I'm not very surprised by the fact that Lynn doesn't know what working in a book store really involves. Elly's clear ambition to die without getting a degree to shame her children into feeling bad about having emotional needs and needing care has something of an odd side-effect: her not knowing what she'd actually do with the glorified participation pin of a degree:
( ... )
What Elly wants Moira to hear: "I want to spend more time with my granddaughter."
What Moira would hear if she wasn't a toady: "I look at my granddaughter and see an excuse to quit. So here's some unconnected, irrelevant nonsense about wanting her not to quit like I did and am about to do again."
What a sane person would ask: "what on Earth could you quitting the bookstore have to do with a toddler 'finishing' an education she's barely started? What the hell are you talking about?"
Saud sane person would also add that Elly isn't going to spend time with her granddaughter anyway. She just wants a reason to stop trying and she can't say anything truthful like "But I have to breathe in AND out and that's just too haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard."
I can see Elly twenty years later moaning that she "had" to give up the bookstore because a grand-daughter came around- just another kid who sabotaged Elly's rise to greatness.
It would kill her to admit the truth about herself. She was never going to amount to anything but she can't admit that she's destined to be all but forgotten in twenty or thirty years. All the people will remember is a ridiculous imbecile who raised useless people.
You'd think that if Elly really wanted to set a good example, she'd show her granddaughter how a woman can run a business. Instead, she's going to show her that a woman like Elly is a flighty, lazy mess who can't. Meanwhile, how exactly is Elly going to help Meredith "finish her education" (seriously, I cant get over that line. I'm going to use it with my toddler godson when I see him this week.)
I can easily imagine Elly enrolling in yet another class, maybe even during the day, sitting in class not paying attention [again] , scraping by [maybe], and then not taking any other classes because it's "too hard," and she just wants to be retired and do "fun things with the grandchildren." But then she wouldn't because she still has no patience for children and has never liked them.
this is one of those strips where what comes out of a character's mouth makes so little sense that it's basically a black hole of disconnected nothingness. How Elly equates selling her bookstore to "being there" for a new grandchild and making sure that grandchild doesn't "make the same mistakes" is a triumph of Elly's determination to make giving up on the only responsibility she's ever really had a noble gesture. This should be met with mocking laughter and "seriously, that's all you've got?" and nothing more.
Lynn never should have made Elly an English major. Lynn clearly knew nothing about what an English major entails, nor what careers an English degree would lend itself to.
Back in the "Coffee Talk" days, I submitted this question, in relation to the night-school courses Elly took for a while....
Lynn, I know this is another one of my picky questions, but I can't help wondering. You established in the strip that Elly had been an English major who dropped out of university after her second year. How did she complete two years as an English major without having completed her first-year English?
I got a response via email (Beth Cruikshank, who was managing Coffee Talk at the time, forwarded it); I don't think this was every posted on the website:
I don't know, Katje...can we just let it go? HUM?! It's a comic strip and stuff happened. Thanks. LJ
Ha, good point about what it's like to be Ursula. I hadn't thought of that, but I can imagine Lynn answering her mother that way. Maybe that's why she hated my questions. Maybe they reminded her of her mother.
She appears to not have changed substantively since she was in grade school. She started out wanting praise for doing as little as possible and offered up excuses for being a malingering slacker who didn't like to think much and she's going to die the same damn person.
Case in point: the robot mess. It doesn't occur to her that Dad Bot wouldn't be at the controls of his spaceship but instead be port of them. The Dad Bot we see would be a sort of off-duty body he'd use to interact with other robots on his off-days. It's like an episode of Astro Boy where the control system of a train that derailed plugged himself into his off-duty body and resigned so he could raise a child that got orphaned.
Having a separate, off-duty body would be too much for Lynn's brain to process. She clearly is just working from a "human" model and roboticizing [Sonic reference!) her people. For your example, I'm thinking a fully mechanized (i.e. self flying) spaceship would be likely; not sure if it would ever need to be "off-duty," but I guess I haven't taken the time to anthropomorphize properly....
