Mao's Poetry

[Dennis Perrin/Nancy Bauer]

>Mao of course wrote Chinese rather than Latin -- and he happened
>to write quite good poetry in Chinese. So did Ho in Vietnamese
>incidentally.


>Carrol

Yes, yes, and Stalin liked to read several newspapers a day. Years ago I
house-sat for a friend who had some of Mao's poetry, as well as an album of
the music of the Cultural Revolution, and I must say I found it all sterile
agitprop. (Some of the songs were amusing, but all essentially ended
praising the Great Leader as He reached to Heaven.) Around the same time,
C-SPAN televised an RCP celebration of Mao, complete with poetry readings.
Now *that* was hilarious! I wished I'd taped it so I could add a laughtrack
and give it as a gift to friends: "The Maoist Poetry Slam." 

DP