[Marxism] Re: request for resources

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Hello Mr. Proyect,
>
> You have been most helpful to me in the past and I was wondering if you
> could provide me with some direction on the following search.
>
> I am taking a graduate class in 20th Century British Literature.  The
> theme for me seems to  be on the fall of the British Empire and the
> affects of colonialism on various countries.  The last book I read was
> the Mimic Men. I am struck by the sense of isolation the characters in
> these books (Ralph Singh, in particular) experiences as a result of
> feelings of displacement or disconnectness from their homeland.  After
> having read Mimic Men, The Grass is Singing and Look Back In Anger, I am
> troubled that (as Americans) we live such unexamined lives. Our identity
> is not based on where we come from.  Have the prophesies of H.G. Wells
> come true?  Do we exhaust ourselves simply for the rewards of capitalism?
> Do you know of any Americans who have written on this topic?
>
> Once again, thank you for your assistance.
>
> Cathy

Cathy, you raise some interesting questions. I am bcc'ing you and cc'ing
Marxmail just in case list members have their own ideas.

You ask, "Do we exhaust ourselves simply for the rewards of capitalism?
Do you know of any Americans who have written on this topic?"

I am not quite sure if you are looking for fiction or nonfiction, but
here's a couple of suggestions off the top of my head. For my money,
there is no better novel than John Dos Passos's "USA" on this question.
Written during the Great Depression, it is actually more about the 1920s
than the latter period if memory serves me correctly. Just like the USA
of the 1990s bull market, all of the characters are trying to figure out
ways to "make it", including a leftist who succumbs to capitalism's
dubious charms. I would also recommend James T. Farrell's "Studs
Lonigan". Farrell was sympathetic to Trotsky's Marxism, but the novel is
anything but an optimistic vision of workers' struggles onto victory.
The lead character is impervious to capitalism's destructiveness and
remains patriotic just like the sad white working-class men and women
who voted for Bush. Finally, I'd recommend anything by Herman Melville,
whose unique gift was dramatizing the destructive power of capitalism
without really understanding it ideologically. I'd recommend the
short-story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" in particular.

On nonfiction, I'd recommend Tocqueville and Thorston Veblen. I'd also
strongly recommend anything by Edmund Wilson and especially his "Memoirs
of Hecate County", which is a biting satire of the emptiness of upper
middle-class suburbia. Finally, I'd recommend Baran and Sweezy's
"Monopoly Capital", which examines both the obvious structural flaws of
the system, as well as the superstructural aspects that characterize the
sterility of American culture and society.


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