Montreal, Here Comes Connie!
I wondered why we were getting all this rehash of the Connie situation until today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse. When we last left Connie and Elly's brother Phil, Phil had returned home to Montreal. We readers were expecting the plotline to follow its original form where Connie chased after Phil, only to embarrass herself and put things in perspective with her son, when she failed to return home after learning that he had gotten injured while she was gone. This was Connie at an all-time low. She was chasing after a man who was not interested in her all the way to Montreal and she let her son know that finding a man was more important to her than his welfare.
When this plotline did not show up, and Elly gave Connie a lecture about chasing after men, I secretly rejoiced not to see Connie dredged through the mud. I thought Lynn might go straight to the Connie and Ted story, when Ted was introduced. But then Ted was dredged through the mud instead, and I was even more pleased. I thought that perhaps Lynn was just going to skip over this awful period in Connie’s life and send her off to Thunder Bay several years early. After all, if she can send Deanna off several years early, then why not Connie too?
But then today’s strip showed up and mentioned poor Connie had been writing Phil, and mean old Phil was writing back to her, and thus encouraging the little psychopath. I loved Elly’s judgmental, anti-male attitude, even though the male in question is her own brother. Cruel and vicious, old Phil. Connie writes to him and he has the nerve to be polite and write back. He should just be rude and ignore her. After all, unless you plan to marry someone, you shouldn’t be writing back to them. Phil is taking her virtuous mail with no plans to make an honest mail woman out of her. You know what they say: It’s like getting the cow’s mail, without buying the cow. Or something like that.
The best part of all, there is no mention of e-mail, texting, or any other kind of means of communication that would tag the strip as modern. Connie uses the snail mail, and so does Phil. Isn’t that great for a modern strip?
Now we have spent a few days rehashing Phil and Connie so that we can return to the storyline abandoned back in January. Get ready for Connie to go to Montreal. Get ready for the lowest point in Connie’s life (aside from when she got her husband to throw her son out of the house for being gay). I can hardly wait. It was a terrible sequence before but I have every confidence that Lynn Johnston is going to find a way, via the new-runs, to make it worse. She is just that good.
When this plotline did not show up, and Elly gave Connie a lecture about chasing after men, I secretly rejoiced not to see Connie dredged through the mud. I thought Lynn might go straight to the Connie and Ted story, when Ted was introduced. But then Ted was dredged through the mud instead, and I was even more pleased. I thought that perhaps Lynn was just going to skip over this awful period in Connie’s life and send her off to Thunder Bay several years early. After all, if she can send Deanna off several years early, then why not Connie too?
But then today’s strip showed up and mentioned poor Connie had been writing Phil, and mean old Phil was writing back to her, and thus encouraging the little psychopath. I loved Elly’s judgmental, anti-male attitude, even though the male in question is her own brother. Cruel and vicious, old Phil. Connie writes to him and he has the nerve to be polite and write back. He should just be rude and ignore her. After all, unless you plan to marry someone, you shouldn’t be writing back to them. Phil is taking her virtuous mail with no plans to make an honest mail woman out of her. You know what they say: It’s like getting the cow’s mail, without buying the cow. Or something like that.
The best part of all, there is no mention of e-mail, texting, or any other kind of means of communication that would tag the strip as modern. Connie uses the snail mail, and so does Phil. Isn’t that great for a modern strip?
Now we have spent a few days rehashing Phil and Connie so that we can return to the storyline abandoned back in January. Get ready for Connie to go to Montreal. Get ready for the lowest point in Connie’s life (aside from when she got her husband to throw her son out of the house for being gay). I can hardly wait. It was a terrible sequence before but I have every confidence that Lynn Johnston is going to find a way, via the new-runs, to make it worse. She is just that good.
posted by howard at 10:25 PM
14 Comments:
Get ready for Connie to go to Montreal. Get ready for the lowest point in Connie’s life (aside from when she got her husband to throw her son out of the house for being gay). I can hardly wait. It was a terrible sequence before but I have every confidence that Lynn Johnston is going to find a way, via the new-runs, to make it worse. She is just that good.Get ready for worse puns, an even more oblivious Elly and an ever more judgmental naff Annie. Also a more repulsive Phil.
