INTRODUCTION
by MIKHAIL GORBACHEV
TRANSLATED BY KALEVI LEONOF
When presented with the material that was to be the contents of this cartoon book, I was at once surprised and amused. The thin cat Bill and his companion Opus the Arctic Bird were not the usual heroes of American literature! But upon reconsideration, I am not so surprised.
I have read several American books, including Huckleberry Finn by the southern writer Mark Twain. The themes of the lone individual in his struggle with the imposed injustices of his oppressors has been dealt with extensively in such works. Indeed, it is in the relationship between Opus and Bill that I also see a parallel situation with Huckleberry Finn and the escaping Negro slave-laborer Jim. Both Bill and the slave Jim have experienced the social degradations of a system unresponsive to the particular needs of its citizens. Both characters are forced to turn to rely on others—saviors as such—to deliver them from the consequences of an injust situation. When Opus the Bird explains to his friend Bill that he is probably being exploited by his new romantic companion UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, we can readily see a similar struggle when Huckleberry saved the slave Jim from drowning in the great Mississippi river.
The dialectics of Bloom County are such: the more oppressive and dangerous is the situation, the more we need the warm embrace of others. I salute and warmly recommend this cartoon book to all Americans, especially those “drowning in the great Mississippi river,” as it were.
It is here where I must be forthright and admit that the publishers of this volume have successfully appealed to my schoolboy vanity by requesting a modest “doodle” cartoon. As the reader will plainly detect, the Pentagon will be.sad to see that I will not be leaving my governmental duties for a new career in the art profession anytime soon!
WASHINGTON, D.C.
December 8, 1987
p. [5]
