Fred the Fish
I know Lynn Johnston said she going to go to gag-a-day with her new-runs in For Better or For Worse, but 2 strips into it, and it looks like she has decided to tell stories instead. We are in the process of a one month lead-in to getting Farley the dog, so he can be in place in time for Lynn Johnston’s new children’s book on Farley.
Heading in the direction is the acquisition of Fred the Fish, who appears to be a goldfish. Lynn Johnston also said she wanted to fill out her old stories and right away we have a missed opportunity for one. What happens when Elly takes her kids to the pet store? How does she manage to get Michael away from the puppies and over to the fish? How does she manage to get Mike to agree to the cheapest possible fish and the cheapest possible bowl? Even well-behaved children, confronted with a series of possible choices in a pet store, have trouble making choices. What would happen with misbehaving Michael? Instead of showing that, we jump right to the conclusion, because even in the new-runs, Lynn only has 30 seconds a day. After all, as we all know, what is not important is the journey, what is important is the destination.
My kids had goldfish before from a county fair as a prize for winning some game. They only lasted a week, mainly because they would not eat the goldfish food we got from the pet store. As to why they did not eat the food, I can only speculate.
We had a lot better luck with Bettas, which lived for years and are a very low maintenance (hard for kids to kill) fish. Fish are a pretty tough pet to keep healthy and alive. Using them as an example of young Michael’s responsibility with a pet is not so good a choice. If Lynn Johnston is going true-to-life, then this is a lesson Elly Patterson will learn and not Michael. If not, then she will decide for Michael not to have a pet, based on poor dead Fred; and then she will get Farley anyway because we have seen those strips from year 2.
There is not much story tension here, except to see how imaginative Lynn Johnston is in coming up with the means for Fred’s demise.
Heading in the direction is the acquisition of Fred the Fish, who appears to be a goldfish. Lynn Johnston also said she wanted to fill out her old stories and right away we have a missed opportunity for one. What happens when Elly takes her kids to the pet store? How does she manage to get Michael away from the puppies and over to the fish? How does she manage to get Mike to agree to the cheapest possible fish and the cheapest possible bowl? Even well-behaved children, confronted with a series of possible choices in a pet store, have trouble making choices. What would happen with misbehaving Michael? Instead of showing that, we jump right to the conclusion, because even in the new-runs, Lynn only has 30 seconds a day. After all, as we all know, what is not important is the journey, what is important is the destination.
My kids had goldfish before from a county fair as a prize for winning some game. They only lasted a week, mainly because they would not eat the goldfish food we got from the pet store. As to why they did not eat the food, I can only speculate.
We had a lot better luck with Bettas, which lived for years and are a very low maintenance (hard for kids to kill) fish. Fish are a pretty tough pet to keep healthy and alive. Using them as an example of young Michael’s responsibility with a pet is not so good a choice. If Lynn Johnston is going true-to-life, then this is a lesson Elly Patterson will learn and not Michael. If not, then she will decide for Michael not to have a pet, based on poor dead Fred; and then she will get Farley anyway because we have seen those strips from year 2.
There is not much story tension here, except to see how imaginative Lynn Johnston is in coming up with the means for Fred’s demise.
posted by howard at 10:38 PM
17 Comments:
She wouldn't be Elly Patterson if she had selected a pet that would actually survive for more than a week. She always regarded parenting as a zero-sum game in which there was a definite winner and loser and she always had to be the winner. A hardier pet like s rodent of some sort might have lived long enough for Mike to be allowed to have a dog and shown he was actually ready to have one. That obviously couldn't happen or Elly would lose. By trying to win all the time, Elly created the entitled monster we kn ow and loathe.
Michael is excited about getting an animal that would eat the goldfish. Budding serial killer?
I'm guessing Lynn will not repeat the Sunday strip from year one that features a CAT. (Michael lies on the kitchen floor pulling a string he has tied to one of the poor kitty's foot!)
My son has been fixated on "Edgar stories" in the strips. He's had me read all of the Edgar stories to be found in Love Just Screws Everything Up. Then a couple of nights ago, he pulled Just One More Hug from the shelf and asked me, "Read an Edgar story?" I had to explain that Edgar hadn't been born yet for those strips, but I could read a Farley story--Farley was Edgar's father. He agreed, and we read some Farley stories.
I'm convinced that the Farley fixation is ONLY because of Lynn killing him off as she did. If he'd just faded away--or lived forever--no one would care. He warn't that special.
april_patterson
I'm convinced that the Farley fixation is ONLY because of Lynn killing him off as she did. If he'd just faded away--or lived forever--no one would care. He warn't that special.
No, he wasn't. If Lynn had stuck to her gun and not had Grade Z fanfic author Beth sell her on the Ravine of Death nonsense, we would have had a far more satisfying wrap-up to his story. If he'd died in his sleep, April would have learned that death is part of life. We also wouldn't have had Schulz being made to look foolish; he might not have liked the idea of Farley's death in any event but this might have been slightly more palatable.
