Collage 548

The next 3 collages represent the sickening baseness of war. It is the mayor of Moscow vs. the mob. The mob wants a victim. The mayor gives in. An innocent man is butchered.

At the same time the mayor vents his own anger at himself—at his own cowardliness. Does this cowardliness live in each of us, buried somewhere? I recall The Scarlet Letter and Joan of Arc. Is mob mentality part of our human nature? Does it have to be? -- Christiane

Christiane Carney Johnson
from page 351-352, volume 2 of original text
made 7/23/11
collage
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 886-888