Why Is Everybody Always Picking On Me?

In the Cartoon Issue of The New Yorker, Jonathan Franzen has written a wonderful essay about growing up with Peanuts, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Unfortunately, not everyone enjoyed it. And it just seems to me, that whenever anyone starts to criticize Franzen, it invariably ends up being some mean attack on something about him personally (his appearance; that 'Oprah' thing). Why is that? What is it about Franzen that elicits such venom? I really enjoy his writing. And I think he's a nice person. In fact, he kinda has some very 'Charlie Brown' characteristics about him. His self-depricating writing style; his inabiltiy to distance himself from past embarrassments; his need (I think) to be liked. I think if Franzen had ever met Schulz, they would have got along quite well. Franzen understands what 'Peanuts' is all about. It's not a strip that is supposed to always make you slap your knee and laugh out loud; it makes you think, it makes you sad, it makes you say "that's me. I'm Charlie Brown." That's why the strip was (and is) so popular. It's always been hip to like Peanuts; Fantagraphics, bless those folk, just made it easier, that's all. (Oh, and apologies to Fantagraphics, Schulz and Seth for the spoof cover).
People who say "I don't like Peanuts; it's not funny" are really missing the point, and that is their loss. People who don't like Franzen are missing the point, too.
But don't you worry; You're A Good Man, Jonathan Franzen.








