. Moreso, when you consider that bridesmaid April, has been left out of this particular pact of friendship. At least she has spent some time with her sister over the last 9 years.
When I write up conversations between characters, part of the fun is to see if I can figure out what that particular character would say in that situation, based on their personality and history. Especially with the usually acerbic Candace Halloran in the mix, there could be some fun dialogue, i.e. raunchy dialogue. Even during Shawna-Marie Verano’s wedding she made an off-colour remark about her corset. Instead we have dialogue that comes from essentially once voice and it isn’t even Lynn’s this time. A 60-year-old lady would not be thinking “Friends forever”.
The best part of the whole strip is the last panel, where Lynn goes for the joke and once again, completely misses the underlying meaning. Liz says, “But first…let’s make it through today!!” That essentially means that she does not know if she can make it through the day being friends with her bridesmaids. I think Lynn was going for a “if I survive this day” meaning, but the way it comes out is so much funnier. When you get right down to it, Liz has barely had any interaction with these characters since she graduated from high school and university (for Candace); so the premise of them being or wanting to be friends forever makes little sense. Liz has called on them because they are the only friends she has. So, for her to call into question whether she will still be friends with them to the end of the day, seems to me to be astonishingly appropriate. Moreso, when you consider that bridesmaid April, has been left out of this particular pact of friendship. At least she has spent some time with her sister over the last 9 years.
posted by howard at 9:57 PM
17 Comments:
My first reaction to this was to scream that Candace would never be involved in anything so hokey.
What is really amusing about this is that, IRL, when people marry and live in different places, they may keep in touch, but they are not real friends anymore. They drift apart. We can already see that these women have paired off and moved on. They live in different towns and have different goals. They're lying to themselves. Liz only sees Dawn and Shawna-Marie when there's a wedding. And she hardly sees Candace more than that. That's why, IRL, women do not do these kinds of big rah-rah chants. Because they all know how it's going to be.
And Candace looked a million times better with black hair. Now she just looks like she's wearing a clown wig.
howard,
Liz has called on them because they are the only friends she has. So, for her to call into question whether she will still be friends with them to the end of the day, seems to me to be astonishingly appropriate.
It seems much more likely that in a year's time Liz's list of friends will consist of Deanna, Tracey and her two next door neighbors. The three women she just went all Trabelling Pants with are going to be part of her past pretty quickly.
I am not a woman, and yet I can tell that the conversation with Elizabeth and her bridesmaids seems more like the conversation you would have in a Hollywood film featuring 12-year-old girls.
I know! I had April ask her readers whether 27-year-old women normally talk this way, and note that this is more like a conversation girls might have at the end of middle school.
My first reaction to this was to scream that Candace would never be involved in anything so hokey.
You and me both, qnjones! Where did this Stepford-Candace come from?
howtheduck, following up on our discussion yesterday, on the prospect of moving the Farley adoption to year one of the strip-rewind:
How could she do that and maintain a chronological reprint? The storyline pretty specifically shows the kids getting Farley as one of a set of puppies from Mrs. Baird, if I remember correctly.
You remember correctly. But all Lynn has to do is not run the original Farley-adoption strips and do "new-run" strips that retcon the adoption to a year earlier. Even though Farley is adopted in year #2, he doesn't figure in that many strips, so she can work around the timing if she wants to. Which I suspect she does. Grrr.
I disagree with the idea that Liz has had hardly any contact with Candace since she graduated from university.
There was the April 30-May 1, 2007 restaurant visit; June 4-6, 2007 at Liz's apartment; August 20-25, 2007, with the revisionist history of Anthony and Therese's marriage; and Feb. 28-Mar. 1, 2008, with Candace and Rudy at Liz's apartment.
That's four visits with Candace in the last 16 months, none of which was for a formal occasion. And considering everything else going on in the strips, I think that's enough to signify that Liz does have contact with Candace on a fairly regular basis.
What I find interesting is the "depth" of friendships that Liz has had in the last few years. In high school, I could believe that these girls and Anthony hung out all the time; in college I could believe Candace and Liz were good friends.
After college though, Liz' idea of "friendship" became "someone I know from Milbo". Her "friend" Anthony--she had no idea he was engaged, and when he got divorced. When Liz broke up with Paul, Candace had no idea until way after the fact--good friends would have known this play-by-play, believe me. Although LJ wants us to believe that this "bonding" is going on off-strip, the problem is when they do get together in the strip, it is as though they have been on opposite sides of the planet with no internet, telephone, or snail mail.
This "closeness" seems as phony as Lizthony "meant to be love".
I am not a woman, and yet I can tell that the conversation with Elizabeth and her bridesmaids seems more like the conversation you would have in a Hollywood film featuring 12-year-old girls.
I know it was stated by April Patterson earlier, but that pretty much nails it.
qnjones,
And Candace looked a million times better with black hair. Now she just looks like she's wearing a clown wig.
Hair colour aside, it’s strange that Candace, who was constantly changing her hair in high school has settled for the same basic hair cut she had in university.
DreadedCandiru2,
It seems much more likely that in a year's time Liz's list of friends will consist of Deanna, Tracey and her two next door neighbors.
If we can judge by Deanna list of friends, maybe not as many as that.
aprilp_katje,
You remember correctly. But all Lynn has to do is not run the original Farley-adoption strips and do "new-run" strips that retcon the adoption to a year earlier. Even though Farley is adopted in year #2, he doesn't figure in that many strips, so she can work around the timing if she wants to. Which I suspect she does. Grrr.
I have a different theory. Lynn said her material is all-new in September, a 50% ratio of new to reprint for the first year, and in October we see Farley get adopted. From this I infer that October may very well be reprint. She has already reprinted a good proportion of the first year of the Pattersons, so what I think might be happening is she does a new intro in September and jumps into the second year of Pattersons with the reprints. That way she can maintain a chronological reprinting of sorts, as in 2007-2008 is year one, and 2008 – 2009 is year two.
