Homage Fail: A New Montblanc Pen
Oct. 5th, 2009 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreI haven't commented on this before because I haven't really been able to identify how I feel about this other than:
1. It's not in line with what the person being honored would have wished.
2. It is cultural appropriation of an icon.
...and yet...
3. There is some money going to a good cause.
4. One aspect of the design completely nails one area he was an innovator in.
5. To my knowledge, it's the first attempt by this company to honor a person of color [update: not born in the west. I own the Obama inauguration pen, doh!].
Please cushion your forehead now....
Ready?
The Montblanc Mahatma Gandhi limited edition pen.
This is a man who owned the following (in addition to his loincloth) at the time of his death:
His two dinner bowls, wooden fork and spoon, the famous porcelain monkeys, his diary, prayer book, watch, spittoon, letter openers and two pair of sandals. (And presumably a pen, though he used only pens made in India, having started the Indian fountain pen industry.)
The design elements honor Gandhi's invention of the charka and invention of the Indian homespun industry (including the homespun Gandhi wore throughout the later part of his life), and I think that part is actually cool. As a pen, it's nice, but overall? No.
That said, they did have consent from a member of the family, Tushar Gandhi, and Montblanc has already given over $145 grand to Gandhi's foundation (and will give more based on sales), which will be used to build schools and housing for rescued child laborers. (Link to Gandhi Foundation here; PayPal link for donations, if you are so inclined and able, is on their home page.)
Here's some other articles about it and the resulting controversy:
BBC news
TheSpec.com One of Gandhi's grandsons, Rajmohan Gandhi, said he was "not pleased" by news of the pen. He spoke last night at McMaster University as part of the Gandhi Peace Festival.
Hindu.com Gandhi: "I have no copyright in my portraits but I am unable to give the consent you require."
Hindu.com on the just-beginning legal controversy.
1. It's not in line with what the person being honored would have wished.
2. It is cultural appropriation of an icon.
...and yet...
3. There is some money going to a good cause.
4. One aspect of the design completely nails one area he was an innovator in.
5. To my knowledge, it's the first attempt by this company to honor a person of color [update: not born in the west. I own the Obama inauguration pen, doh!].
Please cushion your forehead now....
Ready?
The Montblanc Mahatma Gandhi limited edition pen.
This is a man who owned the following (in addition to his loincloth) at the time of his death:
His two dinner bowls, wooden fork and spoon, the famous porcelain monkeys, his diary, prayer book, watch, spittoon, letter openers and two pair of sandals. (And presumably a pen, though he used only pens made in India, having started the Indian fountain pen industry.)
The design elements honor Gandhi's invention of the charka and invention of the Indian homespun industry (including the homespun Gandhi wore throughout the later part of his life), and I think that part is actually cool. As a pen, it's nice, but overall? No.
That said, they did have consent from a member of the family, Tushar Gandhi, and Montblanc has already given over $145 grand to Gandhi's foundation (and will give more based on sales), which will be used to build schools and housing for rescued child laborers. (Link to Gandhi Foundation here; PayPal link for donations, if you are so inclined and able, is on their home page.)
Gandhi "would have been amused that such a lavish and ostentatious pen was being dedicated to him," he said by phone from Amsterdam Friday, where he is attending a human rights conference. "He wouldn't have possessed it."
Here's some other articles about it and the resulting controversy:
BBC news
TheSpec.com One of Gandhi's grandsons, Rajmohan Gandhi, said he was "not pleased" by news of the pen. He spoke last night at McMaster University as part of the Gandhi Peace Festival.
Hindu.com Gandhi: "I have no copyright in my portraits but I am unable to give the consent you require."
Hindu.com on the just-beginning legal controversy.