Oh, I should hope it would be continued; losing 200 pounds of jerkass would do Dee, Meredith and Robin the world of good. It would also be the chop to the gob Mikerobe so desperately needs.
Would he even notice? They could probably box him up and ship him over to John and Elly's, unpack him in the basement or attic, and problem solved; he'd never be able to tell the difference. Of course, that would just make Elly's martyr complex all the worse...
Of course Mike would notice. Divorce, without the accompanying cheating, is a sign of failure in this world and Deanna knows this. Besides, historically speaking, Deanna doesn't usually get her way with Mike by using threats of divorce. She's a lot smarter than that. However, talking with her mother about the possibility is a different story. It will be interesting to see if Mira can give Deanna a unique perspective on the situation.
I wouldn't exactly call Mira an objective bystander in the situation, but perhaps Wilf had a talk with her after the Christmas fiasco and helped her see that Mike really is a problem and Deanna keeps enabling him.
Maybe Deanna doesn't want to be talked out of it at all. Maybe she just wants her feelings validated. For once.
I especially like it that Mike vacated himself from the school meeting by pleading a deadline. Typical jerkwad behavior.
What Deanna really needs to do is actually sit down and talk to Mike about all his crap. What amazed me in the original comic was how little actual communication went on between spouses and family members. When Mike left for Japan after Meredith was born and Dee felt crazy and trapped, she didn't tell Mike about her feelings. She told his mother instead! I remember how crazy that made me when I read that- how hard is it to talk to your actual husband about your feelings?
Scritzy: You seen the freelance market? I have a friend who does freelance, and it wouldn't surprise me if Michael DID have a deadline (or two) to deal with. Heartless yes, but not unthinkable.
Still...It seems Deanna's gone on to think about Divorcing Michael. I'm sure she's looking for support more than being talked out of it but Mira's misinterpreting her words.
Actually, I'm pleased with Mira's reaction here. If this were an LJ strip, and setting aside any argument that the original strip would never have acknowledged that Mike and Deanna's marriage was less than perfect, Mira would return to her cardboard cut-out villainess stereotype and immediately whisk Deanna off to see a lawyer, then go through the Pattermanse making notes of what is Deanna's, what is Mike's and what might require negotiation. In your strip, we see Mira hesitate, and we haven't heard Dee's answer yet as to whether she wants to be talked out of it or just vent to someone. The thing is, even if you're just thinking about divorce, once you start talking about it, even if you don't go through with it, those you told about it always will remember what you said and it could forever taint their view of your marriage.
Scritzy: Fair enough, although what part of reality you talking about?
It could be an excessive view of responsibility. Remember, we're talking 70's father here (He is to FP what Anthony is to the Foobiverse letters, to my thinking); so his failure would probably drive him to monomania about his work.
Either way, Deanna's PO'd at him. He's not really bringing in the money, plus he's ignoring the kids and wife.
godozo: his failure would probably drive him to monomania about his work. You're spot-on there. And burying himself in his work is a convenient way of not facing the reality of having a family that needs him.
My father was a lot like Mike Patterson, even though in those days (1960s), it was expected that the dad be the provider and the mom be the keeper of the kids. Daddy's habit of coming home, eating supper and going back to work seemed normal to me until I grew up. Looking back now, it is easy to see why he worked so many hours. It wasn't that he was trying to get ahead in his job — it was so he could avoid my obsessive mother and his inability to do anything about her (since marriage counseling was practically unheard of in those days).
Which is why I see Mike as using his writing as an excuse to avoid reality. Maybe I'm looking at the whole thing from the perspective of my rotten childhood, though. ;)
I'm willing to believe anything horrible that's told to me about public schools, so if you tell me this could happen I'll believe you, but:
REEEEEELY? The school would make free to call you and demand that you come in for a conference because your family Christmas was a gummer? I've heard of governmental officiousness before, but this is something else. To repeat, though, I'm quite capable of believing the worst.
Yeah, I'm having problems suspending my disbelief. They wanted to talk to them because a relative is mentally ill?
Really, the attitude displayed in these strips that Elly is ill because she lacks moral character, and her family spending any time with her is dangerous...is truly disturbing.
josephusrex, I'm not establishing that the school *demanded* a conference. They wanted to talk - Merrie was very disturbed by the Christmas incidents, and this came out in her classwork story.
