PREVIEW #3 - "Beauty on the Interstate"

We are getting close, final revisions are underway and the collection should be live very soon!  Here's another snippet from one of the chapters:

My Car, Myself

"Junior" from Tex Avery's "One Cab's Family" 1952

By Judith Cullen

© 2015

"Our tendency to anthropomorphize our cars – ascribe human attributes to them – goes way back to shortly after the automobile ceased to be a luxury item and came into common public use.  Our cars share years, even decades with us as we experience joy, anger, heart ache: life.  We become so connected to them that some begin to believe that, like the ground at the Little Big Horn, the energy and emotions of the days and weeks are absorbed into the car’s very fabric.  We feel that the car has viscerally shared these experiences with us – the car as a living entity.

Concept drawing by artist Bill Peet for "Suzy the Little Blue Coupe"
http://www.billpeet.net/PAGES/susie.htm

"This has been whimsically reflected by the creative imaginations among us in the likes of the 2006 Pixar Cars feature.  Going back farther, you can find auto-friendly tales spun by the like of Tex Avery in the1952 One Cab’s Family, and Disney’s sweet contribution that same year Suzy the Little Blue Coupe. Suzy… is one of my favorites.

"Of course it’s easy to forget one of the classics in auto-anthropomorphism: 1988’s industry changing Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It’s hard to remember in the midst of all the improbably animated characters and expansive action that among the pathos in the madness is Eddie Valiant’s loyal, spunky friend Benny the Cab’s spinning with his tires disintegrating in a puddle of “dip” outside the tunnel to Toontown before crashing into a light post. Benny was a fully realized character, integral to the action that audiences grew to care about.  The ultimate in car come to life.

"So it’s not surprising that people do this with real, non-animation cars . . . "

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How we do come to love our cars!



Here's a snippet from Who Framed Roger Rabbit of the roguish, irascible, and utterly loyal Benny the Cab.  Enjoy!

IMPORTANT NOTE: The sharing of this video in this post in no way reflects, nor should be construed to indicate, the support or endorsement by the Walt Disney Company of this, or any other book by this author.

BEAUTY ON THE INTERSTATE IS COMING! Beep! Beep!