The Fun Stops Here
There are things my wife does not like to do. She does not like going to the circus. She does not like going to Renaissance festivals. She does not like camping outdoors. She does not like going to county fairs. So, when my wife leaves town, I usually consider those moments to be grand opportunities to take my kids to do those activities, which my wife does not like to do.
In trying to relate my life to today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, it is interesting to see the list of things the kids got to do while Elly was out-of-town.
1. Stay at home with a sitter while dad went out with Ted McCaulay.
2. Eat what they wanted. We really didn’t see this, because the only eating scene was the one where John was forcing Michael eat wiener-less beans.
3. Stay up late. We didn’t see this either. Instead we saw John putting the kids to bed in his own bed.
4. Sleep with clothes on. We didn’t see this either, because when we left that story, John has used reverse psychology to trick Michael into putting his pyjamas on.
This is an odd variation of Lynn Johnston’s style of “tell, not show”. I would call it “tell one thing, show another”. This is what is referred to in the vernacular as “lying”. Yet, I can’t make much sense of the motivation. Is John trying to make himself appear as a bad father in front of Elly by having convinced young Michael to lie about what happened? Is Michael lying to make his dad look bad? Or is this just another case where Lynn can’t keep straight in her head what happened in the story last week. After all, John seems to have no problem with Michael’s confession that he broke Elly’s rules. In fact, John goes so far as to tell Elly that he is more fun than she is because he lets the kids break her rules while she is gone.
The other interesting aspect of his strip is that the list of activities young Michael rattles off are not really ones that involve John except in getting permission to do something. The fun while Elly is gone, is not John doing things with the kids, but John giving the kids permission to break Elly’s rules. I will have to give it to Lynn Johnston that the sequence of events seems very much in-character for John.
In trying to relate my life to today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, it is interesting to see the list of things the kids got to do while Elly was out-of-town.
1. Stay at home with a sitter while dad went out with Ted McCaulay.
2. Eat what they wanted. We really didn’t see this, because the only eating scene was the one where John was forcing Michael eat wiener-less beans.
3. Stay up late. We didn’t see this either. Instead we saw John putting the kids to bed in his own bed.
4. Sleep with clothes on. We didn’t see this either, because when we left that story, John has used reverse psychology to trick Michael into putting his pyjamas on.
This is an odd variation of Lynn Johnston’s style of “tell, not show”. I would call it “tell one thing, show another”. This is what is referred to in the vernacular as “lying”. Yet, I can’t make much sense of the motivation. Is John trying to make himself appear as a bad father in front of Elly by having convinced young Michael to lie about what happened? Is Michael lying to make his dad look bad? Or is this just another case where Lynn can’t keep straight in her head what happened in the story last week. After all, John seems to have no problem with Michael’s confession that he broke Elly’s rules. In fact, John goes so far as to tell Elly that he is more fun than she is because he lets the kids break her rules while she is gone.
The other interesting aspect of his strip is that the list of activities young Michael rattles off are not really ones that involve John except in getting permission to do something. The fun while Elly is gone, is not John doing things with the kids, but John giving the kids permission to break Elly’s rules. I will have to give it to Lynn Johnston that the sequence of events seems very much in-character for John.
posted by howard at 12:11 AM
8 Comments:
Or is this just another case where Lynn can’t keep straight in her head what happened in the story last week.
Sadly, I'm afraid that this least interesting explanation of the lot is probably the most accurate.
It's downright pathetic how she can't seem to keep track of anything anymore - either she's suffering from incipient Alzheimers, too much stress, she's losing it, or (and possibly most likely) she doesn't really give a damn, because those who pay her don't check her work for coherence, and her gushing fans will forgive her anything and outdo themselves to keep her in the papers.
howard,
The fun while Elly is gone, is not John doing things with the kids, but John giving the kids permission to break Elly’s rules. I will have to give it to Lynn Johnston that the sequence of events seems very much in-character for John.
Yes, it is; John's purpose, whether is Elly there to play or not, is to score points in the mental game that they play and undermine her as a parent. Making sure that they know that he's the boss of her helps him be a more successful asshole husband.
Anonymous,
It's downright pathetic how she can't seem to keep track of anything anymore - either she's suffering from incipient Alzheimers, too much stress, she's losing it, or (and possibly most likely) she doesn't really give a damn, because those who pay her don't check her work for coherence, and her gushing fans will forgive her anything and outdo themselves to keep her in the papers.
I have to admit it is one thing to miss little details about stories you are retelling that occurred 30 years ago, like “When did Deanna Sobinski move?” or “Was Mike in kindergarten or preschool?” or “When was the second Nichols boy born?” It is a whole different thing not to remember details of a strip you wrote just the week before. Of course, to your “doesn’t really give a damn” explanation are all those drawings where she clearly changed direction as she was drawing the strip and then did not go back and correct it. In today’s strip for panel 3 for example, Lynn clearly intended Elly to be saying something, judging from her open mouth position, but Lynn did not go back and redraw her mouth to be closed. That has to be “doesn’t really give a damn”.
DreadedCandiru2,
Yes, it is; John's purpose, whether is Elly there to play or not, is to score points in the mental game that they play and undermine her as a parent.
It is a sick mental game. On the other hand, I know a lot of parents who play that game with their kids. In this respect, it is fairly realistic. A lot of parents want to be the parent their kids like.
howard,
That has to be “doesn’t really give a damn”.
And she hasn't really given a damn for years; the strip has become such a burden that she's not even going to let the syndicate put the new-runs into a collection.
Giving credence to the "doesn't give a damn" theory is also the way Mike is drawn. What the heck is that thing in the third panel? It's not a child.
clio-1,
Giving credence to the "doesn't give a damn" theory is also the way Mike is drawn. What the heck is that thing in the third panel? It's not a child.
Consider it was hovering in the first panel, it is clearly a creature who can defy the law of gravity. Let’s talk about the evolution of that panel.
First of all we have Elly with her mouth open as if she were saying something and then John with his mouth open as if he were saying something. John is draw lower in the panel, which is the Lynn Johnston standard method of making room for text. We can also see from Panel 4, what the intended position of Michael is, relative to John. The upper part of Michael’s body is not too far away from this. It is his lower half which is missing. Also notice that Farley has been transformed so you just see his doggy back and not his doggy head.
My theory is this: The plan for Panel 3 was that Elly was going to say something, John was going to say something and then Michael was going to say something. Elly’s dialogue was going to go above her head, John’s above his head and then Michael’s was going to go above his head and in front of him.
As Lynn started to fill in the dialogue, she realized that she didn’t have enough room for Michael’s dialogue. So she erased Farley’s head and Michael’s lower body and put Michael’s feet sticking out of John’s back. Then Lynn realized that she still didn’t have enough room for all the dialogue. So, she scratched Elly’s Panel 3 dialogue, and put in what you see today, with so many words it invades Panel 4 and even causes Elly to be drawn low in the Panel 4 to make room for it.
DreadedCandiru2,
And she hasn't really given a damn for years; the strip has become such a burden that she's not even going to let the syndicate put the new-runs into a collection.
It looks like you’re right. In the announcement for Just a Simple Wedding, it says it is the final collection. Honestly, I think the market is limited for the new-runs.
On the cover we see Merrie chasing Robin with Edgar taking the part of Françoise. We see Elly helping Elizabeth on with her dress, which did not happen in the strip. We see April helping John with his bow tie, which did happen in the strip. We see Michael with his speech, we never got to see him give. The whole cover seems to be a testimony to the story Lynn should have told about the wedding, but didn’t.
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