The Story Lynn Couldn’t Wait to Tell
Today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse came as a little bit of a shock to those of us familiar with the Deanna and Michael story enough to remember that Deanna Sobinski’s last appearance with Michael was at a Hallowe’en dance during Grade 4 (or 5?). Unless Lynn Johnston is planning to do as slow-moving a storyline for Deanna leaving as Lynn did with Elly’s retirement (Elly says, “I think I’ll retire” and then 3 years later, retires), we are going to see Deanna depart to Burlington before Michael turns 6. I am not sure how things are in Canada, but in Tucson, they generally like the kids to be 6 years old before they begin Grade 1.
I have a pretty good idea what has happened. Some months back when Lynn was listing new stories she planned to insert into the reprints, Lynn Johnston promised that she would tell the secret story about why Deanna left Milborough. Apparently Lynn can’t wait the 5 years or so until Deanna actually leaves to tell that story. She has to tell it now. As to whether or not this impatience means the straight reprints are imminent, I don’t know. It could just as easily be yet another example where Lynn fails to research her own material, as it was when she grew the Nichols kids thinking they were already old when Farley the dog first appeared, or when she forgot Frank the fish was really Fred the fish, or when she forgot the Crows were really the Cranes, etc., etc.
The funny part is that even though Lynn Johnston was anxious to tell this story, she has told it wrong. Let me show you:
12/18/97 strip dialogue
Elly: So, Deanna – you and Michael have known each other for quite a while!
Deanna: We met in grade school, actually.
Elly: And you’re studying pharmacy.
Deanna: I have another year to go before I graduate.
Elizabeth: Your family lives in Burlington?
Deanna: Uh-huh. – My mom’s a nurse and my dad owns a hardware store.
John: A HARDWARE store?
Michael (to Deanna): …You’re in.
That’s right. “Owns a hardware store”. Not “got a new job.” In case you wonder about the long term history of that, I will now point you to the all-time best monthly letter from Deanna Sobinski Patterson and the pertinent quote related to Wilf’s employment:
Deanna's Letter, May 2004
Mom was, and is, a social climber. The fact that dad had a hardware store held her back some. She preferred to say that he was "in business," until the place grew and he became quite well known and successful.
There you have it. Wilf has owned this hardware store for a long time and he is successful. The obvious story choice for the Sobinski’s moving is that Wilf discovered a hardware store was for sale in Burlington for cheap and wanting his own business, he decided to buy it and move his family to Burlington. That’s no big secret and it actually works with the existing strips. As we have it, the big secret Lynn Johnston promised to tell us of Deanna Sobinski’s move to Burlingon is less accurate and less interesting than the one hinted at by Lynn Johnston back in 1997.
As for the art, I am waiting for Deanna to take that snowball in her hands and clobber Mike with it. Little Mr. Sensitive needs it.
I have a pretty good idea what has happened. Some months back when Lynn was listing new stories she planned to insert into the reprints, Lynn Johnston promised that she would tell the secret story about why Deanna left Milborough. Apparently Lynn can’t wait the 5 years or so until Deanna actually leaves to tell that story. She has to tell it now. As to whether or not this impatience means the straight reprints are imminent, I don’t know. It could just as easily be yet another example where Lynn fails to research her own material, as it was when she grew the Nichols kids thinking they were already old when Farley the dog first appeared, or when she forgot Frank the fish was really Fred the fish, or when she forgot the Crows were really the Cranes, etc., etc.
The funny part is that even though Lynn Johnston was anxious to tell this story, she has told it wrong. Let me show you:
12/18/97 strip dialogue
Elly: So, Deanna – you and Michael have known each other for quite a while!
Deanna: We met in grade school, actually.
Elly: And you’re studying pharmacy.
Deanna: I have another year to go before I graduate.
Elizabeth: Your family lives in Burlington?
Deanna: Uh-huh. – My mom’s a nurse and my dad owns a hardware store.
John: A HARDWARE store?
Michael (to Deanna): …You’re in.
