A Man Who Does Yoga is not Husband Material
When you go back through strips you have seen before as in today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse, you concentrate on the strange little things tha you did not notice the first time. In this case, as Elly Patterson ticks off the list of reasons why her brother is not marriage material for Connie Poirier, I notice that she includes yoga.
The list is:
a. He’s independent. That’s a nice way of saying, “He won’t do what you want him to do.”
b. His life is music. In other words, “You come second to his career.”
c. His life is late nights. He will sleep late in the morning.
d. He practices at 3 a.m. This statement doesn’t really match too well. Is Elly saying that Phil, after playing a late night gig, will then come home and practice at 3 a.m.?
e. He does yoga. This one completely stumps me. What is there about doing yoga that makes a man an incompatible marriage partner?
To answer this question, Iooked up an article on the internet called Seven Common Misconceptions about Yoga. It did not take long to find the culprits.
Miconception #3. Yoga is only for women. Elly interpretation: Phil is effeminate, and Elly prefers nerdy guys.
Misconception #7. Incense should be burned when practicing yoga: Elly interpretation: Phil is a drug abuser.
Visually, the best panel is panel #4 where it appears that Elly is deep in concentration to levitate that coffee cup. This especially works, since Elly had no coffee cup in the prior 3 panels.
The list is:
a. He’s independent. That’s a nice way of saying, “He won’t do what you want him to do.”
b. His life is music. In other words, “You come second to his career.”
c. His life is late nights. He will sleep late in the morning.
d. He practices at 3 a.m. This statement doesn’t really match too well. Is Elly saying that Phil, after playing a late night gig, will then come home and practice at 3 a.m.?
e. He does yoga. This one completely stumps me. What is there about doing yoga that makes a man an incompatible marriage partner?
To answer this question, Iooked up an article on the internet called Seven Common Misconceptions about Yoga. It did not take long to find the culprits.
Miconception #3. Yoga is only for women. Elly interpretation: Phil is effeminate, and Elly prefers nerdy guys.
Misconception #7. Incense should be burned when practicing yoga: Elly interpretation: Phil is a drug abuser.
Visually, the best panel is panel #4 where it appears that Elly is deep in concentration to levitate that coffee cup. This especially works, since Elly had no coffee cup in the prior 3 panels.
posted by howard at 10:26 PM
11 Comments:
howard,
There are other 'problems' with yoga that make it a bad habit in Elly's eyes.
Problem 1: It's a form of exercise. Elly interpretation: Phil is calling her fat. Reason: Elly misinterprets any form of advice as a personal attack.
Problem 2: It requires steady practice. Elly interpretation: Phil wants her to get behind on her housework. Elly's reasoning: If she did yoga, she'd have to tidy her house in the unnecessarily efficient and productive way John's mother does.
Problem 3: It relieves stress. Elly interpretation: Phil wants her to be lulled into a false sense of security. Elly's reasoning: her being content with what she has is just what all the evil people that surround her want.
The married men I see at my yoga would be surprised to learn how unsuitable they are. ;)
hi
Thanks to share your tips with us, i love your blog hope i'll come again an again... yoga always makes perfect fit
Yoga schools
DreadedCandiru2,
I agree that these extra problems you have pointed out could be added, especially the one where Elly wouldn’t want to have her stress relieved.
aprilp_katje,
The married men I see at my yoga would be surprised to learn how unsuitable they are. ;)
If you told them they were unsuitable for a person like Connie Poirier, they might agree with you.
sayen,
Welcome to the Howard Bunt Blog. I am certainly glad to share my yoga tips with you.
(1) You don’t have to be a woman to do yoga.
(2) If you are a relative of Elly Patterson and you do yoga, then she will consider you poor marriage material.
I think that Lynn/Elly probably considers people who practice yoga to be self-indulgent.
I had forgotten what a total dope Connie seems to be over men. It seems totally at odds with her backstory as the allegedly tough, independent feminist. I would say it's strange, bu this whole strip and its associated materials have become a big mess.
qnjones
I think that Lynn/Elly probably considers people who practice yoga to be self-indulgent.
That is basically the theme of all her Phil complaints. You can’t be self-indulgent and be a family man and Phil likes music too much to be anything but self-indulgent.
I had forgotten what a total dope Connie seems to be over men. It seems totally at odds with her backstory as the allegedly tough, independent feminist.
She’s a tough, independent feminist for the purposes of comic relief, which usually means the author is using her character to make fun of tough, independent feminists.
I would say it's strange, bu this whole strip and its associated materials have become a big mess.
I think you find the same problem with any long-running strip where you go back to its very roots. Imagine reprinting Beetle Bailey to go back when Beetle was a college man, or Blondie when Blondie was a gold-digging flapper trying to nail Dagwood, the son of a millionaire, or Snuffy Smith back when the strip was about Barney Google. Given enough time, comic strip characters evolve to match the times. Connie Poirier grew to be a sensible woman, who called Elly Patterson on her baloney. Connie Poirier from 1980 is so obsessed; Elly cannot speak to her of common sense. The two characters are not really the same person; just the same way that modern working man Dagwood is only remotely related to Dagwood the son of privilege.
I think it is fair to hold Lynn to a higher standard than those "gag a day" strips you cite. Lynn went to great lengths to do realistic storylines with depth, and to try to fill in her characters' backgrounds with extras like the biographies. So darn it, why didn't she use those extras to explain away certain inconsistencies? Instead, she added to them.
Furthermore, the people in charge of long-running strips like Dagwood and Mary Worth often admit, "Hey, there's no continuity with the past, the strip has changed. Enjoy." But Lynn continues to try to force the whole mess together, and expects readers to ignore continuity problems. She blames readers for not reading her mind. That's just irrational. And it further adds to the mess she's created.
qnjones,
I think it is fair to hold Lynn to a higher standard than those "gag a day" strips you cite. Lynn went to great lengths to do realistic storylines with depth, and to try to fill in her characters' backgrounds with extras like the biographies.
I believe the biographies are written by Beth Cruikshank and not Lynn Johnston. Although Beth has a tendency to favour the abusive parents and overly-dramatic situations to enhance the backgrounds of the characters, she usually does a pretty good job of checking out the pertinent strips and trying to make the story fit together. I cannot say the same for Lynn Johnston, who often has the problem of new-runs not matching the clothes or look of the characters preceding or following the new-run.
There are two schools of thought with respect to writing consistency. Some writers strive for consistency in their series characters, while there are other writers who seem to be willing to ignore consistency or even facts for the sake of a good story. Clearly Lynn falls into the latter school and there are many other famous authors in that school, as I am sure you are aware. Whether or not her stories would be better if they were consistent is a point of argument.
In the case of Connie Poirier, you have essentially 2 different characters. 1980's Connie is the manhungry, single woman who gives lip service to women’s liberation, but deep down inside would do anything to land a husband. She is played for comedy, pure and simple. 1999's Connie is supposed to be the story of a woman who fell in love with a man, whose culture would not allow them to be together, even though she bore him a son. She is played for sympathy.
Connie does represent the basic problem with knowing the future while going through the reprints. The fluffy light 1980s do not mix with the soap opera attitude of the modern strips. Any attempt by the new-runs to mix them is jarring. If Lynn Johnston were to do new-runs matching the tone (and not just the look) of the old strips, then the situation would be much better.
I know that Beth wrote the bios. But Lynn commissioned them and is responsible for the FOOB content that is unleashed upon the masses. So she is the one I hold responsible for the continuity mess.
I am of the mind that continuity problems always hurt the story being told. Like anyone cares what I think. ;)
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