The absent gift of happiness....

[dreadedcandiru2]

There is a good reason that the Pattersons seem to find no real joy in the giving and receiving of gifts. That reason is that when they do things that they think will make them happy, they end up feeling let down. This is where their collective inability to understand the inevitable consequences of their actions are going to be. If you'll indulge me, I'd like to use the Liz of 2012 as an example.

The reason I'm doing so is that unlike Lynn and her fans, I can understand what marrying Anthony is going to lead to and what won't happen as a result. What won't happen as a result is Liz finally getting the attention she thinks that she deserves. Since she's still going to be the oblivious twit who can only see what's wrong in the world, she's going to make herself sick with worry and self-loathing because instead of focusing on what little time she gets to share with her parents, she's going to whine about all the time that they lavish on her ugly brother and his family or the horrible interloper who stole her chance at being noticed for once. The reason that this is unfair and wrong is because she desperately needs to be told that her life will actually get better.

That's because my gut tells me that right now, she's either as lost, confused, depressed and angry as Elly is or even worse off. Not only does she have to be both parents because the Anthony that her parents praised for raising a child alone become the clone of John she wanted and become a remote, angry figure that who leers at everyone prettier, insinuates that she's stupid and crazy for feeling dissatisfied with her lot in life, flees his children and uses head-games to avoid housework, said life of kids and cleaning and cooking isn't nearly the wonder that the evil, jealous career woman foolishly rejected. She feels exhausted because she's got what amounts to three uncooperative children, she doesn't get along with the weird child and the one she thought would make her life better just clings to her and wants more attention than she can spare. It doesn't seem at all fair that what she thought was going to be the perfect path to happiness has led her to this awful place that she can't escape.

The reason that it makes no sense to her that she didn't have her happy ending after all because she doesn't understand what her parents actually wanted for her. Since Liz never seemed to notice how self-serving her parents are, she doesn't understand that when they say that they want what's best for her, they actually mean that they want what's best for them; the idea that she had to give up her self-respect and happiness so that two improvident yahoos can blackmail someone who works for a living into bankrolling their idiocy is as alien to her as understanding that if you want to marry a clone of a glib, selfish and heartless manipulator who sees the people around him as resources to exploit, that's what you're going to get. Since Liz cannot wrap her head around the fact that her parents used her, she'll continue merrily on blaming targets of convenience like evil career women, friends who seem to have a better time than she is and children who don't want her to be happy. Taking responsibility for her actions is simply unfaaaaaaaaaaair because she doesn't want to admit that she didn't understand the stakes.

Not, of course, that she's alone in not feeling happy. Anthony feels out of sorts because the girl he thought was the answer to all of his problems by making his house a HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME baffles and depresses him by being as out of sorts as his first wife, Mike is trapped by the trappings of his success, Deanna has three needy children to take care of, John has no one to play with and Elly is still not feeling as if her life is going anywhere. The only person who can possibly considered to have life figured out is the awful Martian creature because of the bad influence Chin-nuts had on her; since she managed to escape, she doesn't have to live her life as the unwanted third child.

Comments

[josephusrex.livejournal.com]

Entitlement and irresponsibility. Inborn Pattertraits, similar to the Habsburg lip or the Rooseveltian drinking streak.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

There's a third trait that underlies both: an almost criminal lack of concern for other people. I remember how Liz went "Yay!! Some stranger's life got ruined so I could move home! (http://catalog.fborfw.com/strips/06/fb060828.gif) Clearly the world is wonderfully arranged!!" and thinking "Man!! I wish that there were a LiveJournal group to talk about how oafish and heartless Lizardbreath still is."

[josephusrex.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd forgotten that one. I know it's a stretch, but I still keep wondering, from time to time, whether Lynn has pulled off the biggest scam of all time, and has known all along just how hideous the Pattersons are, and her public defense of all things Patterson is just part of the act -- and in fact YOU, Dreadedcandiru2, are Lynn Johnston, stating her true feelings.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

No, sir. That is most definitely not the case. Lynn has never to my knowledge displayed the self-awareness needed to pull something like that off. She can't even balance a chequebook.