No more Mister Vice Guy.

[dreadedcandiru2]

As we're going to see in the fullness of time, Phil loves his vices and hates it when people try to reform him. We see this when he gets all panicky when they try to make him stop smoking as well as when he acted as if the vegans he shared an apartment with at one point were Nazi space monsters who wanted to deny him the red meat experience because they were crazy, selfish and evil; we even see it when he objects to Elly trying to limit his intake of liquor. The interesting thing about all these is that they seem to him to come from the same source: the need women have to domesticate him and drain away his masculinity. Heck, there's even a strip that has him in a blind panic because he fears that he'll actually be happy to cook, clean and all the other things that macho dolts like him think are the province of women and effeminate men. Elly and Georgia see themselves as caring enough to help free him from the chains that bind him; he sees them as conspiring to more or less neuter him. The fun part is that Elly thinks that he and Ted are different sorts of irritant when they only vary in degree.

Comments

[aprilp-katje.livejournal.com]

You know, it always strikes me as incongruent that Phil is a smoker who practices yoga and thinks vegetarians are hopelessly deviant. Sure, there are smokers who practice yoga--a couple of weeks ago, I distinctly smelled cigarettes on one of the people I signed in at the studio where I practice. Omnivorous people also practice yoga. However, yoga is strongly associated with vegetarianism and veganism because of the yoga principle of ahimsa (non-harming). Also, yogis tend to be health-conscious and at least aware that smoking is a bad idea. So, even if Phil were, indeed, a meat-eating, cigarette-and-pipe-smoking yoga practitioner, I'd expect him to at least know a lot of vegetarians/vegans and not find them especially foreign/scary to live with. I've always wondered whether this was an accurate depiction of Alan, as opposed to one of Lynn's weird[{"wierd"] extrapolations.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered whether this was an accurate depiction of Alan, as opposed to one of Lynn's weird[{"wierd"] extrapolations.

Most definitely the latter; the reason that Phil was written out was that Alan finally got sick of the distorted picture she drew and said he'd had enough of it.

[aprilp-katje.livejournal.com]

I keep feeling tempted to write to him and ask him questions about the way Phil is depicted--where Phil diverges from him, his reactions, etc. But then I imagine he probably wouldn't be fond of addressing the subject, especially from a stranger on the internet.

[aprilp-katje.livejournal.com]

All of which would be completely understandable.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

What I admire most about him is that he was able to get Phil written out; the others weren't as lucky.

[aprilp-katje.livejournal.com]

Not altogether written out--but at least he got his avatar released from the "regular" category to "secondary."

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

He shares that sentiment with Rod and Aaron, I should think; he probably resents questions about how he's depicted almost as much as he resents the distorted image he sees.