I just can’t believe how serendipity has played out here, in providing me with such a fitting subject for my first manifesto review - the Manifesto of the Cloud Appreciation Society. I do love clouds myself, so I suppose my review cannot hope to be even vaguely impartial, but neither vaguery nor impartiality has a place in the unique mode of rhetorical expression that is the manifesto, so I hardly think their lack can be felt much in the review (allowing of course for the ultimate irony: a manifesto declaring in favour of impartiality). Taking a vaguely parodical tone, the Cloud Appreciation Society’s manifesto manages to be both vague and partial, without being blatant about either. But then, we would hardly expect the cloud loving folk of the Cloud Appreciation Society to be blatant about anything, would we.
So here goes.
The manifesto is a tight one, in point form – six points to be exact, or six plumes if you like, since clouds aren’t often pointy creatures. These are separated by cute, whimsical cloud dingbats – making an important visual statement I think – and range from pledges to defend clouds, to phrases in recognition of their beauty, to deliberations on the advantages they offer in practical terms to those who watch them (saving on psychoanalysis bills). It is a rather poetic manifesto, without being weighted down with too much high falutin’ language, while its organisation of content is random enough to evoke the sensation of cloud watching itself. Its tone builds beautifully, starting with tongue in cheek solemnity, and ending with a rousing exhortation, to “look up” and live with one’s “head in the clouds”.
It does a nice job of identifying the enemy – specifically, the tendency to exhibit “blue-sky thinking”, but overall it has a tone of reparation, and is predominantly peaceful in approach – one might, if one happened to be having a ‘blue sky’ sort of moment, expect to be gently encouraged to reflect rather on the benefits of clouds, not mocked or harassed loudly into line. So, I would say, a highly successful, multi layered manifesto. Light, contemplative, far reaching without over reaching, and clearly defined, like a cumulo nimbus.
