Tugged Manfully...

The Girl Protested...

Bill Stuck Out With The Desperation Of Despair

 Bill Stuck Out With The Desperation Of Despair

The Signifier and the Signifired

Saussure stressed that the signifier and the signified were as inseparable as the two sides of a piece of paper. They were ‘intimately linked’ in the mind ‘by an associative link’ – ‘each triggers the other’.

So it’s interesting to consider the slippage between the signified and the signifier, the moment a gun is fired in this drawing, a sketch predating the often-used comedy-sketch-line: ‘Is that a canoe in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?’ 

Semiotics Of Slippage

A certain slippage has taken place in both the form and content of this drawing, the shooting of a child, on a sea-cliff. The canoe has slipped out of the excited young boy’s shorts. The ejaculation of smoke (puff?) clearly signifies the canoe’s deflation and expulsion from the said boy’s shorts – the ‘real’ gunfire (for gun read, enemy penis): penis enemy - colonialist impotence in the face native firepower. The gun – instrument of penetration - his held in a rock-steady hand. The boy holds on to the rock with a steady hand. The sea-canoe – carrier of seamen - is impotent; the boy is about to be holed. But this is only half of a bigger picture.

To be continued...

He Pressed The Trigger

Liberally Ornamented With Grinning Skulls