Re: FBOFW - July 22

Charles Whitney wrote (edited for brevity):

> > Whoa! Again, I think you're reading quite a bit into what's actually
> > inked here.
>
> Am I? Let's put this comment into a little bit of context, shall we?
>
> 1. Therese has been portrayed as a nasty, callous bitch ever since she
> was first introduced into this strip. To wit:

> 2. Her bio over at the official website

> 3. A monthly letter where Elly essentially states

> 4. Therese said that when the baby's born "it's HIS [Anthony's]"
> because she doesn't want to be bothered with it.
>
> 5. Therese's only interest in the baby that's been shown in the strip
> was at the demented baby shower,
(. . . )
> And now, with that context, I don't read that as an innocent comment.

Hm. None of these things have anything to do with the characters of
Anthony or Liz, who are bearing the brunt of the vitriol here. Okay, I
guess I get it: when you say the comment was "not innocent" or
"hateful", you are not accusing *Anthony* the character of something,
but criticising the puppetmaster for pulling the strings in a way you
don't like. Don't know how "passive agressive" fits that model.

> I'm simply
> disgusted with this idiotic characterization of Therese as Evil
> Incarnate, and the idiotic plot that it has spawned. I was the one who
> called her a plot device. She's not a real person, and I doubt that
> Johnston ever considered her as such. She's just a device that's
> supposed to be so evil so that when Liz steps in, we'll view her as
> rescuing him and his motherless baby from a terrible, hopeless
> situation; a true heroine, a champion, almost.

Okay, maybe so, but, gee whiz: this is still a pretty drastic way --
c'mon, you're throwing around words like "idiotic" and "hateful" -- to
say that this aspect of this strip is overly predictable and perhaps
based on outmoded social models. A lot of people seem reeealy
irritated with this sequence without quite knowing why, I think. The
nastiness in this little sequence of exchanges has been thrown at
Anthony, Liz, now Elly, all as a way to say you don't like Lynn
Johnston's approach? Railing against *characters* just seems like an
odd way to complain about a creator's choices.

JGM

.

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