Stahl Web

I was browsing the library shelf today and came upon this fascinating new volume.  The aesthetic is consistent with classical communist propaganda – socialist realism – with a distinctly Asiatic flavor.  I’m actually kind of a sucker for this style, and I caught myself feeling strangely moved by some of the more inspiring imagery in the book.  This is probably why Shepar Fairey’s Obama poster worked as it did – the Cold War behind us and postmodernism leaving us in a lurch, we may be openly susceptible to the realist motif again. (Please don’t read this as my drawing parallels between Kim Jung Il and Obama.)

The image on page 130 of the N. Korean propaganda book is very interesting.  It appears to be from the Cold War, though no date is given.  The caption translates roughly as “The United States truly is the axis of evil.”  Very interesting that the N. Korean government would adopt the same language as Bush, whether it came before or after our own “axis of evil” episode.