Cooking or Writing: Which is more sexist?
The woman who rarely has enough time to read is in today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse considering taking a night school course in creative writing. To me, this means that Elly’s comment yesterday about reading, was just for show. It appears also that Elly’s desire to “be someone who did something that involved books” is to write books herself or to be someone who wishes that they could write well enough to write books for themselves.
John Patterson gets pushed by Elly for suggesting Creative Cooking instead of Creative Writing. It would be in character for John to disparage writing (as he did many times in his website monthly letters when talking about Mike’s career) as impractical. However, considering the usual tone of this strip with respect to John, the point of the strip may be that John considers cooking to be woman’s work.
Interestingly enough, at my son’s Boy Scout meeting tonight, they had a pancake cookoff between the different patrols. My son’s patrol did not win. However, one of the boys thought it would be amusing to present the awards dressed up as a famous chef, and so he dressed up like Julia Child. It was at this point I suddenly realized that the Julie and Julia movie had hit more into the mainstream than I had expected, for a 13-year-old Boy Scout to consider her to be the model of great cooking, as opposed to the rat in the movie Ratatouille. One of the main points of the Julie and Julia movie was that Julia Child was the equal of the great male chefs in France. If Lynn had intended John Patterson’s statements to be sexist, they do not resound that way with me.
Consider the 2 alternatives: Elly as writer. Elly as cook.
As the comic strip progresses over 30 years, Elly moves from being a marginal cook to being a cook praised for her cooking by her friends and relatives. No matter what you may think about the disgustingly greasy food she served up, nevertheless she was praised for her cooking. As for her writing, nothing comes of it. She tries briefly and gives up. She does not have the discipline to accomplish it. 30 years into the strip, Elly is praised for being knowledgeable about books, but she is not praised for her writing.
All things considered, I think John Patterson is making a good suggestion here. He may be thinking “Elly stinks at writing, but she is not a bad cook. Why not encourage her in an area where she actually has some talent?” Remember, it was not too long ago when John Patterson said he didn’t like fancy cooking; so to suggest creative cooking is a little bit of a sacrifice for John. Not only that, but in the next 30 years, John’s suggestion ultimately will prove to be the best one.
John Patterson gets pushed by Elly for suggesting Creative Cooking instead of Creative Writing. It would be in character for John to disparage writing (as he did many times in his website monthly letters when talking about Mike’s career) as impractical. However, considering the usual tone of this strip with respect to John, the point of the strip may be that John considers cooking to be woman’s work.
Interestingly enough, at my son’s Boy Scout meeting tonight, they had a pancake cookoff between the different patrols. My son’s patrol did not win. However, one of the boys thought it would be amusing to present the awards dressed up as a famous chef, and so he dressed up like Julia Child. It was at this point I suddenly realized that the Julie and Julia movie had hit more into the mainstream than I had expected, for a 13-year-old Boy Scout to consider her to be the model of great cooking, as opposed to the rat in the movie Ratatouille. One of the main points of the Julie and Julia movie was that Julia Child was the equal of the great male chefs in France. If Lynn had intended John Patterson’s statements to be sexist, they do not resound that way with me.
Consider the 2 alternatives: Elly as writer. Elly as cook.
As the comic strip progresses over 30 years, Elly moves from being a marginal cook to being a cook praised for her cooking by her friends and relatives. No matter what you may think about the disgustingly greasy food she served up, nevertheless she was praised for her cooking. As for her writing, nothing comes of it. She tries briefly and gives up. She does not have the discipline to accomplish it. 30 years into the strip, Elly is praised for being knowledgeable about books, but she is not praised for her writing.
All things considered, I think John Patterson is making a good suggestion here. He may be thinking “Elly stinks at writing, but she is not a bad cook. Why not encourage her in an area where she actually has some talent?” Remember, it was not too long ago when John Patterson said he didn’t like fancy cooking; so to suggest creative cooking is a little bit of a sacrifice for John. Not only that, but in the next 30 years, John’s suggestion ultimately will prove to be the best one.
posted by howard at 10:27 PM
14 Comments:
howard,
All things considered, I think John Patterson is making a good suggestion here. He may be thinking “Elly stinks at writing, but she is not a bad cook. Why not encourage her in an area where she actually has some talent?”
Well, this is yet another example of Straw Man Chauvinist John having a point we're not supposed to concede. He's not supposed to be right about insurance, he's not supposed to be right about Elly being a crappy author and he's not supposed to be right about Elly having the potential to become a good cook. This sort of thing could become an upcoming FOOBAR:
Panel 1:
Joe: Why do you want to be an author when I've never even seen you read?
Panel 2:
Emmy: I want to be more than a mother and housewife. I want to achieve something noteworthy.
Panel 3:
Joe: Why not learn to cook better? You at least can actually achieve something that way.
