Wait, this comic is talking about people putting all the meaning of a moment into a related, physical object. What does that do with her selling pencils and shirts?
I was just thinking about this yesterday. But how will we support our miserable non-salaried lives if we can’t sell stuff? We’ll have to sell trust itself (noting Dorothy’s Paypal Donate button to the right). But are consumers ready for that? Can we survive?
If you bookstalk me, you’ll see my Cat and Girl books. Perhaps it is a vulgar way to communicate with my fellow future corpse, but it is a connection all the same.
Never does Girl give a caustic observation about the state of culture with a look of triumph. The perpetual slouch and grimace comes along with Girl’s realizing of the implications of her own existence. She is only ever critical if it can be, in some way, of herself.
And before some might care to point the hypocrisy of a strip which condemns itself universally, perhaps he might realize the ever-present Cat, happy to embrace the status quo, and realizing that blithe acceptance is a happy route, so long as you’re silly enough to never notice.
This isn’t a lecture, but an internal dialogue, made external.
@brian wrote: “Never does Girl give a caustic observation about the state of culture with a look of triumph. […] She is only ever critical if it can be, in some way, of herself.”
And that’s why we come back… it’s honest questioning, not a pointed political diatribe.
And, personally, I find it fine to not have every instance of “the funnies” be, you know, funny. Moving, thought-provoking, random… it’s all good.
To the folks who regularly deconstruct this comic: have you read Calvin and Hobbes? Girl represents Dorothy’s opinions the way Calvin represents Watterson’s. @brian is correct; the message is in the point and (often absurd) counter-point between the characters.
I personally find it laugh-inducing, like all other quality examples of observational humor that is partially an indulgence in laughing at other people; partially a recognition of that same issue in my own life. There is discomfort, perhaps, in the laugh. A bit of a sigh, some sorrow, a realization or a reminder; and frequently enough, a not too bad pun.
Ive thought about this, whenever some cartoonist/ show creator is super excited to launch a line of bobble heads or figurines or what have you. Thankfully, comics merch are slouching toward the useful as well as decorative with pencil cases and drinking glasses. Im in my thirties… how many t shirts can one adult male own???
Soooo if a cheap t-shirt with a grainy image of the Mona Lisa is about a definition of self, projected for others to perceive as appreciating quality, rather than an act of *actual* appreciation, does buying it aware of the difference between the two make one a hipster? I want my $4 back.
May 26, 2011
Consumerism makes slaves of us all!
Please by my shirts, albums, and books.
May 26, 2011
Wait, this comic is talking about people putting all the meaning of a moment into a related, physical object. What does that do with her selling pencils and shirts?
… Unless you’re shilling your own stuff here?
May 26, 2011
Hah! E = mc^2.
May 26, 2011
I approve.
May 26, 2011
I don’t need act summary, act summary, act! to take me to the narrative edge.
More warmth / interaction between Cat and Girl as characters please. These reads like Beckett without the gravitas
May 26, 2011
I was just thinking about this yesterday. But how will we support our miserable non-salaried lives if we can’t sell stuff? We’ll have to sell trust itself (noting Dorothy’s Paypal Donate button to the right). But are consumers ready for that? Can we survive?
Maybe not all of us.
May 26, 2011
If you bookstalk me, you’ll see my Cat and Girl books. Perhaps it is a vulgar way to communicate with my fellow future corpse, but it is a connection all the same.
May 26, 2011
Drop the bomb! Exterminate them all!
May 26, 2011
“If we collect stuff… we become the curators of a museum that no-one else cares about”
– Ross Noble (A Quiet Word With…), 21-05-11
I think that Anti-Consumerism is as much a disease as Affluenza is. Is it too hard to accept that people have things because they “like” them?
May 26, 2011
Never does Girl give a caustic observation about the state of culture with a look of triumph. The perpetual slouch and grimace comes along with Girl’s realizing of the implications of her own existence. She is only ever critical if it can be, in some way, of herself.
And before some might care to point the hypocrisy of a strip which condemns itself universally, perhaps he might realize the ever-present Cat, happy to embrace the status quo, and realizing that blithe acceptance is a happy route, so long as you’re silly enough to never notice.
This isn’t a lecture, but an internal dialogue, made external.
May 27, 2011
@brian
True. Bug Gunshow can do the same thing, but manage to be funny too.
May 27, 2011
Sell us a shirt that says “you can like stuff without buying the T-Shirt”! Sell it to us!
Or will people just think it to be a facebook thing…
May 27, 2011
@brian wrote: “Never does Girl give a caustic observation about the state of culture with a look of triumph. […] She is only ever critical if it can be, in some way, of herself.”
And that’s why we come back… it’s honest questioning, not a pointed political diatribe.
And, personally, I find it fine to not have every instance of “the funnies” be, you know, funny. Moving, thought-provoking, random… it’s all good.
May 27, 2011
Can I get this on a T-shirt?
May 27, 2011
To the folks who regularly deconstruct this comic: have you read Calvin and Hobbes? Girl represents Dorothy’s opinions the way Calvin represents Watterson’s. @brian is correct; the message is in the point and (often absurd) counter-point between the characters.
May 27, 2011
I personally find it laugh-inducing, like all other quality examples of observational humor that is partially an indulgence in laughing at other people; partially a recognition of that same issue in my own life. There is discomfort, perhaps, in the laugh. A bit of a sigh, some sorrow, a realization or a reminder; and frequently enough, a not too bad pun.
May 27, 2011
@Rollo: I say yes, it is too hard. You don’t “just like” stuff. It’s socialized.
May 27, 2011
Incidentally, Dorothy sells C&G merchandise. I call shenanigans.
May 27, 2011
Interesting how, in panel 3, Cat says “birthdays,” plural. Does Girl have more than one birthday a year? No wonder she’s tired of material goods.
May 27, 2011
Me want an NPR tote bag!
May 27, 2011
Look at panel 5. Cat’s not just holding it, he’s squeezing the life out of it.
May 28, 2011
Ive thought about this, whenever some cartoonist/ show creator is super excited to launch a line of bobble heads or figurines or what have you. Thankfully, comics merch are slouching toward the useful as well as decorative with pencil cases and drinking glasses. Im in my thirties… how many t shirts can one adult male own???
May 29, 2011
You can always make a quilt with all them:
http://www.goosetracks.com/TshirtQuilt.html
(My favorite is the led zep throw pillow)
May 31, 2011
@Marv,
And cat and girl pencil bags, that contain I’m wasting my life pencils, and BDD erasers.
@Oliver,
Yessssssssssss!
@tg,
Are you a shenanican or a shenanican’t
@Dorothy, re: seann,
Pencil case demand is up a teenth.
June 1, 2011
the horror, the horror…
June 3, 2011
Soooo if a cheap t-shirt with a grainy image of the Mona Lisa is about a definition of self, projected for others to perceive as appreciating quality, rather than an act of *actual* appreciation, does buying it aware of the difference between the two make one a hipster? I want my $4 back.
Time to revisit the genius of the (non-)ironic t-shirt episodes:
http://catandgirl.com/?p=1125
http://catandgirl.com/?p=628
http://catandgirl.com/?p=1026
June 3, 2011
I love that you drew this AND sell t-shirts and shot glasses! You rock!
June 10, 2011
I rock silently, back and forth, wondering what went wrong.
July 17, 2013
The object is to remind others that you like it so you can talk about it.