When my friend's son was about 5 years old, I took him shopping for his birthday present. The prenegotiated gift was 2 goldfish and a goldfish bowl. (Fortunately, I was not part of the negotiations.)
I also thought that the goldfish would last a week, so I steered the boy towards the cheapest tank of goldfish. I was steered away from it by the pet store clerk, who said that the fish we were looking at would only last a few days. He called them "feeders," and meant the term literally. I ended up paying more than I wanted to for two goldfish with non-feeder status.
The boy is now finishing high school, and those goldfish were still alive the last time that I visited my friend. The goldfish have long since outgrown the round bowl, and have a small aquarium to themselves. But yeah -- Elly probably bought Michael the feeder.
The Berserker
The Berserker,
But yeah -- Elly probably bought Michael the feeder.
Of course she did and probably over the objections of the pet store owner. The woman I know from reading the last 29 years of glurge would never admit to being in error so Mike has to bear the cost of being set up to fail by a bigger failure.
DreadedCandiru2,
By trying to win all the time, Elly created the entitled monster we know and loathe.
The difference this time is that we know that ultimately Elly will lose and Michael will get his dog. We know that there is no Fred the fish in the early strips, so his demise is likely. If an author sticks a story in like this, then there are lots of possibilities to show the child as monster (wanting something to eat his fish) or sensitive genius (weeps profusely when the fish dies and wants to write a story about it). Likewise, the reaction of the parent to the child is another place for story-telling. Lynn has oftentimes done story-telling as more of a means to get to an end, instead of concentrating on the details. In the new-runs, she will be faced with this constantly because we know the outcome already, and it will be a test of her story-telling abilities. Right away, we have 1 month with Fred the fish to tell a story, and in my mind she has already missed story-telling points.
aprilp_katje,
Michael is excited about getting an animal that would eat the goldfish. Budding serial killer?
We already know from the first year that Michael is the type of boy who likes to set animal traps, so maybe so.
I'm guessing Lynn will not repeat the Sunday strip from year one that features a CAT. (Michael lies on the kitchen floor pulling a string he has tied to one of the poor kitty's foot!)
I am not sure what is going to happen with Sunday strips. In the interview, Lynn Johnston seemed to say she planned to do more of them as new-runs, which I suppose means she likes having all those extra panels to play with.
I'm convinced that the Farley fixation is ONLY because of Lynn killing him off as she did. If he'd just faded away--or lived forever--no one would care. He warn't that special.
I agree with you there. Farley was not an integral part of the Patterson’s lives like a Snoopy or even Daisy and her pups from Blondie. If there ends up being a series of children’s books with Farley, then that could change. With Beth Cruikshank doing the writing and with Lynn Johnston doing the art, we will soon learn about Farley’s troubled childhood and how he was abused by his parents, only to find love in the house of the Pattersons.
The Berserker,
The boy is now finishing high school, and those goldfish were still alive the last time that I visited my friend. The goldfish have long since outgrown the round bowl, and have a small aquarium to themselves. But yeah -- Elly probably bought Michael the feeder.
That’s a great story. I don’t I have ever heard the story of the pet bought for the kid who lived until the kid went to university, where the pet was a fish. I am also impressed the pet store clerk intervened. In our local pet store, they have seemed more than happy to get rid of those kinds of fish (for money as opposed to feeding I suppose).
With Beth Cruikshank doing the writing and with Lynn Johnston doing the art, we will soon learn about Farley’s troubled childhood and how he was abused by his parents, only to find love in the house of the Pattersons.
::snerk::
"Woof! Woofwoofwoofwoofwoof!" Exclaimed his mother.
"Whimper," he replied.
"Snarl! Growllll! GRRRR!"
"Eeeeee! Ooooh! Snivel!" he cried.
From that moment, he knew his doggie-Mama didn't love him. Didn't love him at all!
aprilp_katje,
From that moment, he knew his doggie-Mama didn't love him. Didn't love him at all!
I think you have the makings of an excellent Farley biography / Beth Cruikshank snark there.
Maybe I'll put that in my queue for when I (finally!) finish my Anthony biography. ;)
aprilp_katje,
Maybe I'll put that in my queue for when I (finally!) finish my Anthony biography. ;)
I am looking forward to your Anthony biography. It's not going to be 60 pages long, is it?
It won't be short. It's taking me forever to write it--I've just gotten up to August 2005. After all the hours I've already put into it--I fear it'll be a big tl;dr. I'm hoping people will find enough snark value to plow through, though.
Eek--I just checked, and it's currently 37 pages long. But I hope it won't take me another 23 pages to tell the rest.
aprilp_katje,
Well if you are just up to August 2005 and you are at page 37, I think you are in for a long one. I will still read it.
I'm relieved that I'll have at least one reader. :)
aprilp_katje
But of course
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