Thursday, May 26, 2016

Thirsty doll


[“Thirsty doll drinking milk.” Photograph by Bernard Hoffman. March 1950. Life Photo Archive.]

This doll is drinking what Roland Barthes calls “the true anti-wine”:

Wine is mutilating, surgical, it transmutes and delivers; milk is cosmetic, it joins, covers, restores. Moreover, its purity, associated with the innocence of the child, is a token of strength, of a strength which is not revulsive, not congestive, but calm, white, lucid, the equal of reality.

“Wine and Milk,” in Mythologies , trans. Annette Lavers (New York: Noonday Press, 1972).
Related reading
All OCA Barthes posts

comments: 2

Chris said...

Nothing is more sinister than a doll. You should check out Peter Blegvad's Milk Museum, especially the essay

MILK – A Full Immersion For Thirsty Minds. Blegvad is a confessed milk-obsessive.

Michael Leddy said...

Yikes! Thanks, Chris.