The Test
The question that came up when it was revealed Jim had a heart attack, was how in the world could non-speaking Jim communicate to Phil to tell Elly to not tell Elizabeth anything. In today’s For Better or For Worse, we see the reason, and it is marvelously written.
First of all, we see that Grandpa Jim is completely out-of-it, as you would expect for someone who just had a heart attack; so there is no possible way he passed on that message. Since Lynn Johnston has often played Iris interpreting for Jim, even when he looked like he was asleep; it was easy to guess that this desire to not interrupt the wedding was another of Iris’ interpretations. In today’s strip, you get to see very clearly why.
The first few panels show Iris talking to Phil Richards, Jim’s son, who has not come to visit his father since he had his first stroke. Phil missed out coming after stroke #2 and the only reason he is here now is because of the wedding. Initially Lynn plays this as Iris having a conversation with Phil about Jim. Then it moves to an odd exercise of Phil saying he can’t leave, while Iris finds reasons that Phil can leave and go to the wedding.
Iris then goes so far as to say that Grandpa Jim is going to be fine, he’s going to recover, and the doctors are doing everything they can. At the same time, we see no doctor doing anything of any kind, and no evidence whatsoever of Jim being fine or a potential recovery. While Iris says this, she has grabbed Phil around the arm and is leading him out of the room. It is as if Iris is challenging Phil to believe what she is saying and to deny what he can see with his own eyes.
The tag line in the final panel is the kicker. Iris tells Phil to have a wonderful time and carry on as if nothing happened. There it is…the open condemnation of what Phil has been doing since November, 2006, when he last visited his dad. He has been living his own life and carrying on as if his father did not exist. He has left Iris to handle it all without any help. Iris has verbally stabbed Phil with his own selfishness and inattention to his father.
The best part of this though, is that Phil is not the only one who is receiving this challenge from Iris. Elly and the whole Patterson family have been given permission by Iris to have the wedding without mentioning it to anyone else. She doesn’t want to spoil Elizabeth’s day.
When you consider that Elizabeth is in the Grandma Marian dress and has scheduled her wedding so Grandpa Jim can attend, then Iris’ challenge takes on an added air. Elly must choose what she considers to be more important: Grandpa Jim seeing Liz in the dress and the wedding or Elizabeth getting married in ignorance of her grandfather’s condition. If the wedding is postponed for the sake of Grandpa Jim, if he can recover, then Elizabeth will fulfill one of her major goals. If the wedding is not postponed, then she will be married, but the opportunity will be lost.
In a short sequence of Iris talking to Phil taken in the context of what has already been said to Elly last week, Iris has thrown down the challenge. What is more important: The wedding or the dying grandfather? Just how selfish and self-centred are these people? There is nothing like a wedding to test those limits.
First of all, we see that Grandpa Jim is completely out-of-it, as you would expect for someone who just had a heart attack; so there is no possible way he passed on that message. Since Lynn Johnston has often played Iris interpreting for Jim, even when he looked like he was asleep; it was easy to guess that this desire to not interrupt the wedding was another of Iris’ interpretations. In today’s strip, you get to see very clearly why.
The first few panels show Iris talking to Phil Richards, Jim’s son, who has not come to visit his father since he had his first stroke. Phil missed out coming after stroke #2 and the only reason he is here now is because of the wedding. Initially Lynn plays this as Iris having a conversation with Phil about Jim. Then it moves to an odd exercise of Phil saying he can’t leave, while Iris finds reasons that Phil can leave and go to the wedding.
Iris then goes so far as to say that Grandpa Jim is going to be fine, he’s going to recover, and the doctors are doing everything they can. At the same time, we see no doctor doing anything of any kind, and no evidence whatsoever of Jim being fine or a potential recovery. While Iris says this, she has grabbed Phil around the arm and is leading him out of the room. It is as if Iris is challenging Phil to believe what she is saying and to deny what he can see with his own eyes.
The tag line in the final panel is the kicker. Iris tells Phil to have a wonderful time and carry on as if nothing happened. There it is…the open condemnation of what Phil has been doing since November, 2006, when he last visited his dad. He has been living his own life and carrying on as if his father did not exist. He has left Iris to handle it all without any help. Iris has verbally stabbed Phil with his own selfishness and inattention to his father.
The best part of this though, is that Phil is not the only one who is receiving this challenge from Iris. Elly and the whole Patterson family have been given permission by Iris to have the wedding without mentioning it to anyone else. She doesn’t want to spoil Elizabeth’s day.
When you consider that Elizabeth is in the Grandma Marian dress and has scheduled her wedding so Grandpa Jim can attend, then Iris’ challenge takes on an added air. Elly must choose what she considers to be more important: Grandpa Jim seeing Liz in the dress and the wedding or Elizabeth getting married in ignorance of her grandfather’s condition. If the wedding is postponed for the sake of Grandpa Jim, if he can recover, then Elizabeth will fulfill one of her major goals. If the wedding is not postponed, then she will be married, but the opportunity will be lost.
