Michael Patterson: Funny or Obsessed?
I can take today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse two ways: (1) Michael’s obsession with Deanna Sobinski is not so long-lasting that it overcomes his greed for her spot by the window, or (2) Michael’s obsession with Deanna Sobinski is so long-lasting he wants to sit in her seat in order to preserve her memory.
The case for (1) is mainly that it occurs in the final panel, where Lynn Johnston typically places her punch lines, and the punch line would be funnier if it showed the transitory nature of childhood obsessions.
The case for (2) is stronger. We see in the first 2 panels, Michael begins to associate things with Deanna: her hangar, her cubby. He looks at his classroom and wonders about Deanna in her new school and home. In panel 3, we see that Michael’s obsession with Deanna is so well known, that the preschool teacher immediately recognizes he is thinking about her, even though Michael is doing nothing that I can tell to let her know that he is moping about because he misses Deanna. If I follow this progression, Michael’s request for her seat continues right along with Michael’s object association with Deanna. He wants to take possession of something Deanna had.
The whole idea seems ridiculous. I would much rather think answer (1) is correct. But these new-runs have shown Michael obsessed over Deanna far above anything in the strip shown before in the first 4 years. My biggest problem is that I cannot see a reason for it. Little Michael is so obsessed, it puts later stories with him and Martha or him and Rhetta in jeopardy. How could he even consider another woman, when he knows from preschool the love of his life is Deanna?
Meanwhile, 2 areas of interest wait: (1) Will Lynn Johnston repeat those other Deanna strips from years 1-4? (2) Does the completion of this storyline, that Lynn said she would tell before she started these new-runs, mean we are about to go into the full reprints?
The case for (1) is mainly that it occurs in the final panel, where Lynn Johnston typically places her punch lines, and the punch line would be funnier if it showed the transitory nature of childhood obsessions.
The case for (2) is stronger. We see in the first 2 panels, Michael begins to associate things with Deanna: her hangar, her cubby. He looks at his classroom and wonders about Deanna in her new school and home. In panel 3, we see that Michael’s obsession with Deanna is so well known, that the preschool teacher immediately recognizes he is thinking about her, even though Michael is doing nothing that I can tell to let her know that he is moping about because he misses Deanna. If I follow this progression, Michael’s request for her seat continues right along with Michael’s object association with Deanna. He wants to take possession of something Deanna had.
The whole idea seems ridiculous. I would much rather think answer (1) is correct. But these new-runs have shown Michael obsessed over Deanna far above anything in the strip shown before in the first 4 years. My biggest problem is that I cannot see a reason for it. Little Michael is so obsessed, it puts later stories with him and Martha or him and Rhetta in jeopardy. How could he even consider another woman, when he knows from preschool the love of his life is Deanna?
Meanwhile, 2 areas of interest wait: (1) Will Lynn Johnston repeat those other Deanna strips from years 1-4? (2) Does the completion of this storyline, that Lynn said she would tell before she started these new-runs, mean we are about to go into the full reprints?
posted by howard at 9:35 PM
10 Comments:
howard,
The whole idea seems ridiculous. I would much rather think answer (1) is correct.
It's not only not funny or cute, it's bordering on the horrific and disturbing. It just is not healthy or appealing to see a little boy whatever age Mike is supposed to be to be so fixated on another human being. His eventual wooing and marriage of her is now seemingly inspired less by love than a need to collect a trophy.
This retelling of the story really sheds more light on why the Sobinskis left town.
In later stories, we learned that Wilf got an opportunity to own a hardware store. That still probably happened, although we've been neither Shown not Told in NewFoobtime.
But the new neighborhood probably has a pretty good preschool. Without that creepy Patterson Kid who's been annoying Dee. Mira found out & told Wilf, so the decision was made.
The Patterson Kid is out sick? Time to grab Dee & run!
Thanks, Lynn!
Dreadedcandiru2,
It just is not healthy or appealing to see a little boy whatever age Mike is supposed to be to be so fixated on another human being.
Absolutely. What is suppposed to happen in these kinds of stories, is that the adults viewing it can say, "Wouldn't it be interesting if these 2 childhood friends ended up married someday," while the kids are not thinking of anything remotely like that. My wife and I have done that occasionally, when we saw our then, very young son playing with the daughter of a close friend of my wife's, for example. Even then it is not obsessive. Our son doesn't have to marry that little girl, when he grows up.