Emmy: [thought-bubble]"HATE!!"
dc2: Heh. I cant totally see that. :)
howtheduck: Curiously, this seems to be a new-ruin redo. There is an old-run strip where Elly is looking at the continuing education catalog. John comes along and says, "What's this--a nightschool program?" Elly responds, "Uh-huh, I'm enrolling in a creative writing course!" John splays out one hand and says, "Creative writing? --Everyone's doing creative writing. Why not take something practical?" Then he picks up the catalog and says. "...Belly dancing and gourmet cooking, for example!" Elly reacts by scrunching her eyes shut and cringing.
My first thought was that Lynn realized that creative writing =/= contemporary lit. When Elly has her books for the course six strips after the one I described above, John asks if she's "sure this is a course in contemporary English."
Also, the "catalog" strip happens just after the Farley-adoption arc in the original continuity. But then she's not actually shown in class until January (shortly after Phil departs.) So my second thought was that she wanted a reason for the gap between the sign-up strips and Lynn showing up in the class.
DreadedCandiru2,
He's not supposed to be right about insurance, he's not supposed to be right about Elly being a crappy author and he's not supposed to be right about Elly having the potential to become a good cook.
It’s a rare moment when John is supposed to be right about something and I like your Yammersons’ suggestion. I love the Yammersons.
aprilp_katje,
Interesting contrasts with the old strip:
John goes from "What's this--a nightschool program?" to “What are you up to?”
John is less interested and more suspicious.
Elly goes from "Uh-huh, I'm enrolling in a creative writing course!" to “I’m checking out night school courses.”
Elly is less certain and less definite about what she is doing than she was originally.
John goes from "Creative writing? --Everyone's doing creative writing. Why not take something practical?" "...Belly dancing and gourmet cooking, for example!" to “So? – Take something else: Creative cooking, for example.”
Putting together Belly dancing and gourmet cooking shows John’s suggestion is not supposed to be taken seriously, but things he would like to see Elly taking. With “creative cooking” Lynn adds alliteration (one of her favourites), but by repeating the word “creative” which was in the course title Elly suggests, there is an element of mocking the title.
Elly goes from reacting by scrunching her eyes shut and cringing to scrunching her eyes and shoving John away.
The last time Lynn did a redo on her old strip, she had Elly spitting at John. Clearly new-run Elly is more physical than the old-run Elly in her disagreements with John.
My first thought was that Lynn realized that creative writing =/= contemporary lit. When Elly has her books for the course six strips after the one I described above, John asks if she's "sure this is a course in contemporary English."
It will be very interesting to see if Lynn repeats that strip, since it does point out a certain trend at a certain time.
Also, the "catalog" strip happens just after the Farley-adoption arc in the original continuity. But then she's not actually shown in class until January (shortly after Phil departs.) So my second thought was that she wanted a reason for the gap between the sign-up strips and Lynn showing up in the class.
I think this is exactly the reason for mentioning the class wasn’t offered until the next semester.
Oops, I didn't realize I'd accidentally referred to Lynn showing up in class instead of Elly. If I'm not careful, I'll be officially initiated into the KAN. 0_o
I think this is exactly the reason for mentioning the class wasn’t offered until the next semester.
While originally, I suspect that Lynn's short attention span was the reason. She had Elly perusing the catalog, talking to (presumably) an adult-ed adviser who also turned out to be the prof from the course, a Farley strip, the "one cookie" strip, the "Michael [ . . . ] you're loving [Farley] too much" strip, and then Elly with her stack of assigned books. Then Farley strips, holiday-prep/shopping, Elly telling Connie about Phil's impending arrival, the stupid "diet" strips, Phil's arrival, Christmas, New Year's. Then... "Oh, yeah, didn't I have Elly register for a class?" And she very distinctly showed the adviser/professor conducting that class.
Similarly--remember when Lynn was doing a weekly note from Elly at "Coffee Talk" and she had Elly say she'd enrolled in a class then? My guess is that she'd been trolling collection #2 for "Farley" strips and forgotten that she was grafting those strips into year-one continuity. Hence Elly abruptly dropping the course when she got sick, all the while complaining about the amount of reading/writing required.
Also, no way is a creative writing course going to lead Elly to a career. She doesn't have the self-motivation necessary to be even the most hacky of hack writers, and she can't take criticism about anything at all. I spent a couple hours hiding under a blanket after fellow students read one of my stories in my last creative writing course (half LOVED it, half HATED it); somehow I don't think Elly could withstand it better. If she dedicated herself to a cooking program, however, she could even do more than be a "short order cook", which she talked about as a possibility earlier.
Elly thinks "women's work", cooking, taking care of the kids and the house, is beneath her and that it's, in fact, rather valueless. John actually seems to think the opposite. So Elly gets offended that John thinks what she does has value. It's all rather confusing to me.
Clio,
Elly thinks "women's work", cooking, taking care of the kids and the house, is beneath her and that it's, in fact, rather valueless. John actually seems to think the opposite. So Elly gets offended that John thinks what she does has value.
Thank you for putting a thought I had into words; mind if I use it for my next blog entry?
aprilp_katje,
Oops, I didn't realize I'd accidentally referred to Lynn showing up in class instead of Elly. If I'm not careful, I'll be officially initiated into the KAN. 0_o
You can join me there for that mistake. I have made it plenty of times myself.
