i was just checking fborfw.com for the strips from monday and came across this shocker link on the website.
i’m sorry for ms johnston. seems like it came out of the blue.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003636743
I knew John Patterson was getting something on the side! Probably with his receptionist.
In this entry in Howard Bunt’s Blog, the blogger does some detective work and makes his educated guess that the “other woman” is a former senior staffer at Johnston’s business.
Whoever it is, and whatever the reason, it is quite a sad turn of events. Apparently, one reason for Johnston to semi-retire (where the strip has become a hybrid of new and old strips) was for her to be able to spend more time with her husband.
[Nelson Muntz]Ha, ha.[/Nelson Muntz]
I’ve been turned off of FBorFW the past year or so, mostly because of the bludgeon-you-over-the-head theme of “every woman must have her man” and “family is always best” that Johnston’s been pushing. Elizabeth used to be an independent, fun young woman focused on her career and adventure in the frozen North. Then she turned into a shrill, manipulative, passive-aggressive manhunter. Michael used to be interesting. Then he turned into a soulless hack with delusions of adequacy.
The storylines in her comicstrip used to be touching. Now, they’re pablum written, apparently, in an attempt to make “the perfect life” for the characters which are so close to the real people in her life. I guess if you can’t have it in real life, you invent it in fiction.
In an interview with Johnston that I read a while back, Johnston proclaimed that women ought to stay at home, not keep a job outside the home. I wonder how she would have felt if someone had told her that thirty years ago. I’m sorry it happened to her, but I can’t say I’m really surprised.
I’d love to see a link to that interview. Because, although I agree with you about the way the strips been going for the last year or two, the thing about Lynn thinking women should not work outside the home is exactly counter to the entire history of the strip. It’s not just you, phouka – I’ve heard other people reference this too.
Going back to the beginning years of the strip, you can see Ellie struggling with being a SAHM; wanting something for herself. Once Elizabeth is in school, Ellie goes to work – she works in a library for a time and writes a column for a local newspaper about children’s books. She is thrilled with her job and, overall, much less conflicted about working than she was about staying home.
Once April was born, she was back to staying home full time and didn’t like it at all. When April was just a baby, she went back to work (I think at the library still), and the neighbor took care of April. She was somewhat conflicted about this, but she did it and was much happier working again. She lost her job at the library; and was unhappily out of work for a bit, then found a job at a children’s book store (which she eventually bought). Through the years (and with all the kids) there were strips about the little difficulties of raising kids while working outside the home, but Ellie’s ‘right’ to hold a job outside was always upheld.
Most recently, Ellie’s daughter-in-law, Dee, wanted to go back to work after the grandchildren were born. Dee’s mother (who is always characterized as a real bitch, BTW) was very much against the idea and said that Dee ought to stay home with the kids. Ellie, however, encouraged Dee to work ouside the home if she wished to, saying that each family has to choose for itself what works for them.
As a writer, I totally understand Ms. Johnston’s attachment to her characters. They’re her children, and an echo of those nearest and dearest to her heart, so of course she’d want to push the plot in a direction that she thinks is a happy ending. That some of her readers couldn’t accept this and felt it to be a detriment to the story is not a surprise to me, either.
Still, I hope the best for her, and if she really does need to be pushed off the page, then may someone take her up on her challenge and come up with something better!
I missed this thread when it was fresh. How sad. I hate to see a long and what I thought was a happy marriage end, and just when you think you’re going to settle in and really enjoy each other after the work and kids and all…