And I guess if LJ is about to launch into the "Connie chases Phil in Montreal" arc, we are about to see grade-one Michael and Lawrence again. And then the poor kids will be wrenched back to preschool when Lynn wants to do a new-run "school" arc again. ::sigh::
The best part of all, there is no mention of e-mail, texting, or any other kind of means of communication that would tag the strip as modern. Connie uses the snail mail, and so does Phil. Isn’t that great for a modern strip?I know--I was thinking the same thing. You just know KAN would jump in with "Lots of people still write good,old-fashioned paper letters! They're so much more personal than the e-mail, the texting, and the Twitter all the kids are talking about! I write letters every day and my friends write back! My postal carrier is my best friend! And I'm in modern times! Hail, Lynn!"
DreadedCandiru2,
Get ready for worse puns, an even more oblivious Elly and an ever more judgmental naff Annie. Also a more repulsive Phil.-
Lynn has tried to make Phil more repulsive the last time at this, and in my mind, she failed. Of course, whenever Lynn tries to make someone more repulsive, she makes them look better. Elly and Annie however, she will try to make them look better than poor Connie, and it will backfire and make them look worse. It could be a snarker’s heaven.
aprilp_katje,
And I guess if LJ is about to launch into the "Connie chases Phil in Montreal" arc, we are about to see grade-one Michael and Lawrence again. -
Most likely. I guess the real question is why Lynn has chosen to go back to Connie when there are some year one strips she hasn’t reprinted yet. If I were to guess, I suppose I would have to go with “The Connie Poirier dating story provides so many more opportunities to bash Rod Johnston” or “The only strips left to reprint from the first year make John Patterson look good.”
You just know KAN would jump in with "Lots of people still write good,old-fashioned paper letters! They're so much more personal than the e-mail, the texting, and the Twitter all the kids are talking about! I write letters every day and my friends write back! My postal carrier is my best friend! And I'm in modern times! Hail, Lynn!"-
Of course, after Elly has implied that Phil is leading Connie on by responding to her mail, you could simply respond to the KAN by saying:
You write letters every day? You slut. It’s wrong to lead on all those people without a marriage proposal.
Your postal carrier is your best friend? You better not let your spouse catch you messing around with your postal carrier.
Yes, and as for that other low point in Connie's life: WHY has she always gotten a pass on that? Either she did nothing, while Ted threw her son out of the house, aside from perhaps cowering and weeping, and then going back to sleep once Lawrence was safely gone--or, as you say, she was all in favor of it and just let Ted take the blame. Either way, I don't see how anyone could excuse her behavior. Except Lynn, of course.
josephusrex,
Yes, and as for that other low point in Connie's life: WHY has she always gotten a pass on that? She gets a pass because Connie took a passive role. This is what Pattersons do in the face of adversity (see Elly's reaction to learning Gordon and Candace were being abused), and so it is perfectly OK for Connie to do the same.
Cruel and vicious, old Phil. Connie writes to him and he has the nerve to be polite and write back. He should just be rude and ignore her.Of course, if Phil did the sensible thing and ignored his sister's crazy friend (who he must have met at Elly and John's wedding if Connie were the bridesmaid -- perhaps he doesn't remember for some reason or other...), you can bet Elly would be on the phone in an instant to berate him for his thoughtlessness and threaten to tell their mother how rude he turned out to be despite all Marian's best efforts to drill some manners into him.
josephusrex, um, maybe because she did neither? She asked her husband to _talk_ to Lawrence (phrase might have been "talk some sense"), but he threw Lawrence out.
Not clear how quickly Lawrence went off to the coffee shop while Connie and Greg weren't shown. Connie could have been arguing with Greg to cut that out and let him back in - because the next strip has Connie in a panic calling Elly and trying to get help because Lawrence is gone, the toss-out was clearly wrong, and they desperately need to find their son before he gets hurt on his own.
It was pretty stupid of Connie to think her husband could talk Lawrence out of being gay, or that this would be desirable, though.
