The Fetish Speaks! reprint

"The Fetish Speaks is a graphic recounting of Karl Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism from the first chapter of Capital. Word bubbles containing direct quotes from Marx are attached to images of commodities. The cover page draws the reader in with an introduction (not in Marx’s words) superimposed over a map of the United States showing a strip of Las Vegas motels and an arrow pointing at Detroit: “It is an enchanted, perverted, topsy-turvy world in which Mr. Capital and Mrs. Land do their ghost walking as social characters and at the same time as mere things.” The cartoon first appeared in Black & Red no. 5. The reprinted version takes the form of a ten-panel accordion-folded brochure. Each panel alternates in color between shades of yellow, pink, and orange. Much of the text in the word bubbles is handwritten or set with a typewriter. A random assortment of commodities “speak” to each other via word bubbles: a toilet, a toilet seat, a bottle of beer, a gun, a refrigerator, bottle caps, cans of Ajax, a car, a vacuum cleaner, tanks, etc. They help to drive home the fantastic range of things that are in conversation with one another through the universal language of money. Some of the objects illustrate Marx’s arguments directly. A table says, “The form of wood ... is altered by making a table out of it.” A chair answers, “Yet, for all that, the table continues to be that common everyday thing, wood.” Later, an upside-down table, explains that, “in relation to all other commodities, it stands on its head.” The brochure includes an illustration of Marx’s famous passage in Capital describing universal equivalence using coats, boots, and linen as examples. Marx’s language is dense and the concepts are difficult to grasp, but it lends itself well to being presented in graphic form." The Detroit Printing Co-op by Danielle Aubert