On certain animal representations

Regarding your “party animals” (Metro, July 3), the sculptures of elephants and donkeys remind this Statehood/Green supporter of nothing so much as Andy Warhol’s soup cans.

Of course, the attention being paid to them is to be expected. The Republicans and Democrats are, for instance, up in arms over an uppity San Francisco judge messing with the Pledge of Allegiance -- the principal ritual by which children are inculcated with the ideology which says the Republicans and Democrats have the right to choose the leaders of other peoples and “make mistakes” in bombing their civilians without fear of being subject to the jurisdiction of international institutions. Thus it is natural for the paper of record in their city to publish a piece extolling their symbols -- complete with a map showing the locations of these totems.

Nonetheless, it is kitsch.

Sincerely,

(7/3/02)

[About a month after this, the Washington City Paper did print a letter from me commenting on its regular column “Party Animal Watch,” which ran during the period of the local “arts project” in question. The letter suggested that the statues were separated in space, unlike the case of a hunter/gatherer culture where the clans’ respective totems are arranged vertically in a single line, because Republicans and Democrats like to think that they are different from each other.]

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