Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Anne, post-warp

Click to enlarge.

18 comments:

DreadedCandiru2 said...

I'd be lying if I said I felt sorry for Elly; Anne did something the bitter also-ran whining at the tube never could: put in the effort and avoid being distracted.

(I like it that Elly didn't learn a God-damned thing from this; it's true to the character.)

howard said...

Prime Rib! LOL! I love it!

April Patterson said...

Anne did something the bitter also-ran whining at the tube never could: put in the effort and avoid being distracted.

It's interesting to note that Anne has worked at the Empire Hotel since 1993 and has worked her way up from hostess to catering manager. Elly got her rich husband to buy her a bookstore in 2000 and sold it a mere six years later.

I like it that Elly didn't learn a God-damned thing from this; it's true to the character.)

It really is, sadly enough.

April Patterson said...

Prime Rib! LOL! I love it!

Oh, it totally had to be. And you know that, in addition to her seething, Elly will be drooling all over herself while watching that segment.

Anonymous said...

Too bad having a career requires that you actually work, huh? Unless you swipe somebody else's, like she attempted with Stone Season.

Also too bad she has such a hate-on for the Internet, or she could turn Meet The Yammersons into a webcomic. Of course, given that John's up and left her, the well's probably dried up there too.

Unsurprising that she didn't learn anything; heck, in a way she even got rewarded -- now she has even more reasons to throw herself the perfect self-pity party! "Woe is me, for I have been shunned by my own flesh and blood! And all because I hijacked their lives to try and patch up my own! Woe! Agony! Boxcar!"

Of course, she's no karma houdini; she's been punished, regardless of whether or not she realizes just how much she deserves it. And she doesn't seem the type to have a deathbed revealation years down the line, when she's old, grey and lonely with only herself to blame for it. She'll be martyring herself to the end with a wail of "What did I do to deserve this?"

April Patterson said...

Too bad having a career requires that you actually work, huh?

Something Elly is allergic to.

Unless you swipe somebody else's, like she attempted with Stone Season.

Even that, I expect, she considered to be more work than it had any right to be.

Also too bad she has such a hate-on for the Internet, or she could turn Meet The Yammersons into a webcomic. Of course, given that John's up and left her, the well's probably dried up there too.

Ha. Yes, we know how she feels about "the box" (EVIL!). And she'd probably only get one strip in (Joe leaves Emmy! Hate!) ;)

"Woe is me, for I have been shunned by my own flesh and blood! And all because I hijacked their lives to try and patch up my own! Woe! Agony! Boxcar!"

"They should be GRATEFUL!" ;)

Godozo said...

(I like it that Elly didn't learn a God-damned thing from this; it's true to the character.)

Or, more to the point, made a point of forgetting. Or maybe is starting to suffer from dementia.

That'd be the more perfect punishment – to FORGET what she did and suffer the consequences.

Elly got her rich husband to buy her a bookstore in 2000 and sold it a mere six years later.

And was damn lucky to sell it. Considering what the bookstore market has gone through in the past twenty-plus years, she was lucky to get out without major losses (or maybe behind the scenes she was forced to sell it by John; who knows?).

Anonymous said...

Forget, ignore, twist around in her head to make herself the victim... it's all more or less the same with Elly. I expect that in the long run, all she'll let herself remember is that they all turned their backs on her.

I do wonder what Anthony's take is on all of this. While obviously this isn't the actually somewhat sympathetic version we get to see in BB's letters, it'd be interesting to have some idea of what's going through his head. One minute he's about to start enjoying his second honeymoon (or consumate a business relationship, if you'd rather), the next he's reliving baby/toddlerhood, ping-ponging ages in the blink of an eye. When he gets to see his future wife, now a baby herself, she bops him one. And after a couple years of surrealistic hell, it pops back to normal just as suddenly -- only now he's got all these memories that don't fit right, don't make sense in his own head. And to top it all off, he finds himself facing a family crisis, unable to conceive the picture-perfect boy-girl arrangement he's always dreamed of... and his wife...? Who's to know what's going through HER head?

Something like that would be hard on ANYBODY. Given that Anthony is, well, Anthony... how's he handling it? (Or not handling it, as the case may well be.)

Joe England said...

