Thursday, February 16, 2006

Michael Leunig: Fake but True, and True but Fake

Michael Leunig would claim that his notorious cartoon which seeks to draw a perverse Moral Equivalence ("draw" is a moot point here - he can't draw) between deliberate mass murder and armed conflict is merely an example of fake but true. (Sure it's a monstrous fake, but it says something or other... makes a statement.)

The submission of his cartoon to the "mock the holocaust" competition by a person claiming to be Leunig is the other side of the coin to the fake but true justification for the cartoon itself. The submission of the cartoon was an instance of true but fake. The cartoon was a true reflection of Leunig's sentiments (after all, he drew it), but the submission to an anti-semitic holocaust denying competition was fake.

What goes around comes around...

More Leunig:
Michael Leunig - A Portrait of the Artist
The Secret of Michael Leunig's Success