11 thoughts on “The Sunday cat so loves sharing life with Simon”
I have been wondering lately whether there are any cartoons involving cats sharing life with a woman. There are Simon’s cat, Garfield and Jon, Bucky sharing life with Rob Wilco (and Satchel). Aside from the old lady living with Tweetie Bird and Sylvester, are there any. If not, why?
Christine, nice question! Here’s a guess at an answer: the cartoon uses characteristics commonly thought of as ‘male’ to create the tensions that generate the humor.
Staggered you haven’t come across Nicole Hollander of “Mercy, it’s the revolution and I ‘m still in my bathrobe fame.” You want a wonderful woman and cat/s check this out
It would be fun to collect references to books/stories about women and cats. I’m trying to remember the author who wrote a wonderful book or story in which a cat managed to record a husband’s secret trysts when his wife was away. Maybe 5 years ago. I wonder if Google…
jj – isn’t there (or wasn’t there) a mystery series involving a cat that assisted its human female partner (“owner” never applies when it comes to cats..) in investigations? This is just a vague memory….
j, a quick search turned up two: Lydia Adamson and Rita Mae Brown. No doubt there are more
I had thought of Lillian Braun, who wrote about Koko, but the human partner is male.
Thanks all, I will look up these things. I like the idea of the tension generated to explain. I wonder if part of what is supposed to generate the humour is not that these male characters are made somewhat less male by sharing their lives with a cat…? Not that I agree but any thoughts on this?
Nice question, Christine. One perhaps relevant observation. Somewhere someone pointed out that cats tend to be the size of babies. (Bengal cats may seem closer in size to toddlers.) So perhaps we see men with cats as somewhat motherly?
But then in these cartoons, the men are usually at odds with the cats. Hmmm. This could get deep.
Ahh, nice. So the men living with cats are humourous because they are goofy mothers (at odds with their cats)?
C
I thought some Sunday Cats fans might be interested in this video:
Dee Es, that is wonderful! Thank you!
We’ve seen Nora before, but not in such a grand setting.
I have been wondering lately whether there are any cartoons involving cats sharing life with a woman. There are Simon’s cat, Garfield and Jon, Bucky sharing life with Rob Wilco (and Satchel). Aside from the old lady living with Tweetie Bird and Sylvester, are there any. If not, why?
Christine, nice question! Here’s a guess at an answer: the cartoon uses characteristics commonly thought of as ‘male’ to create the tensions that generate the humor.
Staggered you haven’t come across Nicole Hollander of “Mercy, it’s the revolution and I ‘m still in my bathrobe fame.” You want a wonderful woman and cat/s check this out
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/389.Nicole_Hollander
moiramac – thanks for the wonderful reference.
It would be fun to collect references to books/stories about women and cats. I’m trying to remember the author who wrote a wonderful book or story in which a cat managed to record a husband’s secret trysts when his wife was away. Maybe 5 years ago. I wonder if Google…
jj – isn’t there (or wasn’t there) a mystery series involving a cat that assisted its human female partner (“owner” never applies when it comes to cats..) in investigations? This is just a vague memory….
j, a quick search turned up two: Lydia Adamson and Rita Mae Brown. No doubt there are more
I had thought of Lillian Braun, who wrote about Koko, but the human partner is male.
Thanks all, I will look up these things. I like the idea of the tension generated to explain. I wonder if part of what is supposed to generate the humour is not that these male characters are made somewhat less male by sharing their lives with a cat…? Not that I agree but any thoughts on this?
Nice question, Christine. One perhaps relevant observation. Somewhere someone pointed out that cats tend to be the size of babies. (Bengal cats may seem closer in size to toddlers.) So perhaps we see men with cats as somewhat motherly?
But then in these cartoons, the men are usually at odds with the cats. Hmmm. This could get deep.
Ahh, nice. So the men living with cats are humourous because they are goofy mothers (at odds with their cats)?
C
I thought some Sunday Cats fans might be interested in this video:
Dee Es, that is wonderful! Thank you!
We’ve seen Nora before, but not in such a grand setting.