The Dust Cloud Battle
The dust cloud battle was the sign of fighting in the old For Better or For Worse and could have been lifted from any of a variety of sources (Beetle Bailey, Peanuts). The modern version of battle is the circular slugfest last seen on Friday between Mike and Lawrence. It’s interesting that Lynn would put the two styles so close together in her comic strip; because it points out again that she is no longer trying to emulate her old style.
As for the topic of the strip, I can relate to a certain degree. I have told this story before, most recently in relation to the story about Deanna cutting Robin’s hair while he is sleeping and mentions that toenails are on her list for the next day.
My son hated having his nails cut when he was little. Unfortunately as an infant and toddler, he had very thin nails, which were like little razor blades. To keep him from slicing himself up when he scratched; and slicing us, when we held him; he had to have his nails cut short. To do this, I had to wrap my arms and legs around him to restrain him and my wife would grab the hand and trim it. He would fight us with all his might and would often be sweaty after a good trimming. Eventually he got older and with age, these problems went away. In fact, by the time he was age 5, which is Michael’s age, he was well old enough to allow us to trim his fingernails and toenails without any struggle.
This is the degree of the story to which I cannot relate. Michael seems a little old to me. No doubt, little Aaron, on whom Michael was modeled, had anger issues and made an issue over toenail cutting when he was 5. This is probably the source of the strip. However, I will note that unlike my situation with my son, where the mom and dad teamed up to get the unpleasant task done, John Patterson appears to be on his own. Years later, when Deanna was trimming Robin, at least she had some help from Michael.
As for the topic of the strip, I can relate to a certain degree. I have told this story before, most recently in relation to the story about Deanna cutting Robin’s hair while he is sleeping and mentions that toenails are on her list for the next day.
My son hated having his nails cut when he was little. Unfortunately as an infant and toddler, he had very thin nails, which were like little razor blades. To keep him from slicing himself up when he scratched; and slicing us, when we held him; he had to have his nails cut short. To do this, I had to wrap my arms and legs around him to restrain him and my wife would grab the hand and trim it. He would fight us with all his might and would often be sweaty after a good trimming. Eventually he got older and with age, these problems went away. In fact, by the time he was age 5, which is Michael’s age, he was well old enough to allow us to trim his fingernails and toenails without any struggle.
This is the degree of the story to which I cannot relate. Michael seems a little old to me. No doubt, little Aaron, on whom Michael was modeled, had anger issues and made an issue over toenail cutting when he was 5. This is probably the source of the strip. However, I will note that unlike my situation with my son, where the mom and dad teamed up to get the unpleasant task done, John Patterson appears to be on his own. Years later, when Deanna was trimming Robin, at least she had some help from Michael.
posted by howard at 9:27 PM
9 Comments:
howard,
No doubt, little Aaron, on whom Michael was modeled, had anger issues and made an issue over toenail cutting when he was 5. This is probably the source of the strip. However, I will note that unlike my situation with my son, where the mom and dad teamed up to get the unpleasant task done, John Patterson appears to be on his own. Years later, when Deanna was trimming Robin, at least she had some help from Michael.
It occurs to me just now that this is yet another example of John not being allowed to win. Not only does he get stuck with this thankless job, he also has to be cast as the heavy again. I should think that Elly is cowering in the background, wringing her hands and ready to light into her stooge for being so rough on Mommy's Little Genius.
I was staring at that second panel, thinking John was holding a shoe horn and wondering where the shoes were. I wasn't even noticing the nail clippings.
My son, who is five, gives a pro forma "no" over having his nails trimmed, but then he just accepts it.
This strip is also from the first collection. howtheduck, I think you are right that LJ simply jumped ahead to the second-collection stories to get Farley introduced and to sync up with the holidays and, having done so, is back to year one. Which I think sucks. Really, Lynn, tearing time and space to support your marketing tie-ins is really lame.