In a short sequence of Iris talking to Phil taken in the context of what has already been said to Elly last week, Iris has thrown down the challenge. What is more important: The wedding or the dying grandfather? Just how selfish and self-centred are these people? There is nothing like a wedding to test those limits.
posted by howard at 9:38 PM
15 Comments:
I 100% agree, and I love the implied slam against Phil and Elly.
But I get the sense that Iris would prefer, for her own personal reasons, that Elly and Phil and the rest of the self-important Pattersons stay away. I think Iris would prefer that she be alone with Jim when he dies. After all, she is the only one who interacts with Jim with his best interests in mind. When Elly or Mike or Liz visit, they are only thinking about themselves and whatever they are hoping to get out of the visit. (April is probably an exception to this.)
The truth is, Iris is the only character in this strip that I still like. I kind of hope that Jim dies a dignified death in the next few days. Then I like to imagine that she will meet a nice, able-bodied man who will take care of her for a change.
howard,
In a short sequence of Iris talking to Phil taken in the context of what has already been said to Elly last week, Iris has thrown down the challenge. What is more important: The wedding or the dying grandfather? Just how selfish and self-centred are these people? There is nothing like a wedding to test those limits.
I don't know about you but I've just gained a new level of respect for Iris. In four short panels, she's just become the most important character in the strip. Will these people pass her test? We shall see.
qnjones,
But I get the sense that Iris would prefer, for her own personal reasons, that Elly and Phil and the rest of the self-important Pattersons stay away. I think Iris would prefer that she be alone with Jim when he dies.
I think you are right about this. Back after stroke #1, Iris did not want to leave Jim’s side. This is actually a stark contrast to the situation with Grandma Marian’s death, where the whole family left her including Jim, and then they got a call that she died.
This is another situation where Lynn Johnston knows the outcome, because she is writing the outcome, and fails to understand the reaction people will have who don’t. Most people would try to get to the hospital to be with the dying relative. But Lynn knows she is not going to kill off Grandpa Jim during the wedding ceremony. She knows that, if Elizabeth finds out, she will have plenty of time to get married and still visit Grandpa Jim. The reader doesn’t know that and it makes the Pattersons and Richards look really bad, especially Phil. He hasn’t seen his dad in 2 years, and he leaves Iris alone.
DreadedCandiru2,
Will these people pass her test? We shall see.
Indeed we shall. I would be surprised if Elizabeth does not make it to the hospital. Lynn Johnston has made too much of a big deal about the dress, for her to miss that dramatic opportunity.
howard,
This is another situation where Lynn Johnston knows the outcome, because she is writing the outcome, and fails to understand the reaction people will have who don’t.
This happens far too often for my liking. If Lynn would take five seconds to realize that we don't and can't know the backstory she has in her head, she wouldn't be talking nonsense about only having thirty seconds to tell the story. That's becuase she'd be too busy showing us what's going on instead of having Elly whine about how a dirt-average kid outsmarted her at every turn.
I really liked your take on today's strip the bitterness and passive aggressieve sniping is amazingly thick. It makes me wonder who Lynn is trying to villify via Phil today. My guess a certain son who chose his step-father's side in a certain divorce. The first thing that I thought of though was Lynn's warped view of Grandpa Jim's whole generation and how they don't want to be "burdens". There is of course some truth to that sentiment but if Elly does really view Jim's latest health troubles as a burden on her day, and it is her day, then the Richards family will have a pretty tight race for most dispicable child.
I wish I could believe your interpretation. I used to think Lynn had enough story-telling ability and personal integrity to actually do something like that.
However, once she glossed over Anthony's emotional adultery, Liz's cruel behavior to Paul, the on-going treatment of April, Mike's undeserved success---I think she is lacking sadly in the "does a person have real empathy and put others needs before their own--" I don't think she is in touch with what is just ethically and intrinsically RIGHT in people. Just "things go my way because I'm special" seems to be her mentality.
I remember being so turned off by Lynn's statement about not being around when her parents died--obviously, that isn't such a big deal for her. I wonder, has she actually said whether she has been present at the moment someone close to her has died? I have found, that once you have that experience you realize what a necessity that is--to be with someone when they die, regardless of whether they are "aware" or not.
Personally, I can't believe Phil would leave his father, just to attend a neice's wedding (particularly Liz--he is closer to April). But I do think Lynn thinks that is the only "sensible" thing to do.
Hope I'm wrong.
DreadedCandiru2,
If Lynn would take five seconds to realize that we don't and can't know the backstory she has in her head, she wouldn't be talking nonsense about only having thirty seconds to tell the story.
In the letter she wrote in the Coffee Talk to respond to criticisms, she took that five seconds and still seemed like a teacher irritated that we had not been taught things she thinks we ought to already know. She has become more and more disconnected with things like this as time goes on. For example, some years back she did a story about John and a taxi driver, where John gets smacked down for complaining about his petty problems as the taxi driver describes his tragic history. In that story we got to hear the history and understand the joke. In recent years, we have seen April similarly smacked down by Luis Guzmán and Eva Abuya, with no history at all, that left the reader scratching their head wondering what the smackdown was about. Lynn is seriously disconnected if she thought the reader should know Eva Abuya was from Haiti or Luis Guzmán was from Mexico.
ruth,
The first thing that I thought of though was Lynn's warped view of Grandpa Jim's whole generation and how they don't want to be "burdens".
