Re: FBOFW, 1-10

> I don't know that I'd go as far as "poor writer," but we know that
> it's possible to tell a story a hell of a lot better than this in a
> comic strip. For that matter, we know it's possible for *this* author
> to do so, she just hasn't done so for years.

Immediately after I posted I wanted to go back and rewrite that bit. Lynn
Johnston is a very good writer. What I meant to wonder was whether this
particular characterization/relationship evidenced great or poor writing.
Even the greatest writer can write poorly from time to time. And, again, I
don't really know which it is. Is Lynn hitting her target with Olympian
precision, or aiming for one target but hitting an entirely different one? I
appreciate Peter Steiger's kabuki analogy: like any cartoonist, Lynn has to
entertain an incredibly broad audience, some of whom need to be hit over the
head and others attuned to every nuance. Some perhaps over-attuned.

I'll just add that I know first-hand what it's like to have readers
interpret your work in ways you never consciously intended. Sometimes it's
because I didn't write or draw something as well as I should have; sometimes
because I maybe wrote or drew it better than I thought. I rarely correct
anyone or tell them the "right" interpretation; in some sense, once the work
is out of my hands I think the readers are entitled to their own
relationship with it. I wonder if Lynn feels the same way.

Brian F.
momscancer.com


.

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