I remember quite the discussion of the Robin haircut incident over at the Foobiverse. I think it was mostly because the strip treated it as if 3-yr-old Robin were freaking out, so they *had* to sneak around and do it in his sleep. There was a good section of opinion that it seemed more like toddler/ baby behaviour.
The fight with (5-yr-old, 1st collection) Mike seems appropriate to me because Mike appears to just not want to have his toenails cut. It's a battle of wills, common with preschool/ kindergarten aged kids.
Now, LJ may have been trying to portray a battle of wills with Robin and Deanna (and then Deanna is essentially caving, which I expect would lead to nothing but more trouble). But the strip sure looked like a freaked-out baby unable to handle the hairdresser's.
Heh. Maybe my Foob's Paradise inference that Robin's behaviour and self-control was so bad (following poor parenting, perhaps) that they thought, incorrectly, that he had ADD isn't a bad guess :-)
DreadedCandiru2
I should think that Elly is cowering in the background, wringing her hands and ready to light into her stooge for being so rough on Mommy's Little Genius.
My guess is Elly says, “John. No. Cut the biggest toe first and then move to the smaller toes. That’s how my mother does it.”
aprilp_katje,
I think you are right that LJ simply jumped ahead to the second-collection stories to get Farley introduced and to sync up with the holidays and, having done so, is back to year one.
It raises a few questions though. In the weekly letter, Elly has mentioned taking classes a few times, which I remember as a second-collection plot line. If she really plans to do all the year one strips she jumped over, then it could be awhile before we see Elly in class. Also, the trip with Connie to Montreal makes a lot less sense if there is a huge separation between that and her time with Phil during his Christmas visit. Not to mention, there is the actual release of the children’s book coming up soon. I can’t imagine that Lynn will not take the opportunity to run a few more Farley-oriented strips in preparation for that. And let me not forget that after introducing the “Deanna is leaving” storyline, she will need to do a strip or two of Michael angst during and after her departure.
I fear we are going to see a lot of back and forth coming up in the strip.
InsertMonikerHere,
There was a good section of opinion that it seemed more like toddler/ baby behaviour.
My theory has been that Lynn assigns certain types of stories to characters, even if they don’t exactly fit. For example, Robin got all the infant/toddler/baby stories. He’s the one eating dirt thinking it was chocolate, or rolling in the mud, or frightened by the haircutter.
The fight with (5-yr-old, 1st collection) Mike seems appropriate to me because Mike appears to just not want to have his toenails cut. It's a battle of wills, common with preschool/ kindergarten aged kids.
Yet, by packaging this week’s fight with last week’s fight, what happens now is that a case can be made for Michael’s violent tendencies.
howtheduck, Elly's night course and Connie's trip to Montreal are the storylines that immediately came to my mind, too, when I considered the possibility that Lynn is in a retconned year one. Though I suppose if it suits her, she'll insert those arcs into the first year, as well. I agree, the Montreal trip will not make much sense if Lynn doesn't run it soon.
aprilp_katje,
Though I suppose if it suits her, she'll insert those arcs into the first year, as well. I agree, the Montreal trip will not make much sense if Lynn doesn't run it soon.
It’s difficult for me to tell what kind of sense Lynn Johnston has about her story-telling these days. Whenever she strays away from her usual “either adding a few strips to a reprinted storyline or redoing old strips as new-runs”, she has made some embarrassing continuity blunders. The business with Deanna’s early departure is the furthest she has come with an actual, somewhat unique storyline not appearing before and it is so far off from the original timeline that I get the sense that Lynn is not really interesting in telling a coherent story anymore. Because of that, I could easily see her throwing the Montreal trip storyline out there months later without any respect to whether her readers can follow what is going on.
Because of that, I could easily see her throwing the Montreal trip storyline out there months later without any respect to whether her readers can follow what is going on.
Excellent point--she really doesn't seem to care. It's more like she cuts out a bunch of strips, drops them on the floor, and lets that be the order they run in.
Post a Comment
<< Home