Simple, handmade
posters in
red ink I saw hanging on the walls of the
humanities building at my school,
Macalester College:
Rebellion is cool.
Cool sells.
Baa . . .
When I first saw the posters on Monday, I thought, "Hmm." On second encounter on Wednesday they amused me. And today, Friday, I began to suspect genius. Let's look at the poster in more depth, shall we?
General circumstances: Who put the posters up? Why is it in the Humanities building? Was it put up by one of the language departments? Linguistics? Humanities & Cultural studies? Or did it come from outside? Are they trying to mock or otherwise address those in the Humanities building? An overflowing fountain of questions.
Rebellion is cool.: Simple, pretty much indisputable. James Dean, teenagers, &c. Depending on the meaning of "Baa...", which I'll explore soon, this part might indicate that "they", the mysterious originators of this poster, have one of a couple different possible meanings in mind. Maybe they're lamenting the cheapening of rebellion by its coolness. Perhaps they're not in favor of rebellion and lamenting that it is popular.
Cool sells.: Also indisputable. Perhaps just an addition to the criticism of the coolness of rebellion. Perhaps a criticism of capitalism. (Hey, I go to a liberal liberal arts college, it's not a stretch).
Baa . . .: This is where it gets interesting. Do they mean "bah", as in "bah humbug", or is it more of a sheep-noise kind of baa? Given the former, it would be a simple criticism: "Yuck. I don't like that. That annoys me. It's stupid." But given the latter... Is the speaker saying that they want to be a timid sheep and not rebel? Or perhaps are they saying that are going to be a sheep that goes along with the crowd and so they are going to rebel? Or perhaps are they making the noise mockingly, implying that those who rebel themselves are sheep?
Curiouser and curiouser. I do hope I can find out who created this poster, but I doubt it. I fear that the mystery may live on, forever . . .