Connie Rewarded with Rewording
Today is the first time we have seen a For Better or For Worse reprint with a significant rewording of text from its prior 1980 version. We had Cheryl Ladd replaced by Shania Twain a few weeks ago, but this time Lynn Johnston has actually reworded a strip and improved it. In the original Panels 2 and 3, Connie Poirier said:
This is psychological warfare! John has done this to keep you home! Don’t you see? – It’s a plot to curb your need for freedom and self-expression!
Now it has been reworded to be:
I thought you wanted more freedom! I thought you wanted less work! You’ve got enough to do without adding a puppy to the list!!
We still have the theme of freedom present in the rewording. A key change is the complete absence of blame on John Patterson for his conspiratorial plan to keep Elly home by ruthlessly forcing her to adopt a pet. Back in the early days, Connie Poirier was supposed to represent the women’s libber and Anne Nichols was supposed to be Mrs. Traditional Values, and Elly fell somewhere in between those two parts. As you can tell from the original dialogue, instead of coming off as someone promoting women’s rights, Connie came off as a nut. Even back in 1980, the idea of not owning a pet as a sign of women’s independence was a remote, possibly nonexistent part of the women’s movement. I seem to remember a number of those, “Why a cat is better than a husband” veins of humour from those days. Eschewing pet ownership just wasn’t the feminist way.
This was Lynn Johnston’s attempt to imitate the Cathy comic strip, because Cathy had her friend, Andrea the ultra-feminist, and her friend with more traditional values, Charlene. In Lynn’s early days, she stole from practically everyone. Her art style came from Schulz. Her style of stories for young Michael came from Hank Ketchum’s Dennis the Menace. Her stories of feminine interaction came from Cathy, a strip which preceded For Better or For Worse by a few years. Unlike that strip’s author, Cathy Guisewite, who could write an ultra-feminist successfully, I would be hard-pressed to think of a time when Lynn Johnston was able to pull that off with Connie Poirier. Eventually, Lynn realized that herself, and turned Connie into a clone of Elly. Lynn gradually wrote Anne Nichols out of the strip, and Elly took her place as the self-righteous traditionalist.
These changes make perfectly good sense to me, because the dialogue in the original strip stank. Today’s dialogue is much better and ties in with things already present in the new-runs – i.e. that Elly is so busy with housework she doesn’t have to read a paper. Obviously she wasn’t really that busy, and the adoption of Farley is proof of it.
Of course, now that I look back at the old pictures of young Farley the dog, he really is a lethargic puppy. I hate to say it (not really), but Fred the fish is more active than young Farley the dog. It’s a good thing he’s cute. Maybe we should have a Fred the fish plush toy and a new book called, Fred Follows his Fin.
This is psychological warfare! John has done this to keep you home! Don’t you see? – It’s a plot to curb your need for freedom and self-expression!
Now it has been reworded to be:
I thought you wanted more freedom! I thought you wanted less work! You’ve got enough to do without adding a puppy to the list!!
We still have the theme of freedom present in the rewording. A key change is the complete absence of blame on John Patterson for his conspiratorial plan to keep Elly home by ruthlessly forcing her to adopt a pet. Back in the early days, Connie Poirier was supposed to represent the women’s libber and Anne Nichols was supposed to be Mrs. Traditional Values, and Elly fell somewhere in between those two parts. As you can tell from the original dialogue, instead of coming off as someone promoting women’s rights, Connie came off as a nut. Even back in 1980, the idea of not owning a pet as a sign of women’s independence was a remote, possibly nonexistent part of the women’s movement. I seem to remember a number of those, “Why a cat is better than a husband” veins of humour from those days. Eschewing pet ownership just wasn’t the feminist way.
This was Lynn Johnston’s attempt to imitate the Cathy comic strip, because Cathy had her friend, Andrea the ultra-feminist, and her friend with more traditional values, Charlene. In Lynn’s early days, she stole from practically everyone. Her art style came from Schulz. Her style of stories for young Michael came from Hank Ketchum’s Dennis the Menace. Her stories of feminine interaction came from Cathy, a strip which preceded For Better or For Worse by a few years. Unlike that strip’s author, Cathy Guisewite, who could write an ultra-feminist successfully, I would be hard-pressed to think of a time when Lynn Johnston was able to pull that off with Connie Poirier. Eventually, Lynn realized that herself, and turned Connie into a clone of Elly. Lynn gradually wrote Anne Nichols out of the strip, and Elly took her place as the self-righteous traditionalist.
These changes make perfectly good sense to me, because the dialogue in the original strip stank. Today’s dialogue is much better and ties in with things already present in the new-runs – i.e. that Elly is so busy with housework she doesn’t have to read a paper. Obviously she wasn’t really that busy, and the adoption of Farley is proof of it.
Of course, now that I look back at the old pictures of young Farley the dog, he really is a lethargic puppy. I hate to say it (not really), but Fred the fish is more active than young Farley the dog. It’s a good thing he’s cute. Maybe we should have a Fred the fish plush toy and a new book called, Fred Follows his Fin.
posted by howard at 9:44 PM
5 Comments:
Interesting though that the rewording lets John off the hook. That's not Lynn's style these days. I'm surprised the rewording didn't go something like this:
Panel 1: A puppy?! John got a puppy over your objections?!?
Panel 2: And he told you that you have to be the one to walk it and feed it and clean up its shit?!?
Panel 3: Don't you see how John is a total bastard?!?
Panel 4: Yes. I hope he dies.
That's closer to what I've been lead to expect from Lynn these days.
qnjones,
Interesting though that the rewording lets John off the hook. That's not Lynn's style these days.
Good point. When it comes to young Farley the dog, Lynn is playing a different kind of tune for John.
1. Instead of having John and Mrs. Baird con Elly, she has made it more into a young Michael and Mrs. Baird plot because both take their shot at John and Elly.
2. Instead of Farley peeing on Elly, Farley also pees on John.
This way the young Farley adoption is not viewed as everyone vs. Elly. Then when Connie comes up, instead of painting Elly as the victim of John’s machinations, she targets Elly alone and leaves John’s role in the adoption unmentioned.
I wonder why it is more important for Lynn to have John more on Elly’s side in this. My guess is that because “Everyone loves Farley.”. By moving John to a more anti-Farley position, Lynn is painting him in a more negative light, even though Elly is also in the same position.
howard,
I wonder why it is more important for Lynn to have John more on Elly’s side in this. My guess is that because “Everyone loves Farley.”. By moving John to a more anti-Farley position, Lynn is painting him in a more negative light, even though Elly is also in the same position.
That's another reason why the dialog in today's strip was edited; by making it look as if John was as much a victim of Mrs Baird as Elly, he manages to look like a gutless sap who needs a superwoman to prop him up.
dreadedcandiru2,
by making it look as if John was as much a victim of Mrs Baird as Elly, he manages to look like a gutless sap who needs a superwoman to prop him up.
True enough. Editing him out means that Connie does not even consider him when it comes to making the decision about adopting Farley. Before it was John vs. Elly. Now, John doesn't even count. It's Elly vs. Farley's cuteness, and of course, "Everyone loves Farley," so he wins.
howard,
Now, John doesn't even count.
That seems to be the general theme of the new-runs; the only purpose he serves is to bring home the bacon and make Elly worry that he's cheating.
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