She did have that interview with Caring Today, where she spoke at length at how much she admired her elder relatives who were in extreme pain and never complained about it. However, it is hard for me to interpret Iris’ last panel closing line as anything but a harsh criticism of what Phil is about to do. It’s one thing to admire the relative who doesn’t want to be a burden; but it is another thing to ignore them.
debjyn,
I wonder, has she actually said whether she has been present at the moment someone close to her has died?
In the Caring Today interview, she specifically mentioned how she saw Ruth Johnston, her mother-in-law, have a stroke right in front of her. She also mentioned how she was the one who took care of her father-in-law, Tom Johnston, in his dying days, and not his own son and her ex-husband, Rod. (By the way, I am sure Phil is the Rod substitute in today’s strip.) However, Lynn’s description of Ruth and her stroke in the article is eerily detached, so I am not sure being present had any effect on Lynn Johnston. What touched you does not seem to have touched her.
Thanks for the link to that interview. It is interesting how quick she is to give herself credit for caring for Tom, and to make an obvious tacit condemnation of Rod for not participating in that. But then she claims that it was "impossible" for her to care for her own mother.
This is simply a distortion of the truth. Many, many families without the considerable means of Lynn Johnston make extraordinary sacrifices so that a family member can care for an infirm elderly person. I have known people who were working class, who actually needed to work in order to ensure they would have food and a home, who have left jobs to care for a parent. I know married couples who have lived apart, sometimes many states apart, in order to make this happen.
The truth is, Lynn did not want to either move her family/job or separate temporarily from her husband to go care for her mother. It's fine to make that choice, IMHO, especially in light of her relationship with her mother. But it was not "impossible."
Furthermore, she claims that she was Tom's caretaker, but then describes only social visits with him. It's nice that she did that, and social visits are important, but if that was the extent of her help to Tom, then no, she was not his "caretaker."
It also sounds like both Lynn and Rod were negligent with Tom, allowing him to stay alone after the point where ordinary activities (like going down stairs) carried a high risk of injury. I had an uncle who lived to be 95. He lived alone until his last year. He also took a similar fall that left him with broken bones. My uncle laughed it off, like Tom. But my uncle's sons did not laugh, as Lynn did. They didn't see it as a heartwarming story. They took it as a sign he couldn't live alone anymore, and one son took him into his own home. Social workers were involved. Lynn doesn't talk about what happened with Tom's living situation, but if Lynn and Rod let him stay in that house alone--it's not a laughing matter. It's gross neglect.
It's always interesting to see events filtered through Lynn's hyper-narcissistic view of the world.
...I wish I could believe that Lynn was being that brilliant. Somehow I just can't shake the feeling that Iris is simply supposed to be displaying "noble self-sacrifice".
qnjones,
Thanks for the link to that interview. It is interesting how quick she is to give herself credit for caring for Tom, and to make an obvious tacit condemnation of Rod for not participating in that.
It’s been a year of articles, and I have only seen one article where Rod did not get slammed in some way.
But then she claims that it was "impossible" for her to care for her own mother. This is simply a distortion of the truth.
Her claim with her mother is that she lived too far away, plus her father made it his mission to do it, and she was comfortable letting him do that, because he did not tell Lynn how bad his own condition was. I can relate to this to a certain degree. When my mother-in-law had a head injury last spring, my wife went to stay with her for a week, and found that she spent most of time trying to convince her mother to rest and recover. Lynn could have run into a very similar situation with her dad, doing stuff for his wife while concealing his own problems. On the other hand, if she stayed with her dad long enough, she might have uncovered his own physical problems and been able to do something about it. Considering how Lynn felt about her parents, I suspect the real truth is that she didn’t want to be around them.
My uncle laughed it off, like Tom. But my uncle's sons did not laugh, as Lynn did. They didn't see it as a heartwarming story. They took it as a sign he couldn't live alone anymore, and one son took him into his own home.
I have similar stories. My grandfather went into a home after my mother found him unconscious after a fall. My grandmother went into a home after she fell down a set of concrete steps and cracked her skull, and my father got called about it.
It's always interesting to see events filtered through Lynn's hyper-narcissistic view of the world.
I agree completely. As I read the Caring Today article and Lynn praised all those people who were suffering but didn’t complain, I could just imagine the reaction of all those Caring Today readers with chronic pain.
Anonymous,
Somehow I just can't shake the feeling that Iris is simply supposed to be displaying "noble self-sacrifice".
I would have gone with “noble self-sacrifice” had there not been the final panel slam of Phil. However, I will grant it is possible that Lynn was going for “noble self-sacrifice” and decided to add a joke at the end, without realizing the point of the joke changed the whole aspect of everything Iris said before that point. She does have a history of adding humour without calculating the effect of it.
The funny thing is, you just know that Lynn will be a complainer when it's her time to move into a rest home (or have nurses caring for her). I am remembering that one interview done with Lynn, where she went to lunch with the interviewer and proceeded to nitpick the waitress and tipped poorly. I imagine she'll treat her caregivers the same way.
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