Life, 1921-01-06 · page 17 of 44
Life — January 6, 1921 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes pretentious literary criticism and self-aggrandizing intellectuals. The main cartoon depicts a pompous man in bohemian dress (flowing hair, unconventional clothing) holding forth to admiring women about a bestselling book called *The Surplus*. The joke: he's the book's author, yet he lectures others on what it "really means" while admitting he writes without understanding his own work. The satire mocks critics who pontificate about books they haven't truly grasped, and authors who use pseudo-intellectual authority to impress audiences. A secondary joke references "Diogenes" (the ancient philosopher seeking an honest man) with a lawyer's joke—suggesting even honest men are hard to find in legal circles. The bottom note about Lloyd George and Sylvia Pankhurst appears to be separate political commentary, likely mocking British politics of the period, though context for this reference is unclear from the page alone.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
4 Lar S i a if Zz Zi “ISN’T HE RATHER UNSCRUPULOUS?” “1 SHOULD SAY So. The Better Way i lie: drawing-room had the emptiness of a new ice box. Empty except that on one side a man was tied up in a knot of women of all ages and dimensions. They were not on their knees and not lurning incense, but the effect was the same. The sort of evening dress on the tall, powerful figure palpably proclaimed i protest against all existing social con- ditions. His profuse gray hair, having its source at his forehead and flowing onto his collar, was a revolt against all pres- ent standards. “T will concede,” he announced, “ that the writer of The Surplus has covered some three hundred and cighty printed pages with one hundred and twenty-five thousand words or more. I wish to be en- tirely fair. In what he writes, however, he has no understanding at all of what he has written. Of course, I am able to tell you exactly what he really means——”" I was aware that the speaker was re- FEELING REMORSE.” ferring to a book which, at the time was making a great stir and selling into the hundreds of I should have listened further, if 1 had not discovered a thousands. Diogenes: 1 SEEK AN HONEST MAN, “you’RE ON TIE WRONG TRAIL. THAT THIS 1S THE LAWYERS’ NUMBER? DON’T You KNow /MONneeY Tn} ails | il jE NU a ili li Ht iy IF HE WERE TO REFORM, HE'D HAVE TO PUT IN OVERTIME slight gentleman standing alone otograph. I said. “ Who is small, by a table looking at a p beg your pardon,” t The famous critic,” he answered read- ily, and went on to supply me with many interesting particulars. “He is giving them his opinion of The Surplus.” “The great book of the year,” I com- mented with conviction. He smiled pleasantly. “I am greatly beholden to you,” I con- tinued, “for your information, May I ask to whom I am indebted ——?” He smiled again. “Oh,” he said, of The Surpass % I am only the author Do not write a book, Talk about one. LOYD GEORGE optimistically assures a troubled world that “things are coming out all right.” Well, nerhaps—if Sylvia Pank- hurst Joses her pep. comicbooks.com