Half way through Capital, aided by David Harvey’s reading Capital class on YT and the Reading Capital with Comrades podcast.
Just started in Athe Making of Global Capital by Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin
Also just read an article called Why Class Matters by Lillian Cicerchia which I can’t recommend highly enough . Link:
https://www.academia.edu/49996564/Why_Does_Class_Matter_final_
Nice! Was just about to start Capital myself, would you recommend both those David Harvey lectures and the podcast as guides?
Definitely! They have different views on certain interpretations and highlight different parts of the text. As for the Harvey stuff, there are two classes online. If you want to pick one I’d advise going for the most recent one. I try to do both as even there different parts of the text get highlighted. Good for you for getting into it! They all have introduction episodes that are supposed to set you up for starting.
If you ever feel like you’re struggling with an idea, or just want to bounce some thoughts off of someone, you are very welcome to DM me!
Nice, thanks so much! Was a bit unsure because I’d seen some people criticising Havrey for minsunderstanding parts of Capital, but his lectures look super helpful. Guess the best thing to do is to get a couple of interpretations from multiple places like youve done. Keen to dive in!
I mean, you'll find criticism of everyone. No one knows what interpretation is "the correct one" and frankly, thinking like that doesn't seem very Marxist to me. I've seen someone on here call Harvey a radlib for pointing out the contradiction that if capitalism would fall today, that would mean the global supply chain would break down and millions would die of starvation. I find that kind of vampire castle attitude very distasteful. You can't tell me Harvey misunderstood. He gave this class every year since like 1970. You can argue about the way he sees things. Sure. I mean, I don't always agree with what he says, but that is all together a different story. So yeah, dive in! See if you jive with what he says. If not, that will also help make clear in your head what your own position is and why. It's win-win!
I have been sucked into the fantasy lands of Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. I’m like a week before grad school so I wanted some fun reading and this has hit the spot.
A colleague and friend gifted me some sociology books and his own book on the Iranian diaspora in Texas. I’ll list them later (I’m on the road).
Love you all and have a great weekend!
Still Jakarta Method. Internet is too distracting and I can't get a good reading pace.
i am reading a book my teacher wrote for his phd about the book Ästhetik by György Lukács which is an marxist analisys of art and aesthetics (we are reading the book my teacher wrote instead of the real deal because there is no portuguese version of these fucking books) and also i was reading property speculation a novel from italo calvino which is about a leftist trying to sell a house and being forced to deal with the all consuming real state market, which are just really interesting reads if you are both a leftist and into art or architecture or urbanism
Debt by Graeber and The Origin of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins-Wood
While I knew beforehand that I would love Debt, I'm especially proud of my progress in The Origin of Capitalism. I had been rather intimidated by it when I previewed a random page and found tons of technical sounding economics terms, but I feel like my brain is def getting bigger by persevering. Even though it's not written emotionally at all I still find myself getting so sad for my ancestors, who in my imagination were the peasants that protested the Enclosures, the violation of ~ancient rights~ to communal lands and to the ~means of subsistence~. As shown in Caliban and the Witch, the peasant masses understood very well that new social order or ~social property relations~ was bad for them.
Started reading Capital, slowly gone through the first 2 chapters (which I think are the hardest) and i'm taking a break at chapter 3. Started reading "Age of Revolution" by hobsbawm and I'm also reading the Books of Earthsea for a more "non-theory" read and it's great.
that looks like my reading tbr back in 2019-2020 you will enjoy all of them. Although i never quite finished Honsbawmn cause of grad school
Daša Drndić's Trieste. It's this docu-fiction account of bystanders during the Holocaust in Northern Italy and it's haunting. Really wonderful prose that jumps around from the very particular of her made up characters to the general of a history book, dreamlike in its descriptions. I recommend it.
Just read the first fifth of 'Native Son' by Richard Wright. I don't think I've ever read anything that better captures how a lot of woke white people (can) still fetishize people of color. It made my skin crawl! It's also a really well-realized psychological novel.
If you want some wonderful poems, Wright wrote a really superb collection of haikus when in exile in France that I recommend!
Gene Wolfe’s The Shadow of the Torturer. I ‘read’ it once, but that was before I learned to take it slower and think. (Thanks, school system.)
It’s good and there’s a ton of detail that I’d missed. Would recommend the series, the old mass market paperback copies are very cheap online.
Felt like reading something medium length so I've been checking out this blog https://gowans.blog
pretty much the same takes as you get on hexbear, but with more elaboration and sources
@bubbalu it’s what are you reading time!
And yes I will post a comic books reading thread during the week.