Public schools *do* do things like immediately suspend students who write violent, threatening creative writing assignments; it's clear that schools will act on what students write about their lives. However, it is not clear (and I did not mean to imply) that they would do something other than phone the parents to ask if the story is true. And then suggest a meeting to discuss how this seems to be affecting Merrie in class would help, or could they come in and maybe talk with the school counsellor about whether it would be appropriate for Merrie to see the counsellor.
To my knowledge, the school shouldn't be able to say "be here at 6 tonight to discuss this", but could suggest a meeting would be useful. Once that was established, Mike could have said that the proposed time might work, and then ducked it later.
jonnerbloo, I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that Elly is mentally ill because she lacks moral fiber. She'd been obsessive in the original FOOB, and in the later years of the strip started to manipulate her children's lives (and ignore April). If anything, it would be the reverse - the progression of her obsessiveness from personality quirk to mental illness could have been influencing her to act in bad ways, once she got stuck on a particular picture of how her family would turn out. And when it didn't turn out as she'd wanted it, well...
She is now trying to address this, but it's tough even with therapy and medication. For instance, her recent failure to stop cleaning isn't a lack of ordinary willpower, but a stumble on the road to (hopefully) freeing herself from extraordinary compulsions.
As for danger - the family was trying to spend *more* time around her at Christmas, to help if she had another mental slip. John's ruminations show that they can now taper that back.
It's not clear whether Robin and Merrie have been with Elly *un*supervised yet; that would depend on some assessment of how well the therapy is going. The scariest mental slips Elly's had have mistaken those kids for Lizzie and little Mike, but with Merrie/Liz "wrong". That's clearly a very serious situation, because if Elly's with them alone, she's supposed to be the responsible adult, and any significant risk that Elly wouldn't be able to perceive or assess what is *actually* going on is dangerous. Period.
Well, that much is true. In the innocent 1960s, I used to write stories and draw pictures with all kinds of gruesome and violent imagery, and my teachers all understood that it was just my little quirk. Today I'd be institutionalized.
Definitely to be continued...
15 comments:
Oh, I should hope it would be continued; losing 200 pounds of jerkass would do Dee, Meredith and Robin the world of good. It would also be the chop to the gob Mikerobe so desperately needs.
Would he even notice? They could probably box him up and ship him over to John and Elly's, unpack him in the basement or attic, and problem solved; he'd never be able to tell the difference. Of course, that would just make Elly's martyr complex all the worse...
Of course Mike would notice. Divorce, without the accompanying cheating, is a sign of failure in this world and Deanna knows this. Besides, historically speaking, Deanna doesn't usually get her way with Mike by using threats of divorce. She's a lot smarter than that. However, talking with her mother about the possibility is a different story. It will be interesting to see if Mira can give Deanna a unique perspective on the situation.
I wouldn't exactly call Mira an objective bystander in the situation, but perhaps Wilf had a talk with her after the Christmas fiasco and helped her see that Mike really is a problem and Deanna keeps enabling him.
Maybe Deanna doesn't want to be talked out of it at all. Maybe she just wants her feelings validated. For once.
I especially like it that Mike vacated himself from the school meeting by pleading a deadline. Typical jerkwad behavior.
You're doing a great job!
What Deanna really needs to do is actually sit down and talk to Mike about all his crap. What amazed me in the original comic was how little actual communication went on between spouses and family members. When Mike left for Japan after Meredith was born and Dee felt crazy and trapped, she didn't tell Mike about her feelings. She told his mother instead! I remember how crazy that made me when I read that- how hard is it to talk to your actual husband about your feelings?
Scritzy: You seen the freelance market? I have a friend who does freelance, and it wouldn't surprise me if Michael DID have a deadline (or two) to deal with. Heartless yes, but not unthinkable.
Still...It seems Deanna's gone on to think about Divorcing Michael. I'm sure she's looking for support more than being talked out of it but Mira's misinterpreting her words.
