![]() ![]() Marge's observation is brilliantly astute, but also disturbing, in that she seems to be mourning for more than Sassy's long-deceased Simpsons counterpart. As such, it was always inevitable that The Simpsons would have their say on it eventually. The world took Sassy's battle with that infernal branch to their hearts, and the image of the suspended cat became one of the ultimate cliches of motivational paraphernalia, a classic artifact of 1970s kitsch. Naturally, a slew of rip-offs featuring cats in similar poses, and with the same tagline, were rapidly ushered into being, although Baldwin was extremely vigilant against unauthorised use of the original Sassy image and brought successful copyright infringement cases against any and all bootleggers he happened across. ![]() The image struck a chord with the public, and attracted such an enthusiastic reaction that Baldwin decided to market it as a poster with the revised caption, "Hang in there, baby!" It proved such a hot seller that for a time Baldwin was able to put his photography career on hiatus and live solely off the profits generated by Sassy's likeness. The black and white image showed Siamese kitten Sassy (given the name Wiki in the book) hanging onto a bamboo branch with her forepaws, with the caption "Chin up". I took a gander and the cheapest one was listed for over £750 - about $980). (Incidentally, if you're thinking of scurrying over to Abebooks and bagging a copy.best of luck, baby. The original "Hang In There, Baby" poster was the creation of Los Angeles-based photographer Victor Baldwin, and was originally featured as an illustration in a children's book, The Outcast Kitten, which was written by Baldwin and his then-wife Jeanne and published in 1970. Marge's poster has a real-life counterpart - throughout the 1970s, images of cats clinging on for dear life were plastered all over homes and offices with the intention of spurring humans on through their day-to-day troubles, although the earliest specimen dates back to 1971, not 1968. And what could be more disturbing than a dead cat peeking at us from beyond the grave, reminding us of that all is lost? And you thought Pet Sematary was a bit unsettling. A fundamental component of hauntology is the notion that the future we once anticipated has failed us and that we are left with a shattered timeline, compelled to look ever backwards to the past for solace as all of our unresolved anxieties continue to stare us in the face, the past, the present and the cancelled future converging in a chaotic mishmash of omnipresent disturbance. This features a cat hanging from a washing line, with the slogan, "Hang In There, Baby!" Marge takes momentary comfort in this kitschy image, only for her bolstered spirits to be immediately ruptured when her eyes wander down to the smaller print: "Copyright termined or not, that cat must be long dead. At one point, when her spirits are feeling particularly dampened, she looks to a motivational poster affixed to the wall of her makeshift office. The idiom hang in there is an informal and friendly way to tell someone to keep trying.One of the most inspired examples of a character confronting a haunted image in The Simpsons occurs in the Season 8 episode, "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson" (original air date January 19th 1997), in which Marge attempts to set up her own pretzel business and encounters setback after setback. Please hang in there just a bit longer,” said Friedberg.
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