You may have seen the two monstrous and very boring bronze statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il unveiled recently in Pyongyang, North Korea, to commemorate Kim Il Sung's 100th birthday (CLICK). The happy, grinning faces of the statues belied the fact that North Korea's centenary rocket launch had come a cropper. You may have missed the equestrian statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il unveiled a few weeks ago, also in Pyongyang (title link). This is Mansudae Art Studio's farcical attempt to turn father and son into Genghis Khan and Napoleon, a spurious Eurasian historical heritage. Great horses, but I'll bet neither tyrant ever rode a horse in his life. No matter. It's the heroic myth, the personality cult, that matters. They had to give the massed ranks of North Korean officers straining under their weight of medals something to salute. Myth is preferable to reality when people are starving.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Equestrian Kims
You may have seen the two monstrous and very boring bronze statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il unveiled recently in Pyongyang, North Korea, to commemorate Kim Il Sung's 100th birthday (CLICK). The happy, grinning faces of the statues belied the fact that North Korea's centenary rocket launch had come a cropper. You may have missed the equestrian statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il unveiled a few weeks ago, also in Pyongyang (title link). This is Mansudae Art Studio's farcical attempt to turn father and son into Genghis Khan and Napoleon, a spurious Eurasian historical heritage. Great horses, but I'll bet neither tyrant ever rode a horse in his life. No matter. It's the heroic myth, the personality cult, that matters. They had to give the massed ranks of North Korean officers straining under their weight of medals something to salute. Myth is preferable to reality when people are starving.