I'm the age Connie and Elly are supposed to be in the new-runs. I don't know anyone who writes letters regularly, except thank you notes. If Lynn were to update this, it might be even more ridiculous, though: Phil is responding to Connie's e-mails! He's leading her on!
forworse,
Of course, if Phil did the sensible thing and ignored his sister's crazy friend (who he must have met at Elly and John's wedding if Connie were the bridesmaid -- perhaps he doesn't remember for some reason or other...), you can bet Elly would be on the phone in an instant to berate him for his thoughtlessness and threaten to tell their mother how rude he turned out to be despite all Marian's best efforts to drill some manners into him.-
It’s hard to get a feel for the situation, because Elly keeps flip-flopping on the matter. She wants Connie to find someone, she sets Connie up on a date with her brother, and if Phil were to turn around and propose to Connie, then Elly would be all for it. Her only objection is that Phil has not agreed to marry Connie. It seems like Elly is not a big believer in courtship.
InsertMonikerHere,
She asked her husband to _talk_ to Lawrence (phrase might have been "talk some sense"), but he threw Lawrence out. -
Yes, but the question is: Did she get her husband to throw her son out of the house for being gay, or did her husband act on his own. This is tricky to get.
The line Connie uses is, “Greg – Talk some sense (emphasis Lynn’s) into him!!!” That is the last line of the strip. However, in that same strip, Lynn has drawn Connie trying to hit Lawrence on the chest and then turning her back on him, before she even calls Greg into it. There is a message of rejection in Connie’s physical behaviour.
The next strip does not show Greg talking sense with Lawrence. We know there had to have been some conversation because Greg walked up without being privy to Connie’s conversation with Lawrence. When the next strip starts, Greg tells Lawrence to get out of the house. Connie is standing right there, not saying or doing a thing.
There you have it. Connie calls Greg. She says, “Greg – Talk some sense into him!!!” There’s a conversation we don’t get to see between strips. Then Greg throws Lawrence out, while Connie stands and watches.
Did Greg act on his own? What did Connie say to Greg before Greg threw Lawrence out? We will never know. Even Connie’s Who’s Who entry does not tell us, but there is something that does.
When Lawrence finally returns to Connie and Greg, their words to Lawrence are telling. Connie says, “I don’t think I’ll ever understand Lawrence. But I’ll try. I’ll do my best to accept your lifestyle…and your friends.” In other words, “I will try, but I doubt I will succeed in accepting your homosexuality.”
Greg, on the other hand, says, “Your mother has known you and loved you for 17 years. I’ve just been a small part of your life. – I’m not going to judge you. As long as you’re a good man…and a kind man – I’ll respect you. …As for the rest, what will be will be. Que sera sera.” In other words, “What you do is your business, and I am not going to judge you on that, just your goodness and kindness. (And since you are doing Rock Hudson, I will now do my Doris Day imitation.)"
Then, just to show how much Connie accepts Lawrence, the very next panel after this, Connie picks up the dog and decides to name the dog “Sera,” while Greg and Lawrence are buddying up in the background. The hidden message is: Lawrence may be back living with her, but Connie now prefers the dog to the son. After high school, we never see Connie together with Lawrence in a strip again.
clio-1,
I'm the age Connie and Elly are supposed to be in the new-runs. I don't know anyone who writes letters regularly, except thank you notes. -
Lynn likes letter-writers for romance:
Liz's Letter, December 2005-
Everyone's been asking me about Paul, a.k.a. Constable Wright, so I may as well get it over with and say yes...we're dating. Tentatively. He lives far enough away that we don't get to see each other all the time, but instant messaging programs make the world go 'round, especially for those of us who'd otherwise have to resort to smoke signals and trips by dog sled (just kidding - we have snowmobiles). The technology does come in handy, though. We email every day; he's quite a good writer, which I appreciate. Paul actually writes letters, so we're getting to know each other slowly but surely.
You write letters every day? You slut. It’s wrong to lead on all those people without a marriage proposal.
Your postal carrier is your best friend? You better not let your spouse catch you messing around with your postal carrier.::snerk:: :)
Passivity is certainly a sign of goodness in the strip. Remember when Elly was given proof after proof that Kort was threatening April?
Elly's indecisiveness and reluctance were given as signs of her sweet, good, trusting nature. Not of her being a flaky, daughter-ignoring selfish jerk. She worried far more about how much it would hurt her to fire Kort than she did about April getting threatened.
It was about that time my affection for the strip began its downward spiral.
Post a Comment
<< Home