RE: [MAPC-discuss] MAPC Logo Design -- Graphics, Symbolism, and

RE: [MAPC-discuss] MAPC Logo Design -- Graphics, Symbolism, and

born-digital

email

yes

no

2001-11-13

X sed...
Thanks for this history of the peace symbol, X.

We need to know our history.  As X said this weekend, the most
radical idea in the world is a long memory.

> Gerald Holtom, a conscientious objector who had worked on a farm in
Norfolk
> during the Second World War, explained that the symbol incorporated the
> semaphore letters N(uclear) and D(isarmament).

***
I'd just add that Holtom's broader description has a deeper more fundamental
appeal and probably captures, on a subliminal level, the imagination of
those of us who who find power in the symbol:  "Gerald Holtom, a
conscientious objector who had worked on a farm in Norfolk
during the Second World War, explained that the symbol incorporated the
semaphore letters N(uclear) and D(isarmament). He later wrote to Hugh Brock,
editor of Peace News, explaining the genesis of his idea in greater, more
personal depth:

"I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an
individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards
in the manner of Goyas peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the
drawing into a line and put a circle round it."

"X added his own interpretation of the design: 'the gesture of
despair had long been associated with the death of Man and the circle with
the unborn child.'"

-fp-


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Tuesday, November 13, 2001 7:25 AM

RE: [MAPC-discuss] MAPC Logo Design -- Graphics, Symbolism, and