I think the problem is, once again, that every character is Lynn Johnston. She has taken her adult perspective and shunted it into the personality of her preschool character. If this is what she has done to little Michael, imagine what horrors we have in store for us, once she starts giving little Lizzie thought balloons.
maggie-texas,
But the new neighborhood probably has a pretty good preschool. Without that creepy Patterson Kid who's been annoying Dee.
That’s possible. I remember when my kids were in preschool, parents were very particular about the other kids in class with their kid. If one of the preschool kids was a biter, which is typically how young kids lash out at each other, they would request the kid be removed from school. And if the biting kid was not removed, then they would remove their child, for example.
With Michael, you have a kid that Deanna has felt the need to hit due to his behaviour. If there was a kid bothering my daughter in preschool to the point where she felt she had to hit him to defend herself, and it got back to me, then we could very well be in a situation where the parents would be happy to remove their daughter from that preschool.
howard,
If this is what she has done to little Michael, imagine what horrors we have in store for us, once she starts giving little Lizzie thought balloons.
It seems to me that we're probably about to find out; if debjyn is correct, the month of February will be devoted to Lizzie deliberately trying to stick it to Mike because she wants attention. This will, of course, be leavened with her worrying that she'll die an old maid.
That’s possible. I remember when my kids were in preschool, parents were very particular about the other kids in class with their kid.
That could well be the origin of the need the Pattersons have to demonize Mira and whine that she wins all the time; they don't seem to see themselves as being bound by society's strictures. Everyone has to conform to the norm but since they've suffered sooooooo long and their lives are sooooooooo hard, they're immune from the rigid behavioral standards they wish to subject everyone else to.
Uccch, today's new-run is so stupid. Michael is NOT thinking like a child of whatever-the-frig Lynn believes his age to be today. My five-year-old has told me about a few of his kindergarten classmates moving away. "Today was Isaac's last day." "Sarah is going to another school." Then that was it. Next thing I knew, he was telling me about some new friends who'd just joined the class. That's how children that age ARE, Lynn.
And the teacher--I suppose she's their preschool teacher. I'd been under the impression that she was their art teacher. Mike's kindergarten teacher never appeared in the strip, IIRC, but at this rate, we will never get to grade-one Miss Campbell or grade-two Mrs. Hardacre.
DreadedCandiru2 wrote "His eventual wooing and marriage of her is now seemingly inspired less by love than a need to collect a trophy."
You just described every marriage in FOOBville.
Elly married John for the money and status. Mike married Deanna as a trophy, to beat some other guy and Deanna's mother, and to get a beard. Anthony married Liz to show that he could win the bestest thing in the universe: a blond passive FOOB woman.
As for the other halves of the relationships: John seems to have married Elly for her looks (or Elly thinks he did), Deanna married Mike to get out of another engagement and to tick off her mother, and I still don't actually know why Liz married Anthony. So she could be a trophy, I guess.
Gee, it's like Lynn has a camera in my home! If I lived in an asylum for people whose personality disorders overwhelmed their ability to have actual human interaction.
I still don't actually know why Liz married Anthony.
They were all automatons by the time of the pseudo-engagement (what else do you call a morose conversation that never actually includes the question "do you want to get married/ spend the rest of our lives together" by either party?).
The real answer is that LJ wanted that wedding, and had no need to provide character motivation.
The subtext I saw was that Liz didn't see herself as an adult or "complete" until she got married. She had to be attached to her family until she had a family of her own - so she had to return to Milborough. And there was a lot of infantilization when she moved back home and stayed at her parents' for a while.
Sooo ... there's Anthony, who's said he wants her, and she could short-circuit all that "getting to know you" stuff and seal the deal to become an adult Patterson.
I'm amazed, frankly, that Mike hasn't begun to creepily thought-bubble about Dee, Granthony-style. Amazed, but grateful.
Word verification string: "dungshun." Something I'd really like to do, but I still read the damn strip.
I'm amazed, frankly, that Mike hasn't begun to creepily thought-bubble about Dee, Granthony-style. Amazed, but grateful.
It's probably only a matter of time, dlauthor.
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