Then... "Oh, yeah, didn't I have Elly register for a class?" And she very distinctly showed the adviser/professor conducting that class.
In the early days, Lynn was much more inclined to complete a storyline than stretch it over 12 -18 months as she did in her later years, when she did those 1-2 week arcs visiting her long-running stories. She became much more conscious of her timeline as she went along. So, when the Howard Bunt trial ran for months due to Lynn’s own strip interruptions, for example, Lynn was obliged to put in an explanation for why it was running so long. I think we are seeing a symptom of that philosophy with today’s strip reference.
Similarly--remember when Lynn was doing a weekly note from Elly at "Coffee Talk" and she had Elly say she'd enrolled in a class then? My guess is that she'd been trolling collection #2 for "Farley" strips and forgotten that she was grafting those strips into year-one continuity.
I thought that was one of Beth Cruikshank’s daughters doing those weekly Elly letters. Regardless of who was doing them, one of the things which is are common between the monthly letters and Elly’s weekly letter was the way they failed to match with the storyline in the strips. This was a good glimpse into Lynn’s creative process. It appears that Lynn’s ideas about what she planned to do with the strip changed so frequently, people were unable to write internet letters consistent with Lynn’s strips.
Clio,
I spent a couple hours hiding under a blanket after fellow students read one of my stories in my last creative writing course (half LOVED it, half HATED it); somehow I don't think Elly could withstand it better.
Probably not. Elly reflects Lynn’s own views on the matter, and it is clear from reading Lynn’s responses to criticisms that she will admit only to the most egregious errors. You see this reflected most clearly in the response to Michael’s writing, which primarily receives exceptional praise and is criticized only by villains, Melville Kelpfroth and Mitch Frenum.
Elly thinks "women's work", cooking, taking care of the kids and the house, is beneath her and that it's, in fact, rather valueless. John actually seems to think the opposite. So Elly gets offended that John thinks what she does has value. It's all rather confusing to me.
She wants Elly to be the put-upon housewife, because that is her fan base. However, once Lynn got to a certain point of her personal wealth, this was no longer her lifestyle. Consequently not only does Elly have a lot to do with housework and raising her children (which Lynn no longer did), but she also dislikes housework and raising her children (especially since Lynn did not have to do that). The issue that Lynn has with a lot of her fans is that they like their kids, but don’t like housework. John is the anti-Elly in a lot of these strips, so he partway agrees with the fans, and never agrees with Elly.
DreadedCandiru2 said,
Thank you for putting a thought I had into words; mind if I use it for my next blog entry?
Go ahead :).
I thought that was one of Beth Cruikshank’s daughters doing those weekly Elly letters.
For a little while, Chrissie was doing the compiling and posting of the "Coffee Talk" entries, as Beth is doing currently. I don't know whether she composed the letters from Elly and/or John.
Regardless of who was doing them, one of the things which is are common between the monthly letters and Elly’s weekly letter was the way they failed to match with the storyline in the strips. This was a good glimpse into Lynn’s creative process. It appears that Lynn’s ideas about what she planned to do with the strip changed so frequently, people were unable to write internet letters consistent with Lynn’s strips.
True. Even if someone other than Lynn was drafting the letters, they must have been checking in with Lynn about their general content, only to have her switch gears shortly thereafter. I imagine that would have been frustrating.
aprilp_katje,
Even if someone other than Lynn was drafting the letters, they must have been checking in with Lynn about their general content, only to have her switch gears shortly thereafter.
The most amazing part of it is that we are talking about material which Lynn Johnston has to produce 6 to 8 weeks in advance. For the letters not to be consistent with that lead time, it tells me that Lynn must be changing her mind about plotlines at the very last minute. In many respects, this would explain the story continuity errors, the lack of research, and the art where no errors are corrected.
I have an image in my mind of Lynn Johnston producing all her strips for a 2-3 week arc in a very short time, and then taking a few weeks off before beginning the process again. If this was her habit, then it could also explain her desire for regular vacation time with the reprints. She could come back from a vacation, no longer stressed by all the strips she has to do. Instead she can slap together a sequence of reprints, and then produce a few new strips at her leisure. Then it's off on the next vacation.
I have an image in my mind of Lynn Johnston producing all her strips for a 2-3 week arc in a very short time, and then taking a few weeks off before beginning the process again. If this was her habit, then it could also explain her desire for regular vacation time with the reprints. She could come back from a vacation, no longer stressed by all the strips she has to do. Instead she can slap together a sequence of reprints, and then produce a few new strips at her leisure. Then it's off on the next vacation.
I do remember one interview where LJ complained about how she'd have to work further in advance/do more strips whenever she planned a vacation--and seemed giddy that the new-ruin/reprint gig would render this unnecessary. I suspect you are right about her rushing through 2-3 weeks of strips.
aprilp_katje.
I suspect you are right about her rushing through 2-3 weeks of strips.
It certainly would explain a lot about the quality of the strip.
Post a Comment
<< Home