Quick Takes
After the mail we got on Judy's Harry Potter parody in the
last issue, we thought we'd run Judy's answer to a question we've received more
than once since we started the GHR. And below, you'll find Joan's take
on Sonny and Carly's ottoman.
Q: How did Judy get started writing "What's Cookin' on the Backburner"?
A: The name itself is Terry's invention. As for the rest, before we
started writing the GHR, we had a number of discussions as to content,
and what sorts of articles we (as individual writers) would be best suited for.
And since I had already written a number of fictional "shorts" for the newsgroup
rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc--little vignettes, poetry, or parody usually centered on
some minor character--we thought that would be the best venue for me.
For some reason, I've always fixated on what the backburnered characters were
doing with all of their spare time, so that odd little obsession eventually became
a way for me to write commentary on the show: using the folks currently on the
backburner as my mouthpiece (though sometimes I disagree with what I have them
say, so it's up to the reader to determine which are my opinions and which are
"theirs" *g*).
The Ottoman Connection
by Joan Roseman
The blocking surrounding that ottoman Carly bought for the penthouse has reminded
me that I've been meaning to write about something that may be the key to Sonny's
behavior, at least for me. Watch what he does, not what he says. So often, Sonny's
words are sharp as knives but his behavior betrays the deeper, softer emotions
he keeps in check. An easy example is Mike: no matter how devastatingly Sonny
attacks Mike with his words, Johnny seldom gets the order to keep Mike out of
the penthouse. Even when Sonny is verbally lashing out at his father, his body
language does not threaten. It's an interesting contrast.
Carly and Sonny continually are at loggerheads over what they say to and about
each other, yet both seem to know on an instinctual, animal level what comforts
or pleases the other. Carly knows that providing food, first for the baby and
now for her, is the most direct, basic way Sonny can express his concern for her,
just as cab fare used to be the emblem of Jason's regard. Sonny has become adept
at protecting Carly from outside attack--particularly from A.J.--by placing himself
physically between Carly and trouble, and he does this even when he is himself
at war with her on the most bitter terms.
So what about that ottoman? Well, Carly bought it as one of her very first
attempts to imprint her own personality on the ultra-dark, ultra-Fine Corinthos-Leather
penthouse. Sonny rejected the ottoman, then relented and allowed it into his home
as a demonstration of his willingness to make their cohabitation work. Fine, it's
furniture, right? For Sonny, I contend, that ottoman has become emblematic of
his commitment to Carly, an outward and visible bridge between the two. Like Carly,
Sonny accepted the ottoman reluctantly as unneeded, unwanted excess baggage; however,
from the moment he accepted it as a part of his household, Sonny is never far
from it. He is the one who sits on it; Carly sits on the couch. When Sonny is
angry at Carly he sits, or more usually stands, at his writing desk, the one she
allowed Bobbie to rifle. It is from the desk location that the most virulent verbal
blows are launched, but the ottoman is place where tentative truces are forged,
bad news is delivered and compromises are proposed. Yes, Sonny and Carly usually
eat at the dining room table, but they have chosen to share their first meal across
the symbol of their first compromise and mutual acquisition. It's a beginning.
Back to Front Page of Issue
Back to Top
|
