Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Herdspeople love to read books by Marx and Lenin

Via the newsletter of the International Institute of Social History (based in Amsterdam), I discovered a remarkable exhibition on the topic of 'books in Chinese propaganda posters'.

They are...interesting.



And even just the titles are sometimes fascinating. The above, for instance, is called 'Turn philosophy into a sharp weapon in the hands of the masses', a stirring message for any era. And note the philosophically inspiring mushroom cloud to the left. Oh, how it warms the heart.

The exhibition is certainly worth a look.

2 comments:

Dick Headley said...

The masses seem more interested in eating McMuffins with blunt plastic cutlery to me.

JCWood said...

Indeed... But it's rather hard to turn the actual behaviour of the masses into into such inspiring socialist-realist propaganda posters.

And, who knows, maybe Chinese herdspeople really were different. It can get lonely up in those mountains, and a copy of the Grundrisse can really provide some much needed cheer at a time like that.