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On the rural/suburban/urban divide
Nov. 26th, 2013 01:32 amAs you will recall, I started this blog when the Housening was in its infancy and when we were clearing away the last obstacles to the Settlepocalypse. The odd thing was not that Deanna and Mike did not interact with Liz at all. It also wasn't that Liz only decided to stop acting like an exceedingly whiny dog in a manger when it dawned on her that she'd end up having to write rent checks to her ugly brother. The really odd thing is that we were hammered over the head with the supposed moral superiority of that vast parking lot for human Fords called suburbia. The intellectual sterility exemplified by Elly, the lack of vision and mindless conformity championed by John and the bumptious, over-reaching need to condemn and look down on their betters were all lauded as signs not of obsolescence and national death but as proof that John and Elly know better how to live than anyone else.
As you will also recall, the path Liz took to learn that change, growth and new things were scary and wrong was to realize she'd made Paul out of snow and wishful thinking. Rather than admit that she let a good thing slip right through her fingers because her parents' lack of curiosity and fear of change made him inferior to a right bastard they cheered on, she's probably still sitting in her kitchen fuming about how the clannish hicks picked on and let down an outsider. This despite the fact that Paul and Susan are also newcomers to Mtigatingcircumstances.
The reason that I mentioned all of that is to remind you of one of the stupider things that happened: Deanna's mindlessly cheering on Mike's gutless decision to resign from Portrait. Both in the strip and in the retcons, Deanna can't get enough of living in the Pattermanse so that she can save her BABIES from growing up in the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil city that was killing Michael. Five bucks says that when Deanna pictures the Big Lemon, she only pictures the sensationalistic headlines and blanks out on the reality. It is, after all, hard to call Hogtown the evil city when (aside from Mayor McSleaze) the city fathers are so entirely up their asses that they think that smoking in the public parks and carrying beer in open containers will touch off the freaking apocalypse.
The reason for all of this is that suburbs seem to be the ideal environment for Lynn owing to her regarding large groups of people with something approaching pure dread. In small towns like Lynn Lake, she was expected to be dragged out of her comfort zone and deal with scary strangers she never grew up with on their terms. In cities, she's practically lost without someone to help her navigate through the crowds and the over-stimulation. In suburbs, she can zip through life like a ghost just like she wants to.
As you will also recall, the path Liz took to learn that change, growth and new things were scary and wrong was to realize she'd made Paul out of snow and wishful thinking. Rather than admit that she let a good thing slip right through her fingers because her parents' lack of curiosity and fear of change made him inferior to a right bastard they cheered on, she's probably still sitting in her kitchen fuming about how the clannish hicks picked on and let down an outsider. This despite the fact that Paul and Susan are also newcomers to Mtigatingcircumstances.
The reason that I mentioned all of that is to remind you of one of the stupider things that happened: Deanna's mindlessly cheering on Mike's gutless decision to resign from Portrait. Both in the strip and in the retcons, Deanna can't get enough of living in the Pattermanse so that she can save her BABIES from growing up in the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil city that was killing Michael. Five bucks says that when Deanna pictures the Big Lemon, she only pictures the sensationalistic headlines and blanks out on the reality. It is, after all, hard to call Hogtown the evil city when (aside from Mayor McSleaze) the city fathers are so entirely up their asses that they think that smoking in the public parks and carrying beer in open containers will touch off the freaking apocalypse.
The reason for all of this is that suburbs seem to be the ideal environment for Lynn owing to her regarding large groups of people with something approaching pure dread. In small towns like Lynn Lake, she was expected to be dragged out of her comfort zone and deal with scary strangers she never grew up with on their terms. In cities, she's practically lost without someone to help her navigate through the crowds and the over-stimulation. In suburbs, she can zip through life like a ghost just like she wants to.
