Now available in Print and on Kindle (Free on Kindle Unlimited)
Julian Lake's The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Follies: Cartoons about an epidemic of lies. Now in print or on Kindle and free on Kindle Unlimited.
The title of this collection of cartoons by Julian Lake was inspired by the The March of Folly, a stunning work by the late Barbara Tuchman. To try and explain why certain political disasters in history have occurred, Tuchman uses the very apt construct of "folly," which she defines as the "pursuit of policy contrary to the self-interest of the constituency or state involved." Tuchman analyzes four periods in history that are characterized by enormous folly. Julian Lake's collection is in many ways about a fifth example of such a phenomenon. Surely the last two decades in which so-called "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" has been called "mysterious" over and over in a cult-like manner (and in the manner of the Big Lie) qualifies as another period of egregious folly. Anyone who has read the lucid journalism of Neenyah Ostrom and Hillary Johnson on "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" knows precisely what this is alluding to. And if you don't know, you should find out, lest you be caught aiding and abetting this great folly. That an epidemic as serious as "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome," and so obviously connected to the AIDS epidemic, could be treated to this very day as a "mystery" by the government, by researchers, by the media, and even by most of the patients, has not reduced Julian Lake to tears, for like most humorists, this great tragedy--and folly--is at times, downright funny. Morbid maybe, perhaps dark, and maybe of the gallows school of comedy, but still funny. Julian Lake has tried to capture the folly of two decades of an obvious Chronic Fatigue Syndrome coverup in a manner that is surprisingly three-dimensional, given his hostility to the medical establishment that has been playing deadly political games with CFS. While trying to use humor to capture the horrific plight of CFS patients, in Julian Lake’s democratically mischievous world view, some of the CFS patients have themselves become little emperors without you-know-what. In this collection of cartoons, Julian Lake has given us a rich universe of CFS folly. Unless your easily offended and suffer from CFS political correctness (a new CFS symptom?), don't be afraid to enter Julian Lake’s zany world and have a few laughs. After all, laughter boosts your immune system. And maybe from a political viewpoint, the best antidote to folly is humor.
The title of this collection of cartoons by Julian Lake was inspired by the The March of Folly, a stunning work by the late Barbara Tuchman. To try and explain why certain political disasters in history have occurred, Tuchman uses the very apt construct of "folly," which she defines as the "pursuit of policy contrary to the self-interest of the constituency or state involved." Tuchman analyzes four periods in history that are characterized by enormous folly. Julian Lake's collection is in many ways about a fifth example of such a phenomenon. Surely the last two decades in which so-called "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" has been called "mysterious" over and over in a cult-like manner (and in the manner of the Big Lie) qualifies as another period of egregious folly. Anyone who has read the lucid journalism of Neenyah Ostrom and Hillary Johnson on "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" knows precisely what this is alluding to. And if you don't know, you should find out, lest you be caught aiding and abetting this great folly. That an epidemic as serious as "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome," and so obviously connected to the AIDS epidemic, could be treated to this very day as a "mystery" by the government, by researchers, by the media, and even by most of the patients, has not reduced Julian Lake to tears, for like most humorists, this great tragedy--and folly--is at times, downright funny. Morbid maybe, perhaps dark, and maybe of the gallows school of comedy, but still funny. Julian Lake has tried to capture the folly of two decades of an obvious Chronic Fatigue Syndrome coverup in a manner that is surprisingly three-dimensional, given his hostility to the medical establishment that has been playing deadly political games with CFS. While trying to use humor to capture the horrific plight of CFS patients, in Julian Lake’s democratically mischievous world view, some of the CFS patients have themselves become little emperors without you-know-what. In this collection of cartoons, Julian Lake has given us a rich universe of CFS folly. Unless your easily offended and suffer from CFS political correctness (a new CFS symptom?), don't be afraid to enter Julian Lake’s zany world and have a few laughs. After all, laughter boosts your immune system. And maybe from a political viewpoint, the best antidote to folly is humor.
