Last semester, there was a conversation in one of my classes about the use of the term "rape" and the connotations of the word. Then one of my students wrote a paper about the possibility of the swastika ever being a neutral graphic design.
With all this talk about context and content, the new book We Have Ways of Making You Laugh: 120 Funny Swastika Cartoons, by Sam Gross, provides some food for thought.
The Amazon.com page reads:
Swastikas?" you ask. "Funny?"
Well, sometimes funny. Gathered together in this outrageous, rueful, and often poignant collection of cartoons are one artist's extraordinary observations on the range of emotion that the controversial symbol has elicited for more than half a century. These witty, beautifully rendered images gleefully stomp through the darkest moments in history and remind us that humor can diffuse our unspoken fears and deflate an overwrought icon.
You can check the book out here.
