CSotD: An irresistible child meets an inedible object
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As stated here and elsewhere, there are some strips I have to restrain myself from using too often, and "Cul de Sac" leads that small group. But today's strip is not just timely in light of Richard Thompson's having won the Reuben this past weekend but is also a very solid demonstration of why he is held in such awe by his fellow cartoonists. Also, it put me on the floor.
In the current arc, Alice is having a playdate at Nara's house, and it has quickly been established that Nara lives a much more ordered and considered life than Alice, whose chaotic esprit is at the heart of this strip. That contrast is on display in these four panels.
To start with, it only works if both kids are guileless.
The character of the "evil prankster child" is a standard on the comics page, where it was firmly embedded even before Fanny Brice's Baby Snooks and Red Skelton's "Mean Widdle Kid" brought it to vaudeville and radio. Even Watterson's Calvin seems conscious of an irresistible urge to do something he knows he shouldn't.
Not Alice. She is a genuine innocent and, when she is reprimanded or even punished, is puzzled and sometimes outraged because she has no idea what she did or said that she shouldn't have. Even her last question is innocent: She's not suggesting they go do that. She's just tried to figure out the purpose of the things, and she's seen what older kids do with inedible objects. It's simply a question.
At the same time, Nara's organized mind could readily make her the old-head-on-young-shoulders, a pint-sized philosopher and sounding board like Linus van Pelt. But Nara is a young-head-on-young-shoulders, and, while she is calm and basically compliant, she is still a pre-schooler.
When she interrupts in class, her "sharing" is not in the least obnoxious but it is inappropriate and unhelpful despite her earnest sincerity. And there may come a time, somewhere in middle school, where she can't be around Alice's chaos without discomfort, but, at this stage, she accepts whatever the world offers as a given.
Including her grandmother's inedible treats.
Now, watch each character from frame to frame. Alice gamely tries to eat the "chewy wad," but, while it starts out well enough in the second panel, you can see (and hear) that, by the third panel, she's losing the battle.
Meanwhile, Nara, who didn't try to dissuade her from putting the thing in her mouth in the first place, is matter-of-factly discussing her grandmother's jaws, but then stands ready with the napkin, not only unsurprised by Alice's response but having expected nothing else.
First we chew them for awhile, then we spit them into the napkin and throw them away. It's not a good thing. It's not a bad thing. It's what you do with Grandma's chewy wads.
And now both kids move on to whatever else is next.
It's easy to explain this sort of thing, once it has been put on paper. What I can't explain is how it got there. But there it is.
Give that man a trophy.
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