That’s right. “Owns a hardware store”. Not “got a new job.” In case you wonder about the long term history of that, I will now point you to the all-time best monthly letter from Deanna Sobinski Patterson and the pertinent quote related to Wilf’s employment:
Deanna's Letter, May 2004
Mom was, and is, a social climber. The fact that dad had a hardware store held her back some. She preferred to say that he was "in business," until the place grew and he became quite well known and successful.
There you have it. Wilf has owned this hardware store for a long time and he is successful. The obvious story choice for the Sobinski’s moving is that Wilf discovered a hardware store was for sale in Burlington for cheap and wanting his own business, he decided to buy it and move his family to Burlington. That’s no big secret and it actually works with the existing strips. As we have it, the big secret Lynn Johnston promised to tell us of Deanna Sobinski’s move to Burlingon is less accurate and less interesting than the one hinted at by Lynn Johnston back in 1997.
As for the art, I am waiting for Deanna to take that snowball in her hands and clobber Mike with it. Little Mr. Sensitive needs it.
posted by howard at 10:17 PM
26 Comments:
Cracks me up that Lynn tried to paint Mira as a social climber. Usually a social climber will try to improve one's self in order to fit in. IIRC, Mira dressed in frumpy housedresses, looked dowdy, and tended to act like a harridan, rather than affecting polite manners and a tasteful wardrobe as any sensible social climber would do.
I came here to complain about the same thing as you, Howard: Wilf owned a hardware store. At least she could've had Deanna say, "Dad bought a hardware store in Burlington." FFS. I'm tired of Lynn's rapidly encroaching senile dementia.
Yet again, Lynn is failing to actually "fill in" the storylines.
howard,
Wilf has owned this hardware store for a long time and he is successful. The obvious story choice for the Sobinski’s moving is that Wilf discovered a hardware store was for sale in Burlington for cheap and wanting his own business, he decided to buy it and move his family to Burlington. That’s no big secret and it actually works with the existing strips. As we have it, the big secret Lynn Johnston promised to tell us of Deanna Sobinski’s move to Burlingon is less accurate and less interesting than the one hinted at by Lynn Johnston back in 1997.
Wilf's can-do, go-getter attitude and Mira's being a slightly more self-aware Elly clash hilariously with how Deanna describes them. She has it in her head that her evil tyrant of a mother is bossing her poor, weak daddy around when the man we saw in the actual strip was firmly in charge; a man who'd uproot his family on a dime because he'd found the opportunity of a lifetime isn't going to mind having a strong-willed woman telling him what she thinks. He let her vent because he didn't care. AS for Mira's suppsedly being Hyacinth Bucket, forget it; she's pretty much a more religious Flapandhonk who doesn't mind admitting that she wants stuff.
What gets me is is Deanna's inabilty to see why Mira didn't let "that" child into the house when she was six; she presented it as an act of monster-mommyhood but she didn't know who "those" people were. If Mira thought she was protecting her from something bad, she wouldn't feel compelled to explain. Elly wouldn't.
Ugh, this is so stupid. LJ really shouldn't insert new strips if she's not willing to figure out whether they contradict what she's established in the original run. Gah, and she's even lost sight of the fact that Michael is supposed to be in grade one and already be six years old.
What gets me is is Deanna's inabilty to see why Mira didn't let "that" child into the house when she was six; she presented it as an act of monster-mommyhood but she didn't know who "those" people were.
dc2, I don't think Lynn ever established that Mira disallowed Michael from coming over when they were children. At the time, ISTM Lynn just didn't think to have them get together at one another's houses. Heck, she didn't dream up Eva/Mira until after the car accident of fate.
April_Patterson,
The passage I have in mind is from her letter:
I remember bringing a girl home from the neighborhood we lived in and mom wouldn't let her in the house because she was from a poor family. From my point of view, she was clean, friendly, well mannered and fun to be with. Her family lived in the basement of a house two blocks down from us in a neighborhood a little older than ours, but not much different. Try to figure that out when you're 6 years old!
As I said, there might have been something going on in that little girl's family Deanna wasn't aware of. We don't know why Mira did what she did and we're probably not going to find out any time soon. This is, of course, because Mira is the Designated Antagonist. Before the wedding, she was a great person; after, the Great Beast to be feared and hated.
