Line #66 Literature/ArchyAndMehitabel


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/46a6e0c3edfadfcf71e0be65d5023efa.gif]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"the most unlikely of friends"]]
3
4	archy and mehitabel\
5	were a cockroach and a cat\
6	archy had the soul\
7	of a vers libre poet\
8	and laboriously composed\
9	by jumping on the keys\
10	of [[DirectLineToTheAuthor don marquis]] s typewriter at night\
11	while mehitabel supposedly\
12	had the soul of [[UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII cleopatra]]
13
14
15	his output was published\
16	in the new york evening sun\
17	starting in 1916\
18	and later in the tribune\
19	at first as {{filler}}\
20	when marquis couldn t produce his column
21
22	in it archy told\
23	marquis of his and\
24	mehitabel s adventures\
25	toujours gai toujours gai\
26	the poems were\
27	a satire of\
28	urban life in\
29	the 1920s
30
31	it is probably most famous\
32	for the [[PaintingTheMedium unusual typography]]\
33	because archy couldn t\
34	operate the shift key\
35	consequently\
36	the poems themselves\
37	are underrated\
38	and dismissed as gimmicky
39
40	!!books
41	* ''archy and mehitabel'' 1927
42	* ''archy s life of mehitabel'' 1933
43	* ''archy does his part'' 1935
44	* ''the lives and times of archy and mehitabel'' 1940
45	* ''archyology'' 1996 (posthumous)
46	* ''archyology II'' 1998
47	* ''the annotated archy and mehitabel'' 2006
48
49	!!plays
50	[[Creator/MelBrooks mel brooks]] co-wrote a musical ''shinbone alley'' based on the poems in 1957
51
52	!!western animation
53	an [[WesternAnimation/ShinboneAlley animated film]] of the brooks play was made in 1971
54
55	!!tropes
56	* {{aerith and bob}} pretty self explanatory
57	* {{all lowercase letters}} THOUGH A COUPLE OF THE COLUMNS WERE IN ALL CAPS
58	** then there was a time when the boss left the shift lock on for archys benefit but mehitabel made a jump for him see carnivore confusion below
59	--->'''archy''' i got away but she unlocked the shift key
60	* {{carnivore confusion}} mehitabel ate cockroaches and from time to time tried to eat archy
61	* {{direct line to the author}}: the poems were supposedly typed by archy at night and marquis would find them the next morning
62	* {{gratuitous french}}
63	-->there s a dance in the old dame yet
64	-->toujours gai toujours gai
65	* {{green aesop}} what the ants are saying
66	* {{heroic sacrifice}} freddy the rat
67	* {{mst3k mantra}}
68	-->boss i am disappointed in\
69	some of your readers they\
70	are always asking how does\
71	archy work the shift so as to get a\
72	new line or how does archy do\
73	this or do that they\
74	are always interested in technical\
75	details when the main question is\
76	[[TrueArt whether the stuff is\
77	literature or not]]
78	* {{no punctuation period}} for the same reason as the lack of capitals
79	* {{offing the offspring}} mehitabel drowns her kittens
80	%% * {{painting the medium}}
81	* {{reincarnation}} both archy and mehitabel had human souls he a vers libre poet and she cleopatra and many others freddy the rat was a poet before and then there was the suicide club of bugs whose previous human selves had taken their own lives
82	* {{shame if something happened}} mehitabel s discussion of her kittens
83	-->...they are living\
84	just now in an abandoned\
85	garbage can just behind\
86	a made over stable in greenwich\
87	village and if it rained\
88	into the can before i could\
89	get back and rescue them\
90	i am afraid the little\
91	dears might drown\
92	it makes me shudder just\
93	to think of it
94	* {{talking animal}}s well a typing animal at least
95	* {{we all die someday}} archy speaks with a moth who wishes to get inside a light bulb even if it kills him the moth argues that life is short anyway and it is better to go out in a brief blaze of glory if you can
96	-->i do not agree with him\
97	myself i would rather have\
98	half the happiness and twice\
99	the longevity\
100	\
101	but at the same time i wish\
102	there was something i wanted\
103	as badly as he wanted to fry himself
104
105	----
106	-->[[TheStinger love archy]]

Context Literature / ArchyAndMehitabel