Friday, August 14, 2009

Don't let the 70s go down on him....

11 comments:

DreadedCandiru2 said...

That's even better than a kick to the groin; being reminded that he looks like someone's creepy uncle would humiliate anyone not as stupid as John. As for Liz trying to freak Elly out, I wish her luck.

April Patterson said...

Heh--I wish Liz luck, too dc2. Elly is both self-absorbed and oblivious, so she's got a lot to overcome.

John, as you suggested over at Foobiverse, seems to miss the fact that the women he ogles would actually notice what he's doing and be less than thrilled about it.

Anonymous said...

Now -this- is funny.

The interesting thing about all these "ogle" strips over the years is, never once did Elly and John have an honest talk about something that was such an obvious sore point in their marriage.

Not even during the period when Lynn wrote the Pattersons as if they genuinely loved each other.

What we see now isn't love. It's just this vague sense of attachment. A plodding, eye-rolling, endless repetition of woe.

While the romantic infatuation part of being in love nearly always fades to a lesser role, what replaces it is supposed to be something deeper and stronger.

Have John and Elly ever shown that sort of mature love? I'm starting to wonder, now.

Why do Lynn's diehard fans love the depiction of marriage and family in the strip so much, again? :(

April Patterson said...

Have John and Elly ever shown that sort of mature love? I'm starting to wonder, now.

Maybe sometime in the middle years of the strip, but I'm wondering, too, if I'm imagining/misremembering things.

Why do Lynn's diehard fans love the depiction of marriage and family in the strip so much, again? :(

Curiously, some people who are diehard fans are beginning to see the same depressing aspects of the early John/Elly strips as the rest of us. The "Coffee Talk" for today (August 14) had this:

I've read the strip since the very beginning. I was loyal enough to accept the changes. But why are the characters seeming so one dimensional to me now? Why is John such a sexist? Why is Elly so neurotic and insecure? And are we back in the 70's, 80's, or 90's? Do they have cell phones? I understand that maybe peeling away the complexity of the strip to make it more raw and to the point might have been your goal, but the complexity of the old characters, and the way their lives changed just as mine did are the things that made the strip so great in the first place.

I'll keep reading, but I have to admit I'm not enjoying it nearly as much as before. I still feel like Michael and Deanna are out there doing something, and I'd like to know what.


Weirdly, the guy seems to have some sort of disconnect. If he read from the beginning, he should realize that the strips he's objecting to are from that beginning (with the new-ruins interspersed, but it sounds as though he's complaining about reprints).

howard said...

There were a few mature love moments with Elly and John. I liked this strip and this one and this one.

April Patterson said...

I think I've written this elsewhere, but one problem for me with the "liposuction" strip is that I don't pronounce the first syllable of "liposuction" like the word "lip." I pronounce it with a long "I" so it rhymes with "ripe." Oh, well. :)

Anonymous said...

I've always heard liposuction pronounced that way.

Wow, that "John gives Elly a Honey Moon" strip is something else.

Now, when my parents were still together, they were silly with each other quite often. They tended to go for jokes and pranks both found funny, though.

From the expression on Elly's face, John's crude pun is inducing a whopper of a rage fit. o_o

godozo said...

"No! You can't make a reference to Elton John's Windshield-Wiper Glasses! People will think you're in the seventies!

Ah...Elly, isn't this the Seventies? Or at least close enough for people to understand that reference?

As for the strip changing, I think the people saw the same things happening to the strip characters and assumed they were going through the same changes. I don't think that Lynn started straitjacketing the plot until near the end of the strip (Meet The Kelpfrothings was my breaking point). Even if the changes don't go in lockstep with yours, if the feel approximates real life people will fill in the blanks.

April Patterson said...

Ah...Elly, isn't this the Seventies? Or at least close enough for people to understand that reference?

Exactly. Lynn is trying to have things both ways by repeating strips that originally ran in 1979/80/81 while at the same time pretending that her new-ruin/old-run continuity is occurring in the present day by occasionally changing a pop-culture reference. So I could see her removing an "Elton John" reference while at the same time not sweating John's outdated glasses or sideburns or a child's Shaun Cassidy album.

Even if the changes don't go in lockstep with yours, if the feel approximates real life people will fill in the blanks.

ISWYM--maybe it's knowing how things end up that is coloring the reactions to the older strips being reprinted.

Chucique said...

I did like that strip Howard posted about April being self-conscious, seeing as how easily one can change their hated hair. And yet, April didn't do a thing about it, period, except putting it up in an even less attractive ponytail/propeller.

April Patterson said...

And yet, April didn't do a thing about it, period, except putting it up in an even less attractive ponytail/propeller.

I think that might have been the lead-in to when Elly let April have a purple streak dyed into her hair. Too bad she was more adventurous at age 11 than at 15/16/17. Her perpetual ponytail/bun was one of the many things that irritated me about the strip in the late years.