CAKE POLICE

Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk

"Note how Josephine is treated as a celebrity, but NOT fetishized - her admirers are well aware that there is nothing special in her, that she is just one of them. To paraphrase Marx, she thinks people admire her because she is an artist, but in reality she is an artist only because people treat her as such. Here we get an example of how, in a Communist society, the Master-Signifier is still operative, but deprived of its fetishist effect - Josephine's belief in herself is perceived by the people as harmless and rather ridiculous narcissism, and should be gently, but ironically, tolerated and sustained. This is how artists should be treated in a Communist society - they should be praised and flattered, but they should not be given any material privileges like exemption from work or special food ration."