Mira's wardrobe was always an apparent strike against her. I guess it speaks ill of Lynn's drawing ability that one of us saw her attire as "frumpy housedresses," while I though Lynn was trying to tell us that she was overdressed, in a flowery, bright-colored dress instead of sensible jeans or stretch-pants. And then there were the high heels. And the page-boy hair instead of a bun or a ponytail. My perception was that Mira was supposed to be "overdoing it," trying too hard to look respectable, and ugh! Those bright colors! So vulgar, so...so Slavic. Thank God Dee decided to pattern herself after Elly.
The job part doesn't bother me... maybe they didn't explain to D that her dad bought a store, just that his 'job' was making them move.
It REALLY bothers me that no one around Lynn is helping her with the consistency, since it's obvious she doesn't check it.
qnjones,
At least she could've had Deanna say, "Dad bought a hardware store in Burlington."
I agree. There is nothing about that statement which a 5 or 6-year-old could not understand.
I'm tired of Lynn's rapidly encroaching senile dementia.
I don’t know if it is this or just laziness. I am reminded of the toilet-fixing sequence with Michael Patterson where she couldn’t be bothered to go into a washroom and draw a real toilet, instead of the toilet-like thing she drew.
DreadedCandiru2,
AS for Mira's suppsedly being Hyacinth Bucket, forget it; she's pretty much a more religious Flapandhonk who doesn't mind admitting that she wants stuff.
I can’t set her on the same scale as Elly Patterson (Flapandhonk). For all her faults, Mira tried to improve her daughter’s life and spent time with her grandchildren. She was willing to travel to Milborough at holiday time year after year without a complaint (that we saw). The best part is that when it comes to Elizabeth’s wedding, Mira oddly enough, did more for its preparation than Elly herself.
aprilp_katje,
Gah, and she's even lost sight of the fact that Michael is supposed to be in grade one and already be six years old.
That’s what I thought. I wonder if for the strips this week she was referencing collection #1 where the original first appearances of Deanna were and got confused about Michael’s age.
josephusrex,
My perception was that Mira was supposed to be "overdoing it," trying too hard to look respectable, and ugh! Those bright colors! So vulgar, so...so Slavic.
I believe you are quite right here about what Lynn was trying to achieve with Mira’s wardrobe.
Thank God Dee decided to pattern herself after Elly.
Yes, the Deanna who spent most of her honeymoon trip shopping (after all she was already pregnant), lost her fashion sense shortly after long term Elly exposure. Although it should be pointed out that Deanna still dressed better than Liz and her sensible schoolmarm attire.
Anonymous,
The job part doesn't bother me... maybe they didn't explain to D that her dad bought a store, just that his 'job' was making them move.
Maybe that’s the case. However, my point is not that Deanna doesn’t know, but that most of the readers do not know, and Deanna is the mouthpiece for the story of her move to us readers.
It REALLY bothers me that no one around Lynn is helping her with the consistency, since it's obvious she doesn't check it.
Lynn got rid of most of her staff last year. I think only the accounts person, Liuba Liamzini comes to work at Lynn’s place on a daily basis. Her webmaster and her colourist work out of their homes, subcontracting to Lynn through their own businesses. However, it should be mentioned that even when Lynn had a staff of 8 women going to her place of business every day, she still made huge continuity mistakes. I have the feeling that Lynn would not accept such help, even if it were offered.
I wish the lack of consistency meant that LJ was going to break the old story and do something more interesting, but we all know better. Arrgh.
Gives me energy for the Foob's Paradise fix-fic, but with a new class to teach and other stuff, I don't have as much time for it.
howard,
For all her faults, Mira tried to improve her daughter’s life and spent time with her grandchildren. She was willing to travel to Milborough at holiday time year after year without a complaint (that we saw). The best part is that when it comes to Elizabeth’s wedding, Mira oddly enough, did more for its preparation than Elly herself.
That's probably why Mira is the Great Beast to Be Feared and Hated: she's a better mother than Elly could hope to be. At the risk of sounding like a sitcom idiot, Elly's just jealous of her and she's got everyone else lined up behind her.
InsertMonikerHere,
I wish the lack of consistency meant that LJ was going to break the old story and do something more interesting, but we all know better. Arrgh.