Joshua,
That's four visits with Candace in the last 16 months, none of which was for a formal occasion. And considering everything else going on in the strips, I think that's enough to signify that Liz does have contact with Candace on a fairly regular basis.
Your proof is undeniable. I would say that Liz has definitely reconnected with Candace, with whom she had virtually no contact from her graduation in 2004 until 2007.
debjyn,
When Liz broke up with Paul, Candace had no idea until way after the fact--good friends would have known this play-by-play, believe me. Although LJ wants us to believe that this "bonding" is going on off-strip, the problem is when they do get together in the strip, it is as though they have been on opposite sides of the planet with no internet, telephone, or snail mail.
This is true. We have seen 4 times where Candace got together with Liz over the last 16 months, but the conversations did betray the fact they did not connect much in between. Considering that each and every time we see Candace go to Liz for these meetings, you could infer that Candace was the one initiating the contact to learn these things about Liz, she was not communicating by any other venue.
Hair colour aside, it’s strange that Candace, who was constantly changing her hair in high school has settled for the same basic hair cut she had in university.
Especially since this was kind of an accidental look to begin with, as it's what it grew into from that shaved-except-for-bangs haircut she sported in the first year of university.
I have a different theory. Lynn said her material is all-new in September, a 50% ratio of new to reprint for the first year, and in October we see Farley get adopted. From this I infer that October may very well be reprint. She has already reprinted a good proportion of the first year of the Pattersons, so what I think might be happening is she does a new intro in September and jumps into the second year of Pattersons with the reprints. That way she can maintain a chronological reprinting of sorts, as in 2007-2008 is year one, and 2008 – 2009 is year two.
I actually hope you are right, but my gut tells me otherwise. AFAIC, it would be preferable not to subject readers to the same strips from 1979-1980 that have already run this past year. However, I think that the same compulsion that drives Lynn to want to "fix" the early strips by adding new-old ones and "retouching" existing ones will also drive her to start from day one of the strip. Why? Because although she's already run many, many of these strips (ad nauseum), she hasn't done it the "right way." The "right way," I'm convinced, will be in chronological order. I suspect it would offend the perfectionism she speaks of not to start the rewind at the beginning.
We'll see. Friendly wager: 100 "continuity goddess" points. :)
Joshua and Howard:
I suspect we may differ in our definitions of "regular contact" and "reconnecting." Since the restaurant/apartment visits were all on the same day, IIRC, that is three visits in a year. Or count it as four if you like, it makes no difference to me. When I see a person that little, I do not call it "regular contact." Reconnecting, maybe, if we are talking on the phone, but we see little or no evidence of that here. Maybe men consider it sufficient to have four visits to equal regular contact, but this woman does not. Nor do my female friends. That is sporadic contact in my book.
aprilp_katje
Especially since this was kind of an accidental look to begin with, as it's what it grew into from that shaved-except-for-bangs haircut she sported in the first year of university.
I agree. Lynn Johnston has taken this “never change the hair” bit to the point where it no longer matters if it is out of character. On the other hand, Shawna-Marie Verano does not seem to be able to settle on a hair style, or a face shape, or a nose shape; even from panel-to-panel.
Why? Because although she's already run many, many of these strips (ad nauseum), she hasn't done it the "right way." The "right way," I'm convinced, will be in chronological order. I suspect it would offend the perfectionism she speaks of not to start the rewind at the beginning.
I am not so sure Lynn considers chronological order to be the “right way”. During the last year, she reprinted a number of the strips telling a particular story out of chronological order, like the “John and Elly both working at the dentist office” strips, for example.
We'll see. Friendly wager: 100 "continuity goddess" points. :)
Oh dear. Even if I win that wager, I will be undeserving.
qnjones,
Maybe men consider it sufficient to have four visits to equal regular contact, but this woman does not. Nor do my female friends. That is sporadic contact in my book.
When it comes to comic strip visiting, I have to cut the author a little slack, because each visit recorded lasts about a week. Certainly it would not match up to real life for male or female. To Joshua’s point, unlike the relationship with Dawn and Shawna-Marie, Liz’s non-wedding-related relationship with Candace has not been nonexistent over the last 16 months. The bigger player for a comic strip, as debjyn pointed out is the flow of the conversation. There is a significant difference in the way people talk to each other, if they are conversing every day, but getting together sporadically. Since Liz constantly has to relate the events of her life to Candace in those meetings, then you can infer there has been no other conversation other than their meetings. That is sporadic contact in my book too. As for reconnecting, I would maintain that having had virtually no comic strip appearances together from 2004 to 2007, getting together in 2007 is a reconnection, as I define it, i.e. nothing to something.
I could cut the comic strip writer some slack on frequency if she made those visits sound like they saw each other on a more regular basis than was shown. But she doesn't. She makes it sound like they haven't seen each other since the last visit shown in the strip.
Upon reviewing the Liz-Candace visits, it does appear that the two of them never talk on the phone or e-mail or text each other, since Liz has to bring Candace up to date on her relationship with Anthony every single time. If they frequently spoke with each other, Candace would presumably know all this. So I agree with the commenters here who made this point.
That said, Liz's friendship with Candace is still her closest relationship with any non-related female friend, because she isn't shown having these kinds of conversations with Dawn or Shawna-Marie.
(Also, the four conversations with Candace are definitely at different times. Note that in the April-May 2007 visit, Liz tells Candace that she's going to invite Anthony as her date to Shawna-Marie's wedding, and in the June visit, Candace asks Liz if she is in fact going with Anthony to that wedding.)
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