re: Historical Materialism

[NIBS <nibs@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've never seen this journal. But the fact that the editorial board
includes China Mieville
makes me want to look out for it. He's a British science-fiction writer and
an SWP member, who recently came to Melbourne for the Writers Festival. A
very strange clash of cultures ensued, when the festival organisers had him
on panels with no-nothing Australian writers explaining how they, just,
like, think up these ideas and, like, bang 'em down on the page, while
China gave a theorised account of how he understood the interaction between
his fiction and his politics.
Anyway, his books are fantastic (particularly liked Perdido Street
Station). It would be a great thing if a few more marxists could engage
with forms like sf that actually have a mass audience.

Jeff


Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read (1 of 5)
By China Miéville
(Added 23 January 2002.)
This is not a list of the "best" fantasy or SF. There are huge numbers of
superb works not on the list. Those below are chosen not just because of
their quality -- which though mostly good, is variable -- but because the
politics they embed (deliberately or not) are of particular interest to
socialists. Of course, other works -- by the same or other writers -- could
have been chosen: disagreement and alternative suggestions are welcomed. I
change my own mind hour to hour on this anyway.
Iain M. Banks -- Use of Weapons (1990)
Socialist SF discussing a post-scarcity society. The Culture are "goodies"
in narrative and political terms, but here issues of cross-cultural guilt
and manipulation complicate the story from being a simplistic utopia.
Edward Bellamy -- Looking Backward, 2000 - 1887 (1888)
A hugely influential, rather bureaucratic egalitarian/naïve communist
utopia. Deals very well with the confusion of the "modern" (19th Century)
protagonist in a world he hasn't helped create (see Bogdanov).
Alexander Bogdanov -- The Red Star: A Utopia (1908; trans. 1984)
This Bolshevik SF sends a revolutionary to socialist Mars. The book's been
criticized (with some justification) for being proto-Stalinist, but overall
it's been maligned. Deals well with the problem faced by someone trying to
adjust to a new society s/he hasn't helped create (see Bellamy).
Emma Bull & Steven Brust -- Freedom & Necessity (1997)
Bull is a left-liberal and Brust is a Trotskyist fantasy writer. F&N is set
in the 19th Century of the Chartists and class turmoil. It's been described
as "the first Marxist steampunk" or "a fantasy for Young Hegelians."
Mikhail Bulgakov -- The Master & Margarita (1938; trans. 1967)
Astonishing fantasy set in '30s Moscow, featuring the Devil, Pontius
Pilate, The Wandering Jew, and a satire and critique of Stalinist Russia so
cutting it is unbelievable that it got past the censors. Utterly brilliant.
Katherine Burdekin (aka "Murray Constantine") -- Swastika Night (1937)
An excellent example of the "Hitler Wins" sub-genre of SF. It's unusual in
that it was published by the Left Book Club and it was written while Hitler
was in power, so the fear of Nazi future was immediate.
Octavia Butler -- Survivor (1978)
Black American writer, now discovered by the mainstream after years of
acclaim in the SF field. Kindred is her most overtly political novel, the
Patternmaster series the most popular. Survivor brilliantly blends genre SF
with issues of colonialism and racism.
Julio Cortázar -- "House Taken Over" (1963?)
A terrifying short story undermining the notion of the house as sanctity
and refuge. A subtle destruction of the bourgeois oppositions between
public/private and inside/outside.
Philip K. Dick -- A Scanner Darkly (1977)
Could have picked almost any of his books. Like all of them, this deals
with identity, power, and betrayal, here tied in more directly to social
structures than in some other works (though see Counter-Clock World and The
Man in the High Castle). Incredibly moving.
Thomas Disch -- The Priest (1994)
Utterly savage work of anti-clericalism. A work of dark fantasy GBH against
the Catholic Church (dedicated, among others, to the Pope?)
Gordon Eklund -- All Times Possible (1974)
Study of alternative worlds, including an examination of hypothetical
Left-wing movements in alternative USAs.




Jeff Sparrow
Coordinator
New International Book Co-operative
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who say George Bush him don't have no aim
a search fi Bin Laden and searching in vain
now them waan turn it pon saddam hussein
so me find out say this is an oil game
find out say Babylon a use dem brain
righteousness the ghetto youths sustain

Capleton



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