Charlie?

Below is the textbook example of misunderstanding a cartoon.

This morning Dennis Meyhoff Brink, Ph.D. and specializing in religious satire, reviewed Det lille rige med Svovlstikkerne by Adam O. in the weekly Weekendavisen.

Dennis focuses his critique one cartoon in particular on the murdered cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo: Why, the terrorists are nowhere to be seen?! Here is a bird dead from the lack of oxygen, and so are we to conclude that the massacred cartoonists are "reduced to a cute little bird" dying from said lack of oxygen? Apparently so since the terrorists are nowhere to be seen in the drawing, nor in the book as a whole.

This is an instance of a misconceived wish to protect those in presumed less happy circumstances than oneself. The terrorists should and must be exhibited, not sheltered.

Adam O. lacks the guts to speak the truth, with which Dennis sums up his critique.

Adam O., Paris, January 7, 2015.

In other words, Adam is ultimately lying?

Indeed not. Before us is a homage to the cartooning profession.

In fact, this is a portrait of the cartoonist. It may prove dangerous being one, but not so much from the lack of oxygen, but the reason for the lack of it: the poisonous gasses, which at times were released when mining. A canary was used in the coalmines to warn of such poisonous gas leaks. In other words the cartoonist are the sensors of our society.

The terrorists are indeed present as a danger to watch out for. Their visual absence is not about covering for them, as Dennis tries to make a point of. Their deed is as unhealthy, as it leaves us within a sad black density, which has to be reacted upon. Not so much fleeing from the mines in this case, as the disclosure of what they stand for.

The art of the cartoonist is to tell more with less means and in a way not seen before. The rest of us cannot advise nor hint at what they should do. If they were told to include the black clad each and every time, we are left with a new visual fundamentalism.

A major part of the terrorist's job is to be seen. The black clad are everywhere in cartoon art, in fact they are everywhere on this blog, as they well know themselves. Only it is not for them to decide when and how. That is why they oh so detest cartoon art.

The cartoon shown is courtesy of Adam O. and must not be reproduced without his permission.