Frank Miller on "That old piece of cloth" Frank Miller recently spoke on NPR's "This I believe," a series that shares personal insights in 2 minute essays. His offers particular interest simply because he's one of modern comics’ most acclaimed creators on patriotism and the flag. Also, this coming on the heels fifth anniversary of September 11th, 2001 was no doubt intentional, and has me pondering taking a look back at Miller’s work and his use of the American flag as an icon and symbol in his work, both before and after 9/11.

An excerpt from his essay:

Both of my parents were World War II veterans. FDR-era patriots. And I was exactly the age to rebel against them.

It all fit together rather neatly. I could never stomach the flower-child twaddle of the '60s crowd and I was ready to believe that our flag was just an old piece of cloth and that patriotism was just some quaint relic, best left behind us.

It was all about the ideas. I schooled myself in the writings of Madison and Franklin and Adams and Jefferson. I came to love those noble, indestructible ideas. They were ideas, to my young mind, of rebellion and independence, not of idolatry.

But not that piece of old cloth. To me, that stood for unthinking patriotism. It meant about as much to me as that insipid peace sign that was everywhere I looked: just another symbol of a generation's sentimentality, of its narcissistic worship of its own past glories.

Click Here for the full essay and an mp3 version.  ¶   0 comments