Well, InsertMonikerHere, we can look forward to seeing how and if Lynn is going to fix it. When she made the mistake with Nichols boys, it was interesting to go from 2 kids to 1 kid who is about Mike’s age to 1 kid who is about Lizzie’s age. Admittedly she did that without explanation; however, it will be intriguing to see how Lynn deals with the first reprint in the second year that has Deanna Sobinski in it, plus what will be an inundation of Coffee Talk letters saying things like, “WTF are you doing. Mike is 6 and Deanna doesn’t leave for another 5 years.”
DreadedCandiru2,
That's probably why Mira is the Great Beast to Be Feared and Hated: she's a better mother than Elly could hope to be.
The oddest parts about Mira Sobinski’s portrayal are the things for which she is criticized and Elly is praised. Mira gives her grandchildren lavish gifts. In contrast, Elly’s gifts are supposed to be giving her grandchildren the gift of her time. “Time not gifts” is the phrase we used to use in April’s Real Blog. Ironically, we see Mira giving those gifts; but we don’t see Elly giving her time.
This is because of point 2 of Mira’s evil. She visits too much. Elly, in contrast, only came to visit Mike and Deanna in Toronto when she was asked to come. Ironically, we see Mira over at Mike and Deanna’s all the time. The entire time Mike and Dee were in Toronto, Elly visited them 3 times, each time only for family emergencies.
Point 3 is the wedding. Mira got her greatest criticism for her overinvolvement with Mike and Deanna’s fake wedding. Elly Patterson, in contrast, was so uninvolved in her daughter’s wedding, she did not even talk to her on her wedding day until after the ceremony was done and Elizabeth demanded to know why her grandfather was not there. For some reason, Lynn Johnston thinks that an uninvolved parent or grandparent is the ideal. In one recent interview where she talked about her care of her elderly parents, she basically admitted that she rarely saw them. In many respects, I think that she is trying to make the point that her stance of uninvolvement in her own family’s lives is the correct and moral position.
At the risk of sounding like a sitcom idiot, Elly's just jealous of her and she's got everyone else lined up behind her.
Elly does have Lynn Johnston lined up behind her, and that’s all she needs.
howard, An uninvolved "don't do anything - let it come to you" attitude is lionized in much of FOOB.
"Fate" - errgh, no, WORK at your relationship or call it quits.
And the great Lizthony love? Neither visited each other at their undergrad schools. Anthony got divorced, Elizabeth moved back, and still no dating. Anthony asked Julia to that wedding. That's not what you do when you're interested in somebody else.
InsertMonikerHere,
An uninvolved "don't do anything - let it come to you" attitude is lionized in much of FOOB.
True enough. Naturally this all comes from Lynn’s own life. Her career was handed to her and it messed with her perspective.
And the great Lizthony love?
I wonder about this sometimes. Lynn didn’t seem to have too much problem letting Michael move on from Rhetta to Deanna in university; so why was she so stuck on Anthony with Liz? When I go back and look at the early strips with Elizabeth and Eric Chamberlain, he does not come off badly. Candace recommends him. He and Elizabeth have a conversational rapport that Elizabeth never achieved with any man after that. 8 months into their relationship they move in together and everything goes to hell. I sometimes think that Lynn opted to knock off Eric in order to make a point that unmarried women and men should not live with each other, a point she first made with Deanna and Mike’s fake wedding.
Knocking off Eric intersects pretty well with when everything starting going down-hill; namely the fake wedding.
It's as though Lynn just got tired of the whole thing at that point and just wanted to get everything tied up in a pretty ribbon.
Well, IMHO, every single female character in this strip dresses like a frump. Maybe she meant Mira to be trying too hard, but all I could see was a different degree of frump. A pageboy isn't a necessarily glamorous hairstyle. Nor is Dee's bowl cut. High heels can be very frumpy--I just talked my mother into throwing out a bunch of pumps that look like they belonged to a 1970s prison matron.
And the men all dress like colorblind slobs whose dress sense hasn't evolved from the 1980s.
I know some Canadians who say that this is pretty common Canadian fashion sense, so maybe it's not Lynn's bad drawing but just the way Canadian fashion is. Then again, that's just the opinion of one Canadian family!
