Louis-Ferdinand Céline:

"Since we are nothing but packages of tepid, half-rotted viscera, we shall always have trouble with sentiment.”

W H Auden:

"But in my arms till break of day / Let the living creature lie. / Mortal, guilty, but to me/ The entirely beautiful."

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

damn robin!

Artist: Peter Arno Published in New Yorker in April 1930

This picture is perhaps most incisive anti-war commentary I saw in such a small space. Although scene is of a film shooting, its panoramic setting gives an impression of an impending battle.

And then you see a small battle that is already pitched!. A robin has held up the shooting and film crew is throwing stones and using other means to shoo it away. Once robin flies away, guns will boom and shooting will start.

Peace is so fragile.

It indeed was in 1930. Mankind's worst war was going to rage in less than a decade.