Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 19

Behind the Irony Curtain
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would argue that it was Las Vegas that went crazy, first in its original
conspicuous excesses and later in its over-reaction to this brazen reminder of
them.
Finding Lenin’s missing head in a thrift shop is also an event of
considerable ironic proportions. At first glance, a thrift shop seems an
appropriate place for Lenin, not a reversal of expectations; after all, he is the
hero of the downtrodden masses reduced to scrounging among the discarded
possessions of the elite in order to survive. A closer look at the thrift shop/swap
meet phenomenon of today, however, indicates that these emporia no longer
function exclusively—in some cases, even primarily—as dispensaries of
necessities for the poor. Quite the contrary, they have become treasure troves
frequented by the well-to-do in search of bargains. Collectors comb through the
secondhand stalls searching for everything from vintage fashions to Barbie
dolls, from Coke memorabilia to Fiestaware, in their bourgeois ardor to acquire
more unnecessary material possessions—at discount prices.
Yet another example of situational irony involves the disposition of
Lenin’s head after it was found in the thrift shop. Frozen in a block of ice and
entombed in a freezer locker, Lenin’s face is a haunting reminder of those
doomed detractors who rejected his ideology and were exiled to Siberia where
the temperatures can be much colder than -10 degrees.
One must also consider this entire narrative within the context of
Lenin’s own writings. For example, in his 1917 essay, “State and Revolution,”
Lenin criticized the oppressing classes for having converted Marx into a
“harmless icon” and “for robbing his theoiy of its substance, blunting its
revolutionary edge, and vulgarizing it.”47 Is it not ironic that while trying to
restore the fighting edge of Marx, without realizing it, Lenin thus prophetically
sketched his own eventual fate? But surely he would never have guessed his
denouement in Las Vegas.
Lenin's position on public art provides yet another ironic twist. In a
1917 treatise, “On the Monuments of the Republic,” Lenin insisted that art under
socialism should no longer serve the elite of society, “those suffering from
boredom and obesity,” but rather it should serve to glorify the laboring people.
Especially important to Lenin were “the statues—be they busts or bas reliefs of
figures and groups.” These statues were not to be made of marble, bronze or
granite; on the contrary, they were to be extremely modest in their production
and should take advantage of cheap and readily available materials such as
plaster. Lenin felt that these works should react to the moment and, above all,
should not be permanent.48 How ironic that the hotel, in caving to the anti-Lenin
protesters, simultaneously followed Lenin's own directive. The relatively cheap
gypsum and plaster statue proved easy to behead and thus clearly met the
standard (which is also the mantra of Las Vegas, where buildings are imploded
rather than being remodeled) put forth by Lenin himself: “Let all things be
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temporary.