A Rake's Progress

Watching Iron Giant for the first time last night (loved it) made me think of William Hogarth's wonderful series of engravings, A Rake's Progress. For one, the little boy in Iron Giant is named Hogarth Hughes and, secondly, Iron Giant has a not-so-thinly veiled anti-war message. In A Rake's Progress, the antihero begins his journey as a wealthy heir, but money can't buy him the intellect he needs to circumnavigate the various temptations available to fashionable society. After wreaking havoc and succumbing to aristocratic vices, he is subsequently arrested for debt and winds up in Bedlam. While Hogarth (1697 - 1764) was tackling leadership in 18th c. England, it doesn't take much of a leap to apply it to our current perilous situation.