[Ads-l] RES: cliffhanger (UNCLASSIFIED)

[David Daniel]

There's a running gag in Beetle Bailey that has Sergeant Snorkel hanging
from a little tree growing out of the side of a cliff, while Beetle
negotiates to save him. The strips usually (always? Dunno) end with Sarge
still hanging on to the tree, so I suppose it could be said we won't know
the outcome until the next strip, ergo, cliffhanger. Wikipedia says the
Beetle Bailey gag inspired another character called Cliff Hanger in Between
the Lions, but I'm not familiar with that one.
DAD

Enviada em: quarta-feira, 13 de abril de 2016 15:56
Para: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Assunto: Re: cliffhanger (UNCLASSIFIED)

Poster:       Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET>
Subject:      Re: cliffhanger (UNCLASSIFIED)
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Yes, a significant discovery.=C2=A0 When I was researching "cliffhanger" fo=
r a possible story, I did not find any scenes where there was a hero/heroin=
e literally left hanging on a cliff.=C2=A0 There are plenty of earlier inst=
ances of leaving the reader in figurative suspense, but I found none of lea=
ving the character in literal suspense.

Did I mention at the time the peril -- but not cliffhanging -- in a news st=
ory in the 1736 New-York Gazette, published in two parts?=C2=A0 The first i=
nstallment ends =E2=80=9CThe Capt.Dying------ [The Remainder of this Melanc=
holy Relation willbe continued, in our Next]=E2=80=9D (brackets inoriginal)=
.=20 Joel
      From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=20
 Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 2:21 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] cliffhanger (UNCLASSIFIED)
  =20
Other than the misleadingly ambiguous "is attributed to...Hardy's...novel,"
this is a significant discovery.

The scene (oops! I must mean "meme"!) presumably impressed the story's
readers, and may frequently have been alluded to.

The actual word "cliffhanger," however, still looks and sounds like a 20th
C. journalistic creation - by someone who may never have heard of _A Pair of
Blue Eyes_.

JL



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