Bad Taste no. 15: the pathetic fallacy

The scan: sc-n64-sep-21-1978.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

This text was corrected by hand against the scan: the strip at the head of page 14, which the machine reading did not see; image taken from the scan and its lettering transcribed (18 Oct 2026). Number 15 of Cormac's weekly Bad Taste strip: the pathetic fallacy.

page 14 of the scan

Six-panel cartoon strip: two women, labelled "token woman", explain the pathetic fallacy with frowning cliffs, then apply it to the claim that the Labour Party can be transformed into a genuine socialist party. — Cormac, "Bad Taste" no. 15, Socialist Challenge no. 64, 21 September 1978, page 14. From the Marxists Internet Archive scan.

The strip, panel by panel

1. BAD TASTE by Cormac #15.

2. (A woman reading, beside a women's-liberation symbol; a label points to her: "Token woman".) Thinks: "Pathetic fallacy? What is it?"

3. (A second woman, labelled "Another token woman":) "In literature this phrase refers to the attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects, e.g. 'the frowning angry cliffs'."

4. "There are, of course, other possibilities." (Cliffs with frowning faces, labelled "Token cliffs".)

5. (A small figure on a clifftop:) "The Labour Party can be transformed into a genuine socialist party."

6. "Now THERE is a fallacy!" "And pathetic with it!" (A label: "Token [illegible] impact".)