An alt.politics.socialism.trotsky reply to "The Big Clock"

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 I found this article fascinating. One of my favorite writers is Jim
Thompson. A high school drop out he worked as a powder monkey on Texas
oil wells for a while where he became acquainted with the IWW. Later he
joined the CPUSA. As a member of the CP in Oklahoma during the 30s and
40s he was a close associate with Woody Guthrie and Louis L'Amour and a
key figure in the Oklahoma chapter of the Federal Writers Project which
in Oklahoma City was dominated by  members of the CP. After comming to
California in the early 40s he wrote some of the darkest novels ever
written during the late 50s and early 60s. Among his best works were
*The Killer Inside Me*, *A Swell Looking Babe*, *Savage Night*, *The
Getaway*, *Recoil*, *The Grifters*, and *Pop. 1060.* *The Killer Inside
Me* was the first novel to be narrated from the point of view of a
psychotic, a device that became very popular later on. Except for his
first and largely autobiographical novel, *Now and On Earth* his
political views are difficult to discern in his work. Most of the
characters in his books are thouroughly unsympathetic and he has no
happy endings. The miserable condition of humanity expressed in his
work appears more innate than the result of capitalist exploitation.
After all, serial killers, scam artists, grifters, corrupt law
enforcemnt officials and politicians, etc. all existed in large
quantities in the USSR during its entire existence.

J. Otto Pohl


Louis Proyect
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