Although I suspect Lynn just doesn't want to do the very detailed drawing it takes to depict a woman who is dressing glamorously (or trying to do so). Too much work.
debjyn,.
Knocking off Eric intersects pretty well with when everything starting going down-hill; namely the fake wedding.
In a letter Lynn Johnston wrote to Phyllis Diller (of all people), Lynn talked about how doing comic strips was not enjoyable after the death of Charles Schulz and how she planned to quit. Charles Schulz died in 2000, and Eric Chamberlain arrived in 2000. I would say you have got the time down pretty well.
qnjones,
Maybe she meant Mira to be trying too hard, but all I could see was a different degree of frump.
Going back through the Sunday pages with Mira in them to see the colour differences between Mira and Elly, it appears that Elly is the type of woman who wears jeans a lot. Mira, on the other hand, never wears jeans and almost always wears a dress. As for colour selection, both are pretty frumpy, although Elly favours patterned blouses more than Mira.
I don't quite understand all this criticism of Foob fashion sense. So they don't wear stylish clothes. So what? There are plenty of people in this world (I'm one of them) who don't give two hoots about fashion. If you love fashion and want to spend time, money, and energy making sure you wear the latest and most up-to-the-minute outfits that's fine. But if you just want to slap clothes on your body every morning without having to spend much time thinking about it, that's fine, too. LJ's characters are mostly of the latter type, and I can't criticize them for that.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Nora Maloy : The irregularities and variations are characteristics that add texture and uniqueness to this human and should not be considered defects or flaws.
Jana C.H.,
When you are telling a story using a visual manner, the clothes chosen for a character in the story can, in an instant, tell you more about the character than a dozen paragraphs of text. So, if you want to write a story where a woman is supposed to be a social climber, you can tell a good bit of that story just by putting her in social climber clothes. Clothed right, you don’t even have to say she is a social climber. However, if you don’t do that and put the woman in frumpy clothes, and then say that the character is a social climber in text, then hardly anyone will believe you and your story has problems.
Concerning clothing & characterization: Therese did stand out as well dressed & well groomed, in a tasteful way. You don't have to be a fashion victim to demonstrate self-respect--& respect for those who see you. In fact, she's the one who thought Anthony looked like a fool--when he was dressed like a fool. (Of course, we saw that thought bubble when Liz was telling Candace the version of the story that she heard from Mike, who heard it from Anthony. Gosh--Mike's so sensitive!)
Therese did appear with her hair in disarray, wearing a sack dress. Once. In the scene where we see her weeping, with Anthony turning his back on her, holding Francie.
Therese also suggested Anthony cut a huge sandwich before cramming it into his gullet. They were in a restaurant, not at home. But that sort of behavior can be dangerous, even at home, unless you love doing the Heimlich. (Perhaps her mother told her "Never eat anything bigger than your head.")
Eating like a starving hyena & dressing badly (in baggy Mom jeans, for example, not just simple seperates) are Patterson traits. Sure, these are only "outer" characteristics. But the Pattersons are also short on the admirable "inner" characteristics.
"But the Pattersons are also short on the admirable 'inner' characteristics."
Exactly. That's why I can't see getting all horrified because they dress like slobs. Some really great people wear baggy blue jeans and sloppy t-shirts. And so do the Pattersaints. Why include that with the genuinely bad stuff? Laugh at it, sure, like we laugh at Mo's multiple striped turtlenecks in DTWOF. Alison Bechdel intends us to laugh at her heroine's clothing while LJ doesn't, but it isn't really a sign of moral turpitude in either character.
As for Mira: is it possible she's supposed to be an incompetent social climber? She's trying to dress well, but doesn't realize she has terrible taste. This fits well with LJ's wish to depict Mira as the quintesenntial Evil Mother-in-Law.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith James Boswell: Practice forms a man to anything.
Why does Lynn hate every woman who wants her family to improve in it's wealth, education and social standing? Her main character dropped out of school to marry a fricking dentist and assure herself the house, two children and picket fence, for Christ's sake!
I am so sick of the intense thread of snobbery that runs through this strip- Lynn should just publish a set of rules that all women must follow to avoid being objects of contempt in her eyes, and get it over with.
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