OK, OK: this is a comic strip in which a dog can play baseball and tennis and write novels on a typewriter. I know. However, somehow, I have always found this particular arc overly preposterous. Peppermint Patty has been made a great deal too dumb here for the sake of the joke: if she was genuinely as stupid as this she wouldn’t be able to exist in society at all. On the other hand, the adults come over as being borderline abusive in allowing this to happen in the first place. Where is her Dad? He either leaves Patty alone in the house for weeks at a time, or else he doesn’t take the trouble to see what school she has enrolled in with his money – doesn’t sound like a remotely responsible or loving parent at all. It is unimaginable that the dog trainers would go along with this, too: and it does not reflect well on Charlie Brown and Marcie that they haven’t tried harder to make Patty see sense. But, of course, this is a comic strip, and I am taking it too seriously :) I have obsessively adored Peanuts ever since I was as young as Rerun, and I do not mean to criticize Schulz’s work (but just to have fun discussing it).
OK, OK: this is a comic strip in which a dog can play baseball and tennis and write novels on a typewriter. I know. However, somehow, I have always found this particular arc overly preposterous. Peppermint Patty has been made a great deal too dumb here for the sake of the joke: if she was genuinely as stupid as this she wouldn’t be able to exist in society at all. On the other hand, the adults come over as being borderline abusive in allowing this to happen in the first place. Where is her Dad? He either leaves Patty alone in the house for weeks at a time, or else he doesn’t take the trouble to see what school she has enrolled in with his money – doesn’t sound like a remotely responsible or loving parent at all. It is unimaginable that the dog trainers would go along with this, too: and it does not reflect well on Charlie Brown and Marcie that they haven’t tried harder to make Patty see sense. But, of course, this is a comic strip, and I am taking it too seriously :) I have obsessively adored Peanuts ever since I was as young as Rerun, and I do not mean to criticize Schulz’s work (but just to have fun discussing it).