The mimophant mentality
It’s a story that is dead but won’t lie down. Egyptian Sandmonkey reports that the Syndicate of Egyptian Cartoonists now strikes back “as a response to those who fell under the thrall of racism, forgery and crime.”
The somewhat tardy riposte ran as a spread in Al Fagr — the newspaper which, as Sandmonkey revealed back in February, was the first outside Denmark to republish the doodles from Hell. Unsurprisingly, several of the counter-cartoons trot out the good ol’ Evil Joos:
Well, what to say? Classy.
Arthur Koestler’s neologism ‘mimophant’ clearly applies to the folks behind this: they combine the robustness of a mimosa with the delicate tact of an elephant. But in the same breath to cry up about racism is, I’m afraid, outright pathological.
One more thing, to both the hapless Danish draughtsmen (still with police protection, sadly) and these Egyptians: it is possible to be hard-hitting, elegant and witty all at once. Actually many cartoonists manage to, including my award-winning compatriot Finn Graff at Dagbladet. Here, for instance, is Graff on mandatory religious education in kindergartens:
On the mindset of Ayatollah Khomeini:
On neo-colonialism:
Just saying.
I’m a very big fan of chess, so much so that I don’t see it as just a game. It is one of the greatest creations of man. Just over a year ago I started writing a book of how chess relates to life, I started of by ignoring chess ethics of play and other authors theories of chess/life so I could get my own theories and feelings on paper in its purest form. 3 months ago I put my book on hold so I could dedicate my time to research and since then I’ve been studying books dedicated to Bobby Fischer and books which look into the history of chess along with whatever catches my eye, my thoguhts. Through this research I’ve been drawn into this world of amazingly talented and intellegent people who are the real power behind the development of the human race, people of reason, understanding, and open thought. I don’t class myself among those, I’ve even had to order a more detailed dictionary to help me understand some of the words they use. Which brings me on to the images and text I’ve seen here, in ‘Bobby Fischer goes to war’ Arthur Koestler describes Bobby as a mimophant. The same word you use to describe very different people to him, I am not saying your choice of words are wrong as I barely just learnt what it means but I must learn more about these pictures and the artists (only the last 3). I want to understand more of the reason behind these I feel it is connected to my research somehow. I know this sin’t the sort of thing you’d expect from the comments section and just had no other way of contacting you.
Comment by Alex — January 26, 2008 @ 6:44 am