Slightly surrealism

From time to time I have been known to write about social realism in literature and the visual arts.* That said, it was still strange last week to see a superabundance of the genre used to decorate the National Military Museum in Cairo. All of it manufactured in North Korea, no less. I can think of a website or two that would have a field day with this information, although the authors are unlikely to visit Cairo anytime soon.

As a motion pictures complement to all this belligerent socialist realism, required viewing was political thriller Al Rahina (2006). I won't spoil the ending for you; cynics might say that the filmmakers manage this all by themselves.

(*See my respective chapters in M.E.Sharpe Library of Franklin D.Roosevelt Studies: Franklin D.Roosevelt and the Shaping of American Political Culture v. 1. and Propaganda: Political Rhetoric and Identity, 1300-2000 (Themes in History).)

The Basics Reloaded

A happy new year to readers of this semi-retired blog is order, but what with work, co-editing a forthcoming issue of Reconstruction, and taking in some half-decent football for a change, I am squeezed like a lemon for time . That said, I still managed to review Philip Hammond's excellent new book.