Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il
Michael Malice ist Ghostwriter und wurde von Harvey Pekar himself in einem Comic verewigt. Jetzt will der Mann eine inoffizielle Biographie von Kim Jong Il schreiben, die alleine auf der Propaganda und den Fantasy-Sagas um den „Ever-Victorious, Iron-Willed Commander“, den „Guiding Sun Ray“, den „Dear Leader, who is a perfect incarnation of the appearance that a leader should have“ (List of Kim Jong-il’s titles) basiert. I totally wanna read this.
This will be the best book ever written. Welcome to the bizarre world of the north Korea (since Korea is one nation divided by American Imperialism, we keep the “n” lowercase). It’s a nation where politics is religion, and religion is the worship of an odd little man by the name of Kim Jong Il. It is a notoriously reclusive and closed nation, one whose inner workings can only be guessed at by outsiders—until now. Taken directly from primary sources spirited out of the “Hermit Kingdom”, this book will expose the life and lessons of Kim Jong-Il from his own unique perspective.
If truth is stranger than fiction, then what is presented as truth in North Korea is stranger still. From his miraculous birth to breeding giant rabbits, this is the philosophy of the world’s zaniest dictator—as he himself would have it be told.
KIM JONG IL: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Michael Malice (via Laughing Squid)
Vintage Russian Space Race-Posters
Schöne Sammlung oller russischer Space Race Propaganda-Poster: SOVIET SPACE PROPAGANDA POSTERS, 1958-1963
North Korean Society thru Comics
Ich höre grade ein ziemlich spannendes Interview mit Heinz Insu Fenkl, weltweiter Superfuzzi für Comics aus Nordkorea.
The death of Kim Jong-il raises all kinds of questions about North Korea’s famously secretive society. So where can we look to gain insights into North Korea? A good place to start may be its hugely popular comic books.
Heinz Insu Fenkl is an associate professor of English at SUNY, and one of the world’s authorities on North Korean comics. In this NEW and UNCUT interview, Fenkl talks with Steve Paulson about what comic books tell us about North Korean society.
Heinz Insu Fenkl on North Korean Comics, hier das MP3 (via Swen)
Ein paar seiner Comics (leider nicht sehr viele) hat Inzu Fenkl online gestellt (als leider nicht sehr große Scans), das Anti-Bush-Comiccover von „General Loser & the Gnats“ (Bild oben) habe ich aus dem Flickr-Set von Ray Cunningham, mehr zu Heinz Insu Fenkl in alten Artikeln bei Reuters und Slate:
Heinz Insu Fenkl, a professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz who has translated a number of North Korean comics, says they are interesting for the insights they offer into the “psychological infrastructure” of North Koreans: the daily diet of propaganda that conditions even well-educated citizens to love and revere their leaders. Many of the comics also represent a revival of Korean folk culture and history, including retellings of famous episodes from Korea’s dynastic history and the Communists’ heroic struggle against Japanese imperialism. “What the North Koreans are doing in comics is parallel to what South Korea and China are doing in film, which is going back and re-imagining their history,” he says.
Nord-Koreas superstrong Website has a Warcrime-Propaganda-Gallery
Ihr erinnert Euch an die Website der KFA (Korean Friendship Association), die Website mit dem sehr sehr sehr sehr sehr sehr sehr sehr starken HTML-Code? Die haben noch einen ganz anderen Schatz: Eine Galerie voller NK-Propagandabilder, die amerikanische Kriegsverbrechen zeigen: US Crimes Sinchon-Ri Museum. (via One Inch Punch)
What the Spill will kill: Oil Spill Fun (or… maybe not)
(Youtube Direktspill, via Fefe)
(Youtube Direktaustern, via Digg)
John Clarke und Bryan Dawe, zwei australische Kabarettisten, über BP/Arals Ölpest im Golf von Mexiko gefolgt von einem vintage Öl-Propagandavideo, in dem „Wissenschaftler“ Öl in Aquarien voller Austern schütten und nach jahrelangen Studien und harter Schufterei feststellen, „they are happier than ever!“ Yeah, right.
Und wie immer bei dem Thema: Wem das zu „lustig“ war, hier ein Artikel der Newsweek über die Unterwasser-Ölschwaden, die von unabhängigen Wissenschaftlern vor drei Wochen entdeckt wurden, was sowohl BP als auch Regierungssprecher als Lapalie bezeichnet wurde und welche nun aber immer offensichtlicher die tatsächliche Katastrophe darstellen: What the Spill will kill.
What might have been just another oil spill—albeit a bad one—has been transformed into something unprecedented. Even if the containment dome lowered into place late last week continues to siphon off some of the leaking crude, the Deepwater Horizon disaster will enter the record books not for how much but for where: an enormous release of crude oil not only onto vulnerable shorelines and fragile marshes but into the largely unexplored depths of the sea. The consequences for the delicate balance of existence in the vulnerable ecosystems of the gulf, and for the vast cycles of nature that sustain life there and beyond, are as incalculable as they are potentially devastating.
“I’m not too worried about oil on the surface,” says chemist Ed Overton of Louisiana State University. “It’s going to cause very substantial and noticeable damage—marsh loss and coastal erosion and impact on fisheries, dead birds, dead turtles—but we’ll know what that is. It’s the things we don’t see that worry me the most. What happens if you wipe out all those jellyfish down there? We don’t know what their role is in the environment. But Mother Nature put them there for a reason,” and many are in the plumes’ paths.
