Right now I'm reading:

Bullshit Jobs (2018) by David Graeber - I loved Debt but had low expectations for this one and was reluctant to read it (I expected it would just be an extremely padded out version of the essay, which I liked). I'm enjoying it a lot more than I expected, and I'm reminded how skillful graeber was at gently taking a reader along and path that is unambiguously radical, yet each individual step on the path seems casual and reasonable.

Western Marxism (2017) by Domenico Losurdo - it's good. It's Losurdo, if you've read him before this is about the same - very rigorous and orderly arguments that lead to some very powerful insights. I'm only 100 pages in so far but liking it and feel that this new English text might become a vital text once it gets read more widely

Exhalation (2019) by Ted Chiang. Science fiction short stories by one of the best to do it rn. I'm about halfway through, so far I enjoyed his first collection more (Story of Your Life and Others). I liked the first story quite a lot (The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate) but most of the rest of what I've read so has been dominated by one 100 page novella that felt kind of weak for the amount of real estate it takes up. I've heard a few of the later stories are real bangers though so maybe it will balance out.

As for what I'm excited to read next, I'm kind of spinning my wheels a bit. Might do Washington Bullets by Vijay Prishad, or maybe some Strugatsky Brothers. Open to suggestions!

  • MLRL_Commie [comrade/them, he/him]
    ·
    1 month ago

    Rereading Class Struggle by Losurdo. Great book. The first 1/4th is like the perfect position on how class struggle is an inclusive movement, and that those who yell "class reductionist" to Marxists are missing the point. The relationship between struggles is so interesting as presented (and of course, as it really is because Losurdo is a awesome)

    Also reading Decolonial Marxism by Rodney. The pedagogy part has been a powerful insight into one aspect of colonial subjugation

    • MF_COOM [he/him]
      ·
      1 month ago

      I didn't get as much out of Decolonial Marxism as the title promised, as I found a lot of the lectures/essays were about very specific things that you need a deep education of decolonial history to understand.

      There were two essays at the beginning I thought were quite good (and quite similar lol) - I believe they were Marxism and African Liberation and Marxism and Third World Ideology.

      Not familiar with that Losurdo title but it's going on the list thanks for sharing comrade!

      • MLRL_Commie [comrade/them, he/him]
        ·
        1 month ago

        And the Losurdo is possibly my favorite of his. Liberalism, A Counter History was good but I was already anti-Liberal and really deep into theories of Liberalism, so it felt more like just a lot of good examples for arguments than learning tons of new things. And his Stalin book was great, but I think it pails in comparison to Class Struggle. It's just so we'll put together, coherent, and takes people's works in a way which holistically understands the person's philosophy and analyses that I think should be our way forward for historical works. I love it

      • MLRL_Commie [comrade/them, he/him]
        ·
        1 month ago

        Yeah, I definitely can't recite much of Decolonial Marxism between the first few sections up until the pedagogy section. But understanding how the analysis takes a Marxist form of analysis and applies it to a history I'm not familiar enough with was still very useful to me. Seemed like a lot of repeats of "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" at points. But honestly, that book is so good, he shouldve been allowed to write it 5 times in different words, so I can't complain