Actually, I'm pleased with Mira's reaction here. If this were an LJ strip, and setting aside any argument that the original strip would never have acknowledged that Mike and Deanna's marriage was less than perfect, Mira would return to her cardboard cut-out villainess stereotype and immediately whisk Deanna off to see a lawyer, then go through the Pattermanse making notes of what is Deanna's, what is Mike's and what might require negotiation. In your strip, we see Mira hesitate, and we haven't heard Dee's answer yet as to whether she wants to be talked out of it or just vent to someone. The thing is, even if you're just thinking about divorce, once you start talking about it, even if you don't go through with it, those you told about it always will remember what you said and it could forever taint their view of your marriage.
godozo: I'm a freelance writer, so I know weird deadlines are a way of life.
It just seemed to me a convenient excuse for Mike to get out of what he doesn't want to face: reality.
Scritzy: Fair enough, although what part of reality you talking about?
It could be an excessive view of responsibility. Remember, we're talking 70's father here (He is to FP what Anthony is to the Foobiverse letters, to my thinking); so his failure would probably drive him to monomania about his work.
Either way, Deanna's PO'd at him. He's not really bringing in the money, plus he's ignoring the kids and wife.
godozo: his failure would probably drive him to monomania about his work. You're spot-on there. And burying himself in his work is a convenient way of not facing the reality of having a family that needs him.
My father was a lot like Mike Patterson, even though in those days (1960s), it was expected that the dad be the provider and the mom be the keeper of the kids. Daddy's habit of coming home, eating supper and going back to work seemed normal to me until I grew up. Looking back now, it is easy to see why he worked so many hours. It wasn't that he was trying to get ahead in his job — it was so he could avoid my obsessive mother and his inability to do anything about her (since marriage counseling was practically unheard of in those days).
Which is why I see Mike as using his writing as an excuse to avoid reality. Maybe I'm looking at the whole thing from the perspective of my rotten childhood, though. ;)
I'm willing to believe anything horrible that's told to me about public schools, so if you tell me this could happen I'll believe you, but:
REEEEEELY? The school would make free to call you and demand that you come in for a conference because your family Christmas was a gummer? I've heard of governmental officiousness before, but this is something else. To repeat, though, I'm quite capable of believing the worst.
Yeah, I'm having problems suspending my disbelief. They wanted to talk to them because a relative is mentally ill?
Really, the attitude displayed in these strips that Elly is ill because she lacks moral character, and her family spending any time with her is dangerous...is truly disturbing.
josephusrex, I'm not establishing that the school *demanded* a conference. They wanted to talk - Merrie was very disturbed by the Christmas incidents, and this came out in her classwork story.
Public schools *do* do things like immediately suspend students who write violent, threatening creative writing assignments; it's clear that schools will act on what students write about their lives. However, it is not clear (and I did not mean to imply) that they would do something other than phone the parents to ask if the story is true. And then suggest a meeting to discuss how this seems to be affecting Merrie in class would help, or could they come in and maybe talk with the school counsellor about whether it would be appropriate for Merrie to see the counsellor.
To my knowledge, the school shouldn't be able to say "be here at 6 tonight to discuss this", but could suggest a meeting would be useful. Once that was established, Mike could have said that the proposed time might work, and then ducked it later.
jonnerbloo, I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that Elly is mentally ill because she lacks moral fiber. She'd been obsessive in the original FOOB, and in the later years of the strip started to manipulate her children's lives (and ignore April). If anything, it would be the reverse - the progression of her obsessiveness from personality quirk to mental illness could have been influencing her to act in bad ways, once she got stuck on a particular picture of how her family would turn out. And when it didn't turn out as she'd wanted it, well...
She is now trying to address this, but it's tough even with therapy and medication. For instance, her recent failure to stop cleaning isn't a lack of ordinary willpower, but a stumble on the road to (hopefully) freeing herself from extraordinary compulsions.
As for danger - the family was trying to spend *more* time around her at Christmas, to help if she had another mental slip. John's ruminations show that they can now taper that back.
It's not clear whether Robin and Merrie have been with Elly *un*supervised yet; that would depend on some assessment of how well the therapy is going. The scariest mental slips Elly's had have mistaken those kids for Lizzie and little Mike, but with Merrie/Liz "wrong". That's clearly a very serious situation, because if Elly's with them alone, she's supposed to be the responsible adult, and any significant risk that Elly wouldn't be able to perceive or assess what is *actually* going on is dangerous. Period.
Well, that much is true. In the innocent 1960s, I used to write stories and draw pictures with all kinds of gruesome and violent imagery, and my teachers all understood that it was just my little quirk. Today I'd be institutionalized.
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