Thursday, September 18, 2008

Trading Places

In today’s For Better or For Worse, Anne Nichols takes another step to becoming like Elly, by saying she wants to be like Connie Poirier, for many of the same reasons Elly used to envy Connie back in the days of 1980. Just as she made Connie and Elly seem like they were one person, now she is doing the same with Anne and Elly. Eventually I think we will reach a point where every character is exactly the same, as Lynn Johnston moves further down the road of being unable to create unique characters with different viewpoints.

The part I liked about Anne Nichols in the old days was that she seemed to be the only one of the crowd of ladies who knew what she wanted and, by-and-large, had it. Elly Patterson wanted work outside the home and she eventually got it with all her jobs and her ownership of Lilliput’s. Connie Poirier wanted a man, and she eventually got one. Anne Nichols, on the other hand, had simpler desires like wanting her husband to spend more time at home and to stop buying junk. The difference in those desires from Elly’s and Connie’s, was that she was not trying to alter herself, with which she seemed to be satisfied.

The worst part of this for me is I cannot really see where Lynn is going with this. Given the way Anne acts in some of the old material, it will eliminate Lynn’s ability to print the old material and have it make any sense. As Lynn has said many times when talking about Anne and Elly, she had originally intended for Elly to have 2 good friends and that Connie was going to rub Elly the wrong way a lot of times. She eventually turned Connie into a wife, and that pretty much defanged Connie the liberated woman, and eliminated Anne. Since we have seen Anne now step more into line with Elly’s desires, I wonder if Lynn has some kind of plan to keep Connie unmarried for a longer time in order to set these ladies’ relationships more as she had originally planned? Does Lynn Johnston think it was an error on her part to allow Anne to disappear from the strip in favour of Connie?

We should find out soon enough, depending on Lynn’s choice of reprints for the Connie / Phil / Ted dating triangle.

21 Comments:

Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

If she actually does do that. As you said, it might be that Connie will be not have been in a relationship until she moved to Thunder Bay. Her relationship with Phil and Ted will be retconned out of existence to provide fodder for the envy of the ignorant.

3:16 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

Gah! I hate that Lynn has retconned Liz and Richard to be the same age! And if she wants her strip to be timeless, those babies should not have been put down in the crib tummy down. (Does anyone thing Lynn is rethinking the whole "Anthony" thing and now wants Richard to be Liz's pre-ordained soulmate? After all, they're already sleeping together!)

3:30 AM  
Blogger howard said...

DreadedCandiru2,

As you said, it might be that Connie will be not have been in a relationship until she moved to Thunder Bay. Her relationship with Phil and Ted will be retconned out of existence to provide fodder for the envy of the ignorant.

I can see this happening easily. For one, it would mean that Connie was following Elly’s advice. For two, it would eliminate stories showing Connie’s desperation for a man and the lengths she went to pursue both men. With Lynn’s current mood toward relationships (see the loveless marriage of August), it would fit very well. For three, it would also turn Connie almost instantly into an Elly clone, which seems to be one of Lynn’s primary objectives with the new-runs.

6:12 AM  
Blogger howard said...

aprilp_katje,

And if she wants her strip to be timeless, those babies should not have been put down in the crib tummy down.

They are timeless in the sense that Lynn didn’t know any better then, and doesn’t know any better now.

(Does anyone thing Lynn is rethinking the whole "Anthony" thing and now wants Richard to be Liz's pre-ordained soulmate? After all, they're already sleeping together!)

That thought has occurred to me. She certainly has to be aware that no matter how many letters she wrote, and strips praising Anthony, and how many pages Beth Cruikshank wrote; she could not shake the disaster of the “I have no home!” strips. Not only that, but knowing Lynn, she thinks she might live long enough to do another 29 years of the story, especially if she jumps 3 years at the beginning.

However, the other possibility is that the story Lynn wants to correct is the one where Elly stopped being friends with Anne Nichols. If Lynn views herself as a woman who put so much emphasis on her career that it went to the detriment of her marriage, then she could also view her favouring of Connie Poirier (career woman) as Elly’s best friend the same way. After all, despite Steve’s cheating, Anne is still with her husband, and the moral of the story was that he eventually stopped cheating. Considering Lynn’s recent interview where she described Rod Johnston as a coward for not trying to work things out, that theme could resonate with her. To that end, making Lizzie and Richard the same age provides an opportunity for them to bring Elly and Anne together for play dates, as we see in this week’s strips, just as Lawrence and Mike did for Connie and Elly.

6:13 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

To that end, making Lizzie and Richard the same age provides an opportunity for them to bring Elly and Anne together for play dates, as we see in this week’s strips, just as Lawrence and Mike did for Connie and Elly.

But if this were her aim, she could have maintained the original age relationships and had playdates with Liz and Christopher. They do interact in the JOMH strips. I guess I'm just mystified.

6:22 AM  
Blogger howard said...

aprilp_katje,

But if this were her aim, she could have maintained the original age relationships and had playdates with Liz and Christopher.

Then maybe it's playdates with Christopher and Michael, and Lizzie and Richard. If she increases the number of playdates, then Anne is more appealing.

6:45 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

This just in: the real reason Lynn isn't going to retire soon: she put her financial eggs in Rod's basket and took it with him when he left. Funny. The more we know about him, the more we yearn to hear his death rattle. I may not like what she did or is doing but she doesn't deserve what Bowtie McBastard did.

