When I look at the Soviet Union—mocking the cheap, ostentatious Western way of life with their posters—and at North Korea, which banned slang and denim in the name of purification—I can’t help but smile.

 When I look at the Soviet Union—mocking the cheap, ostentatious Western way of life with their posters—and at North Korea, which banned slang and denim in the name of purification—I can’t help but smile. And they reciprocate. Only the three of us know what lies beneath these smiles—inevitably three, because only we “know.” If any witness were to intrude among us, the sacred atmosphere would be violated—desecrated by morality and the media alike. Our smiles are meant to occur in dark, underground spaces, not under the spotlight of foreigners.