Hmmm, this continues to bother me and I don't know why so I'll throw it open
for discussion, comment, ridicule, whatever.......CB, etc. 'living' or not
Firstly, the perception that CB never kicked the football. Admittedly he was
continually frustrated by Lucy but doesn't this solely mean that he never
kicked the football when Lucy was holding it. (Aren't there also early
strips where he can be seen punting and kicking the ball or have I dreamt
this?)
So here's the thing, do other people view the characters as 'living' when we
do not have a window to their world (via the boxes) or do they only exist in
that one instance that we read the strip and then go into some form of
suspended animation?I recall some theory in quantum theory about a cat in a
box not being there until you looked (or some such explanation). The 'lives'
of the Peanuts crew seem to follow a similar thread to the theory.
If they do 'live' when we are not there then CB would obviously have kicked
the ball many, many times (shermy or schroeder holding,) and the fact that
we haven't seen it shouldn't be a cause for constant concern. The fact that
we haven't seen it, doesn't mean it NEVER has happened. True, it may never
have happened with Lucy but to consider that CB has never kicked the
football seems extreme.
Extend this thought, do people believe that CB never ever struck anyone out
at baseball and was always hit by a line drive or hit fly only for Lucy to
miss EVERY time he pitched? Surely there must have been occasions where he
got a strike or where Schroeder threw someone out at first or second
base...we have just never seen it!
I don't understand the angst that not having a strip where we see 'thud' and
he and Lucy looking to the distance, is causing people. What would the
punchline have been?
Enough....hopefully you can see why it is bothering me.
J
Post by Jr.Post by John A. MerulloPost by Jr.In one of his last interviews Charles Schulz said he would not allow
himself
Post by John A. MerulloPost by Jr.to draw a strip in which Charlie Brown would kick the football. It would
change the mystique of CB being CB.
The thing we love about CB is that he never does get to kick the ball
but
Post by John A. MerulloPost by Jr.optimistically he never gives up trying no matter how many times Lucy
pulls
Post by John A. MerulloPost by Jr.it out from under him.
That being said, in Schulz's final football strip in 1999, Lucy asked
Rerun to hold the ball while she went in for lunch (you'd figure they'd
eat lunch at the same time). When Rerun came in from lunch, his sister
asked if he'd pulled the ball away or if CB had kicked it and Rerun
replied "You'll never know!"
Also in 1979, when CB had been in the hospital, Lucy did not pull the
ball away, but CB kicked her hand.
I didn't think so, thanks for the replies.