7:24 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

That could be it. I wonder if this would also mean Lawrence's importance to Michael being diminished.

7:25 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

(I was responding to howtheduck, BTW--when I was posting that was still the last comment!)

7:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. That article makes me almost like Lynn again. This is one of the few times she didn't come out sounding like a vindictive, mean person.

Unfortunately, I still don't think she has her act together. She just never got the Anthony thing, and how much she has lost the creativity of the original strip.

Funny, the quote about Rod--"a man in love with a fantasy woman, not the woman he is with"---sounds an awful lot like what Anthony appeared to be to the readers.

7:57 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

Funny, the quote about Rod--"a man in love with a fantasy woman, not the woman he is with"---sounds an awful lot like what Anthony appeared to be to the readers.

It really does! I wonder if she has more sympathy for Thérèse in retrospect.

Interesting also her emphasis on the importance of her women friends. That sheds some light on what we've been seeing in the strip with Elly/Annie/Connie.

8:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

First, there are two sides to every story... and meaning that she didn't have CASH, does not mean she is broke. I'm guessing she could afford a good divorce lawyer, so I'm sure it worked out in the end. Otherwise, she should get another lawyer.

8:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have a very hard time believing that Lynn was truly broke. While it can happen, Lynn has also exaggerated in these interviews before. Plus, a woman of her wealth almost always has non-husband advisers. I am guessing what she means is, she had to give Rod a large financial settlement. If he had truly robbed her, she could have brought legal action against him to recover the money.

Re: sleeping on the tummy--if a child is old enough/strong enough to turn him/herself over, it is okay to put them to sleep on their stomachs. We have seen that Liz can walk (almost), so she is well past the danger age for SIDS. Richard looks like he might still be too young.

I wanted to slap Elly's smug mug in this strip. I think Connie would kill herself if she had to be Anne or Elly even for a day. Let's face it, Connie was The Boss in her marriage to Greg.

8:46 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

qnjones,

I am guessing what she means is, she had to give Rod a large financial settlement.

Telling the interviewer that she has to pay him alimony is, even if true, less dramatic sounding. Her need to be a successful martyr would militate against an accurate portrayal of events.

8:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interestingly, I note that in this particular interview, Lynn claims Rod "walked away from his children." I wonder if this is another bit of Lynn hyperbole, or if Rod really doesn't have contact with Aaron and Kate.

On re-reading the article, I feel it is even more likely that Lynn was exaggerating. She insinuates that Rod stole from her early in the article, but doesn't provide details. Then later she says she had to give him a large financial settlement. But if he had already emptied her bank accounts, that wouldn't be possible or necessary. So I think she's equating the settlement with robbery and her reduced circumstances thereafter with bankrupcy and poverty. Classy, Lynn, especially in a time when many Americans (who make up a majority of her readers) are losing their homes, jobs, and retirement savings--for real.

9:33 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

We have seen that Liz can walk (almost), so she is well past the danger age for SIDS.

qnjones, this did occur to me after I posted. I wish Lynn would be more consistent in her drawing--my initial response was based on Liz looking much younger than she's meant to be (and Richard looks pretty close to newborn age!).

10:31 AM  
Blogger howard said...

DreadedCandiru2

Telling the interviewer that she has to pay him alimony is, even if true, less dramatic sounding. Her need to be a successful martyr would militate against an accurate portrayal of events.

This is so funny how when I read that I started getting flashes of Deanna and Michael (pharmacist and magazine editor) and their constant claims of near poverty. I had not really thought this was a way of thinking for Lynn Johnston.

2:16 PM  
Blogger howard said...

aprilp_katje,

I wish Lynn would be more consistent in her drawing--my initial response was based on Liz looking much younger than she's meant to be (and Richard looks pretty close to newborn age!).

True enough about little Lizzie. In the new-runs she has been drawn anywhere from 3 months to 18 months in size.

2:17 PM  
Blogger howard said...

debjyn,

That article makes me almost like Lynn again. This is one of the few times she didn't come out sounding like a vindictive, mean person.

I might agree with this, if there were at least one article that didn’t focus on the divorce and how Rod messed up her retirement plans and that’s why there have been all these changes in the comic strip. It’s just baloney. Supposedly she planned to end the strip with Elizabeth’s wedding in September, 2007, and back in April, 2007, when Rod dropped his bombshell on her, the storyline wasn’t even close to that point.

2:18 PM  
Blogger howard said...

Anonymous,

I'm guessing she could afford a good divorce lawyer, so I'm sure it worked out in the end.

This part is confusing too. Generally in a divorce, the assets are not divided to the point where a person running a business has to go off and layoff their staff.

2:18 PM  
Blogger howard said...

qnjones,

She insinuates that Rod stole from her early in the article, but doesn't provide details. Then later she says she had to give him a large financial settlement. But if he had already emptied her bank accounts, that wouldn't be possible or necessary. So I think she's equating the settlement with robbery and her reduced circumstances thereafter with bankruptcy and poverty.

I agree with you here. Remember how in the comic strip Anthony and Thérèse Caine went from an uncontested divorce to a divorce where Thérèse took him for everything he had so he was massively in debt? Since we have seen the comic strip reflects Lynn’s thoughts at the time, I can easily see that being her impression of how she came out in the divorce.

2:19 PM  

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