Drifting from an old old favorite...
Oct. 30th, 2007 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gategrrlWow, this happened so gradually I hardly noticed it. I wouldn't say I'm a big fan, but I was following the comic strip For Better or For Worse online for a long time, since I don't get the newspaper. I used to look it up first thing after my computer booted up. And now, I've suddenly realized, I've only clicked on Lynn Johnston's site maybe once in the past three weeks, only after I read a comment about what's happening in some forum or other.
I guess I've basically dropped it because of lack of interest. I strongly disliked the retconning and character manipulation and where Johnston was taking her characters - especially out of the parameters she herself set for them years ago. She eschewed creative directions and embraced cliche. She limited her own characters' sense of adventure and brought them back into a claustophobic family world. Although always middle class, her characters hadn't ever been so mediocre.
Why am I bringing this up? If you take a look at my previous post, it does relate to the author's perogative to dictate the character's reality. There is a flip-side to that. If the author/creator has full authority over the development (or lack thereof) of his/her characters, when those same characters and storylines take a nose-dive for some of the audience, well, that creator is going to lose audience for their imagination. At the moment, Johnston's imagination and mine aren't running concurrently. I'm not enjoying being inside her mind. (I'm going from Stephen King's assertion that writing and storytelling is telepathy; it is exposing your mind and imagination for a shared experience. see his book "On Writing")
Do I think Johnston gives a hoot that I no longer read her strip? Of course not. But I do. It's saddening when an old favorite isn't, anymore. It's like losing an old friend, simply because you've both changed enough that there's little in common.
I guess I've basically dropped it because of lack of interest. I strongly disliked the retconning and character manipulation and where Johnston was taking her characters - especially out of the parameters she herself set for them years ago. She eschewed creative directions and embraced cliche. She limited her own characters' sense of adventure and brought them back into a claustophobic family world. Although always middle class, her characters hadn't ever been so mediocre.
Why am I bringing this up? If you take a look at my previous post, it does relate to the author's perogative to dictate the character's reality. There is a flip-side to that. If the author/creator has full authority over the development (or lack thereof) of his/her characters, when those same characters and storylines take a nose-dive for some of the audience, well, that creator is going to lose audience for their imagination. At the moment, Johnston's imagination and mine aren't running concurrently. I'm not enjoying being inside her mind. (I'm going from Stephen King's assertion that writing and storytelling is telepathy; it is exposing your mind and imagination for a shared experience. see his book "On Writing")
Do I think Johnston gives a hoot that I no longer read her strip? Of course not. But I do. It's saddening when an old favorite isn't, anymore. It's like losing an old friend, simply because you've both changed enough that there's little in common.
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Date: 2007-10-31 06:24 am (UTC)For every rabid fan who still likes it and every new fan I see attracted to the show, I'm seeing more and more people on my flist drifting away from the show--not from anger, but from boredom. The show has changed, the characters have changed, and everything about it that made it unique and different and appealing has been stripped away. Even the actors can't save it for me.