Y'know... All joking aside, I have to say I do sympathize somewhat with Elly. The things she did were inexcusable, but her problems aren't impossible to relate to. Not for me, anyway.
As an artist, my worst enemies have always been my own weakness and tendency to distraction. You know that saying, how if you get a job doing something you love, you'll never have to work again...? Yeah, that's bull. You work harder for what you love than anything. And inertia is a rock you have to push up a hill every day. And every day I hope and pray that I'm wearing the rock down. Because I've felt the fear of failure, and it goes deep.
I like to think that fear can be a positive thing, a motivating factor. I try to turn everything I have into an advantage. But it's genuinely difficult to overcome your flaws and become the person you want to be. Hopefully I'm finally moving in that direction. Elly, however, had to contend with raising child after child and keeping a marriage together... I can only imagine the weight of her shortcomings compounded with her familial responsibilities. My distractions are nothing compared to having kids!
Yes, these may seem to outside observers to simply be pathetic, trifling problems which should be easily dealt with. It's easy to see someone else's failings and talk about how they should fix them. But those fixes don't come easy...
Though like I said, nothing excuses what Elly did and what she didn't do. Her failures are just that. Failures. And it's her responsibility to fight those battles herself, just like it's mine. Still, those battles are harder than they look. So yeah, I feel for Elly. Let's remember that it can be tough to better yourself.
Actually, she's sort of an anti-role model to me now. "There but for grace of God go I." Having said that, she really is a whiner, isn't she?

April Patterson said...

That'd be the more perfect punishment – to FORGET what she did and suffer the consequences.

"Why are all these people mad at me?" ;)

And was damn lucky to sell it. Considering what the bookstore market has gone through in the past twenty-plus years, she was lucky to get out without major losses (or maybe behind the scenes she was forced to sell it by John; who knows?).

Naturally, Elly had an employee who was eager to buy the store and the wherewithal to do so. Of course, being a control freak, Elly continued to hold the mortgage.

April Patterson said...

Something like that would be hard on ANYBODY. Given that Anthony is, well, Anthony... how's he handling it? (Or not handling it, as the case may well be.)

Never fear--I do have "Anthony" material planned.

April Patterson said...

Having said that, she really is a whiner, isn't she?

I think this is ultimately what makes it so difficult to sympathize with Elly. Otherwise, most of us can identify with falling short of our goals.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the whining is a huge part of it. It's easier to feel sorry for someone if they aren't screaming "PITY ME!!!!!" at the top of their lungs.

Then there's the fact she doesn't show much empathy for others herself... that makes it even harder. It's like how you can share problems with your friends and feel bad for each other; Elly doesn't do that. Elly doesn't care about YOUR problems; she only cares about HER problems -- and how DARE you even THINK about YOUR problems instead of obssessing over HER problems?!

The rule of empathy goes both ways... but not with Elly. (And not with John, or Michael, or Elizabeth... but that's a tangent that may not apply so much any longer in FOOBAR.)

Plus, it's hard to get around how she chose not to fight those battles... and to drag her family through hell with her. Or attempted to skip past the battle by stealing another's work. (I know I harp on that a lot, but it's sort of a sore spot. My personal opinion of Stone Season aside, it was still Michael's work. You DON'T just take somebody else's hard work and claim it's yours.) And then she has the gall to whine about how it didn't work, and it's soooo haaaaaaarrrddd, and nobody understannnndssss, and she has no hooooommmmmeeee... Err, well. Yeah.

howard said...

Naturally, Elly had an employee who was eager to buy the store and the wherewithal to do so. Of course, being a control freak, Elly continued to hold the mortgage

Not only that, but son Mike had 2 book signings in the book and toy store for books that definitely fell into the "not a kid's book" category. In other words, they would have had to have been forced on Moira Kinney to do that. Of course, I was never too sure about that kid's book store aspect since, in the monthly letters, Elly was constantly talking about pushing adult books.

April Patterson said...

It's like how you can share problems with your friends and feel bad for each other; Elly doesn't do that. Elly doesn't care about YOUR problems; she only cares about HER problems -- and how DARE you even THINK about YOUR problems instead of obssessing over HER problems?!

Exactly. Can't you just imagine her not really listening to the "friend," but rather waiting impatiently for the other person to pause so she can jump in with her own complaints?

April Patterson said...

I was never too sure about that kid's book store aspect since, in the monthly letters, Elly was constantly talking about pushing adult books.

Same here. I think this is one of those instances where the people who only read the strip had a significantly different impression than those of us who also read the letters.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it started as a store aimed towards children, but Elly wasn't satisfied with that because she wanted to get away from being a housewife... something she associated with kids. Running a kid's store was 'beneath her'.

(The thought that the store could serve and be fun for children and adults alike probably never really struck her. Did she ever even read to her own kids...?)

So, she tried to change things to suit her. Tried to ignore reality while molding it to suit her desires. Thinking that their shop obviously couldn't be a REAL bookstore if it catered to kids at all, she pretended those aspects of the business didn't exist while playing up the idea of selling adult literature in her letters. She couldn't completely change their actual inventory, so she tuned out whatever didn't suit her mental image of what she felt the store SHOULD be.

April Patterson said...

Anonymous, I also recall a monthly letter where Elly reported having had Paul and Rosemary Mayes pull their favorite books in the store and set up a shelf called "Paul's Picks" and another called "Rosemary's Recommendations." She also had April do an "April's Faves" shelf for teenage readers. So she was still acknowledging the "childen's" market.

OTOH, once she had the store in her hot little hands, she had the coffee corner dismantled. So who knows what else she changed? :)