Greetings Cosmic Americans!Honestly, I haven't made up my mind yet. Sure, there is always room for levity, as evidenced by many of the posts right here on Cosmic America. But this image - as preposterous as it is, got me thinking. Yes...these are cats in Civil War combat regalia. Now I have encountered more than one cat for whom killing seemed a particular gratification. But to illustrate cats as Civil War combat soldiers seems a little on the side of perverse. Perhaps...it may indeed be a trivial representation of the men who fought, struggled for their lives, and died in that war.
Try to imagine the color-bearing cat hit by a dozen or more Minié balls as he led his regiment into a withering fire, or the musket-armed cat lying disemboweled on the ground screaming in agony for his mother, or the musician cats torn to pieces by exploding shells. This was the reality for those who marched into the fray - but it wouldn't make for such a cute t-shirt.
Maybe I am making way too much of this....but maybe not. What do you think?
Peace,
Keith
I think you are making way too much of this......I see reenactors.
ReplyDeleteNo, that shirt just trivializes good taste. It also tells me that you can put "Gettysburg" on just about anything, and people will buy it.
ReplyDeleteThose must be some of the "Cats of the Confederacy" Tony Horwitz wrote about.
ReplyDeleteAndy - I was thinking the same thing!
ReplyDeleteTruer words were never spoken, Bob.
ReplyDeleteYou may indeed be right, Greg - still...I find the image disturbing.
ReplyDeleteI remember my wife seeing a sign once on a local farm while we were out driving in Amish country in Ohio. The sign said, "Kittens for Sale." We were given to understand that there were no customers for such kittens. A week later we drove by the same farm and saw a new sign, which said, "Amish Kittens for Sale." We were told all of the kittens had been sold in the space of a few hours in one day.
ReplyDeleteIts all in the presentation.
Neil
Having seen one man killed in war, I can tell you that if people fully visualized what happened on the field of death, most could not visit them. The human butcher shop that a place like Gettysburg was for three days is not a foundation for "heritage tourism". In the end the cats are no different from the "Don't call me Lawrence" t-shirts. They are palatable substitutes for bloody reality.
ReplyDeleteThis is an affront not only to the memory of the soldiers who fought and died, but to good taste as well. What kind of poor, benighted lost soul would wear this kitschy garbage?
ReplyDeletei think someone should get the real people re-enactors to wear kitty costumes all the time, it would be super cute, but what do i know i'm just "hanging in there"
ReplyDeletei love this blog!!!!
"Try to imagine the color-bearing cat hit by a dozen or more Minié balls as he led his regiment into a withering fire, or the musket-armed cat lying disemboweled on the ground screaming in agony for his mother...."
ReplyDeleteCritiquing a cartoon on a tee-shirt in those terms is just plain ludicrous. It's like throwing down a CW cookbook because people starved during the War, or shaking a fist at the frivolity of a CW themed wedding, or ridiculing re-enactors. The tee-shirt is hopelessly kitschy, yes. Offensive, no.
Mr. Young, your comment in particular caught my attention. You obviously do not mean to equate soldiers with livestock by calling Gettysburg a �human butcher shop,� yet there's an implication (in the post overall, too, and in other comments) that soldiers are strictly killers and victims, and to see them any other way is to be irreverent, unrealistic, and downright trivial.
�I can tell you that if people fully visualized what happened on the field of death, most could not visit them� is too wide a generalization. Your personal reflections on such an experience absolutely must be respected, and were I in your shoes, I too might find I could not visit any kind of battlefield. Yet one experience forms only one segment on the wide spectrum of how people deal with memory. A ranger friend has related to me conversations he�s had with VFWs whose visits to CW battlefields evoke their own combat experiences. My father and a few of my cousins (Vietnam vets) have done the same. CW vets themselves revisited battlefields. The experiences of people who have never experienced military battle (such as myself) are equally valid. We�ve all lived through war in one way or another, and all Americans have reaped the bitter-sweet fruit of the seeds sown and watered with blood at Gettysburg.
To the more important point: If Gettysburg is merely a "human butcher shop," why memorialize it? There�s nothing heroic or worthy of reverence in men butchering each other. If Gettysburg can be reduced to men being "torn to pieces," as Cosmic America put it, then indeed heritage tourism, as well as battlefield preservation and any personal interest in CW battles is �perverse.�
Well, obviously, this post and the comments hit a nerve here. Why? Because evoking gore and slaughter as the inarguable bottom line of Gettysburg is far more offensive to me than a kitty tee-shirt souvenir.
The bottom line for this CW gal is that Gettysburg served to bring America one step closer to being truly the land of the free: one step closer to the abolition of human bondage.
The kitty tee-shirt souvenir? It made me laugh. And it doesn�t connect even remotely with the legacy of Gettysburg and the men who fought there.
PS. I notice the guy wearing the tee isn�t young; we can only hope his grandchildren coerced him into wearing it.
Jean - your quote, if I may...."there�s an implication (in the post overall, too, and in other comments) that soldiers are strictly killers and victims, and to see them any other way is to be irreverent, unrealistic, and downright trivial."
ReplyDeleteYou have entirely missed the point. In no way does this post reduce soldiers to such a one-dimensional characterization. But would you deny that Gettysburg was a horrific scene? Or are you one of those who relish in the glory of bravery and fortitude...while forgetting that a whole lot of people died. There is always the old cliche...swell your chest with the memories of gallant but hopeless charges - understanding that there may indeed be a vacant chair...somewhere. Most who comment here understand what the war was about. The causes and the consequences. And we understand - in far more complicated terms than what you offer - how the soldiers understood their relative causes.
My point is that something as ridiculous as this t-shirt (and most civil war souvenirs, really) trivializes an event in which over 600.000 people lost their lives - fighting for Union, freedom, independence, and the preservation of slavery. The only thing ludicrous here is the depiction of happy smiley kitty cats marching off to battle - the implication with the shirt is, they are about to do their work - and kill or be killed.
"Or are you one of those who relish in the glory of bravery and fortitude…while forgetting that a whole lot of people died. " Of course not. I don't see anything in my comment that implies a mindless worship of the so-called glory of battle. When I walk around a battlefield or a national cemetery, I spend a lot of that time praying. Not because I'm a holy-roller, but because of the truth that you state: "a whole lot of people died."
ReplyDeleteI'm not trying to offer terms complicated or simple about such a huge war and all the issues attached to it. Despite years of earnest study, I can't claim any special insight or all-embracing understanding of "the causes and consequences," though I do grasp that CW soldiers held a wide variety of convictions, causes, and motivations. The "bottom line" that I mentioned re Gettysburg is strictly my personal way of coming to grips with such almighty violence and, yes, slaughter, up to and including Lincoln's murder.
Keith,
ReplyDeleteI think you're thinking way too much into this one. I truly believe that. I can understand your point but I personally see nothing wrong with the shirt. I don't believe it is disrespectful by any means. I remember seeing a shirt with dogs wearing revolutionary gear not so far from bunker hill. Anyway, I don't believe it disrespectful. If it was a picture of cars dying in the uniforms then I'd have a boat load of issues, but in the end it is probably a shirt to appeal to women who think the cats look cute in the outfits.
Is this a harmless shirt or does the shirt suggest that the men who fought and died in the civil war were a bunch of pussys?
ReplyDeleteI am guessing that nobody intended the latter message, but the fact that the notion comes up speaks to the fact that there is something questionable about the portrayal and that it probably should be left on the shelf.
I am guessing there are better shirts one can and probably should buy. I say should not because I think the shirt intends to be offensive, but I really don't want to be the idiot wearing it in front of someone who would genuine be offended by it.