The tell is their having wheels for feet. Super impractical in real life but it makes the sense it does to a woman who doesn't like to think very hard.
( ... )
Reply
What Elly wants Moira to hear: "I want to spend more time with my granddaughter."
What Moira would hear if she wasn't a toady: "I look at my granddaughter and see an excuse to quit. So here's some unconnected, irrelevant nonsense about wanting her not to quit like I did and am about to do again."
What a sane person would ask: "what on Earth could you quitting the bookstore have to do with a toddler 'finishing' an education she's barely started? What the hell are you talking about?"
Reply
Saud sane person would also add that Elly isn't going to spend time with her granddaughter anyway. She just wants a reason to stop trying and she can't say anything truthful like "But I have to breathe in AND out and that's just too haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard."
Reply
I can see Elly twenty years later moaning that she "had" to give up the bookstore because a grand-daughter came around- just another kid who sabotaged Elly's rise to greatness.
Reply
Reply
You'd think that if Elly really wanted to set a good example, she'd show her granddaughter how a woman can run a business. Instead, she's going to show her that a woman like Elly is a flighty, lazy mess who can't. Meanwhile, how exactly is Elly going to help Meredith "finish her education" (seriously, I cant get over that line. I'm going to use it with my toddler godson when I see him this week.)
Reply
She'll be in assisted living by the time Meredith flakes off post-grad to service an albino so.......
Reply
I can easily imagine Elly enrolling in yet another class, maybe even during the day, sitting in class not paying attention [again] , scraping by [maybe], and then not taking any other classes because it's "too hard," and she just wants to be retired and do "fun things with the grandchildren." But then she wouldn't because she still has no patience for children and has never liked them.
Reply
"I gave up the class to spend more time with my grandchildren."
"Oh that's sweet- so how often do you see them?"
"Shut up, that's why!"
Reply
this is one of those strips where what comes out of a character's mouth makes so little sense that it's basically a black hole of disconnected nothingness. How Elly equates selling her bookstore to "being there" for a new grandchild and making sure that grandchild doesn't "make the same mistakes" is a triumph of Elly's determination to make giving up on the only responsibility she's ever really had a noble gesture. This should be met with mocking laughter and "seriously, that's all you've got?" and nothing more.
Reply
Lynn never should have made Elly an English major. Lynn clearly knew nothing about what an English major entails, nor what careers an English degree would lend itself to.
Back in the "Coffee Talk" days, I submitted this question, in relation to the night-school courses Elly took for a while....
Lynn, I know this is another one of my picky questions, but I can't help wondering. You established in the strip that Elly had been an English major who dropped out of university after her second year. How did she complete two years as an English major without having completed her first-year English?
I got a response via email (Beth Cruikshank, who was managing Coffee Talk at the time, forwarded it); I don't think this was every posted on the website:
I don't know, Katje...can we just let it go? HUM?! It's a comic strip and stuff happened. Thanks. LJ
Reply
Reply
Ha, good point about what it's like to be Ursula. I hadn't thought of that, but I can imagine Lynn answering her mother that way. Maybe that's why she hated my questions. Maybe they reminded her of her mother.
Reply
She appears to not have changed substantively since she was in grade school. She started out wanting praise for doing as little as possible and offered up excuses for being a malingering slacker who didn't like to think much and she's going to die the same damn person.
Case in point: the robot mess. It doesn't occur to her that Dad Bot wouldn't be at the controls of his spaceship but instead be port of them. The Dad Bot we see would be a sort of off-duty body he'd use to interact with other robots on his off-days. It's like an episode of Astro Boy where the control system of a train that derailed plugged himself into his off-duty body and resigned so he could raise a child that got orphaned.
Reply
Having a separate, off-duty body would be too much for Lynn's brain to process. She clearly is just working from a "human" model and roboticizing [Sonic reference!) her people. For your example, I'm thinking a fully mechanized (i.e. self flying) spaceship would be likely; not sure if it would ever need to be "off-duty," but I guess I haven't taken the time to anthropomorphize properly....
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment