In this age of global struggle for peace and sustainable modes of living for all, the unwary may well greet ?What Does This Say?? with a smile or at least a brief nod of affirmation. One cannot help but come to this book primed with hope: Have progressives committed to achieving a just and equitable society by any means necessary finally found a popular author willing to challenge the oppressive cultural systems that perpetuate the hegemonic discourse of violence and ownership that brutalizes all of humanity? The title coyly suggests that Mr. Keane has indeed joined arms in our struggle by challenging the overbearing constructs of ?author,? ?reader? and even the fictive, pernicious notion of ?book.? Clearly Mr. Keane is asking us to embark on a de-centered, collaborative relationship exploring the pressing question ?What Does This Say??
Yet it soon revealed that the title is itself the grimmest of jokes, the twenty-first century equivalent of ?Arbeit Macht Frei.? Taking stock of Keane?s intellectual forebears, one can only conclude that he is most indebted to Joseph Goebbels, for what is this book if not the embodiment of ?The Big Lie?? Posing as the avatar of innocence, the book is in fact a handbook for global domination. In the panels purporting to represent the circuitous routes of ?children? on their way ?home? we find so brazen a road map for imperialistic adventure that Cecil Rhodes, if he could, would blush. With panels depicting ?grandpa? in ?heaven? Keane takes the intellectual superstructure of global oppression to heights unseen since the dazzling, castrating cathedrals of medieval times. Opiate of the masses, indeed! Contrary to the claims of others insufficiently grounded in critical, revolutionary thinking, ?Ida Know? and ?Not Me? are in fact nothing more than representations of those false leaders who pretend to represent the interests of the people, but are in truth coopted by the very power system they pretend to assail and which uses these pawns to sow doubt and confusion in the minds of workers struggling to make a living in this poisonous system of radical redistribution of wealth from the people to the plutocrats (e.g., Ida Know why Big Pharma sold toxic chemicals as ?medicine? that killed ?grandpa,? but don?t worry, now he?s in ?heaven.?) Yet what is most shocking is that Keane does this not to raise revolutionary consciousness but rather to dull the minds of the oppressed and in this regard his work is best analogized to alcohol. For those interested in pursuing this avenue further, I highly recommend ?How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic? by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart.
As for Mr. Keane and his ilk, take heed. When the revolution comes, all that is solid will indeed melt in the air! In closing, I must stress that this review pertains only to the hardcover edition.
