Re: [OPE-L] Bloody Capital and Dead Labour Cultural Studies or the Critique of Political Economy? By Mark Neocleous

[Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The point remains that Neocleous emphasizes (and insists)
that he has clarified the meaning of the vampire
metaphor--that capital is undead as it appropriates
the sensuous energy of living labor. Your vampire
comment in 1996 is long way off from that. I am worried
that Neocleous' idea entered OPE-L discussion without
any acknowledgement. Whether you or someone else is responsible
(and someone else may be responsible)
is of no importance; what is of more importance is we
insist upon proper acknowledgements in this forum.
Especially when a thinker of importance is insisting that
he has contributed this very idea. Which is more than an example
or a throwaway comment but at the very heart of a major article
and even a book.
I hope you see my point.
Rakesh


>  > >Who "appropriated" Neocleous's interpretation?
> >  Who referred to capital as undead? That would be
> >  the answer to your question.
>
> Rakesh,
>
> The answer to the question is that no one did anything improper
> on the list re Neocleous -- except you.  In your haste to post
> his article, you did not take note of his stipulation that:
>
> "Electronic copies of this paper may not be posted on any
> other website without express permission of the author."
>
> Your careless action has meant that I (and possibly Allin
> and Hans) might have to clean up the mess you created
> since when you posted his article it meant that it was
> automatically archived on the 'ricardo' and 'utah' servers.
> Please try to be more careful next time. Thank you.
>
> ===================================
>
> To repeat (and for the record),
>
> I never saw Neocleous's "Blood Capital and Dead Labour"
> paper until you recently posted it on OPE-L.
>
> I was unaware of his _History of Political Thought_  article
> until a few days ago and still haven't seen a copy.  The
> abstract, which is online and I read the other day, says very
> little about the content of his paper.
>
> I only became aware of anything Neocleous wrote on this
> subject on November 4 when I received a post from Andrew
> Chitty sent to the mps list concerning MN's book
> _The Monstrous and the Dead_.  That same day I forwarded
> that announcement to OPE-L.
>
> I have referred to vampires,  the undead and Marx on OPE-L
> going at least as far back as May, 1996.  As I explained
> previously, the idea that labour is undead using the vampire
> metaphor only makes sense if capital is posited as vampiric
> and hence also undead.
>
> ***I have done ABSOLUTELY nothing improper and I strongly
> resent any suggestions to the contrary.***
>
> ======================================
>
> ***If there is anyone on the list _other than Rakesh_ who believes
> that there has been even an iota of evidence put forward  that I have
> acted improperly, _please_  speak up. If not,  then let us move on to
> discuss other topics.***
>
> In solidarity, Jerry