Fiction or Non-Fiction, academic or casual, theory or non-theory, feel free to mention books of any genre and on any topic.
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Yay
Just finished The Lord of the Rings a few minutes ago. I didn’t expect the ending to be
Spoiler
so bittersweet.
I still haven’t decided what to make of it all. Anyway, now I have to pause reading fiction for a while.
I finally put down Between Two Fires. After reflecting on my critiques of the book I gave in last week’s book discussion thread, I decided to not finish it. But thankfully some of my comrades really wanted to read The Wretched of the Earth, so we’ve been reading that and, as expected, it’s amazing. I just listened to the On Violence section twice on audiobook and plan to go back and read through the PDF copy I have. I know Rev Left has a Red Menace episode covering the work but if anyone has any study guides or resources for Wretched of the Earth that my group and I could use, please send them my way!
In addition to WotE, my on again off again book is still Dialectics of Chinese Labor: Trade Unions Under Market Socialism by Immanuel Ness. I’m going to leave the summary and link to a free copy in this message below because I really do recommend this book (though i haven’t finished it yet). Like I said last week, the book is kind of repetitive in the way that it sets up each chapter but other than that I think it’s a good read.
Summary
A Marxist sociology of state owned enterprises (SOEs), trade unions, and workers in China’s gig and platform economy — from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping. This book challenges the myth of the “passive worker” and argues that, against the grain, the labour movement is working.
It’s a book that rightfully criticizes western labor organizing and unions, but its main thesis is to challenge the western narratives made against the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. It talks about how Chinese workers have organized and adapted to reform and opening up, rural to urban migration, and the rise of the digital platform economy. It also discusses the relationship between the union and the CPC which is cool to hear explained as a transmission belt between the party and the workers.
The PDF is free on the authors website, linked below. https://labourdialectics.org/
Prolewiki’s back up, so I’m back to reading through their articles.
I have finished This Soviet World, along with the rest of the Hexbear reading group for it. What a great work! It’s like a Blackshirts and Reds but for people that are already pro-Soviet. The language regarding minority nationalities is dated, but the actual content is very useful for debunking myths about the USSR.
Starting to reread the introductory works on the reading list I made in anticipation of the theory reading group starting soon on Hexbear, as well as Soviet Democracy for the continued Sovietology reading group on Hexbear.
Speaking of, join the Sovietology reading group!
Join the reading group for the basic ML theory reading list I made!
Both start up again soon, on Hexbear!
It might make for a good educational format for someone to post one or two pages out of “This Soviet World” every week highlighting some particularly interesting tidbits or anecdotes. It’s been a while since i read it but i remember being really impressed by how much i learned while reading it that i had never read anywhere else.
That’s a great idea! I also like the reading group format, it was a chapter a week and it flowed really well.
It goes on the list! (my list)
I finished reading Health Communism, its a great book; you should all read it.
The author/publisher (haymarket) should raise some major concerns. Their bottom line is to sell books from western “leftists” to western “leftists”. Promoted alongside Zionists. Condemned Iran, Maduro, call Russia Ukraine war imperialist ect ect. The book in and of itself could be fine. But I think this author and publisher should be ignored instead of legitimized.
It was no accident that there was a controversy. Their goal was to make provocative statements to garner attention and book sales and it worked well.
I’ll happily go out on a limb and say its not a great book it just cosplays as one with overly academic verbose language without brining anything new to the table. "how can you say that if you haven’t read it yourself "
I wasted multiple hours listening to their panel, and podcast. Im familiar enough with their rhetoric. I don’t plan on wasting money on a book written by a faux leftist argue with other western leftists about the veracity of their work. Sue me. At the very least don’t promote their work without giving a bit of due caution.
This isn’t just me saying this about Haymarket. https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11249481
Their goal was to make provocative statements to garner attention and book sales and it worked well.
Yeah, that isn’t it and the fact that you think this is the case is rather telling to me if I’m being honest. The “controversy” was drum up by a right wing organization and the entire controversy can be dispelled by watching the talk where the statement was clipped from out of its context.
Say what you will about the publisher, I take no beef there, but this specific claim about making controversy to sell a book is very strange. Is that a notion you invented or did you hear this conclusion from someone else?
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“This isn’t it” “rather telling” “very strange”
Nothing substantive, just vibes bases criticism. No need to talk about the book. No need to talk about the author. Do nothing to dispel my assertion that its “not a great book it just cosplays as one with overly academic verbose language without brining anything new to the table” because it is. What new ideas did it put forth? If not, how did it improve past works? Did you even read the the works it draws from to be able to compare?
rather telling to me if I’m being honest
Telling of what?
this specific claim about making controversy to sell a book is very strange
How so? Its not strange at all. The author most definitely financially benefitted from the attention. You yourself admit that the only reason you bought their book was due to the controversy. To be clear. They didn’t “make” the controversy. They made edgy/inflammatory comments in a “serious” “conference” and the controversy that arose was more than what they bargained for.
The “controversy” was drum up by a right wing organization and the entire controversy can be dispelled by watching the talk where the statement was clipped from out of its context.
Well who else is going to clip it, of course its gonna be some right wing account. So what? I clearly said I listened to the panel as well as podcast appearances. What is the “missing context” that changes anything? There’s not. They shouldn’t have said what they did in a formal conference regardless if it was actually benign or not. Making snarky comments in a public forum is bound to cause controversy. Controversy that financially benefitted them.
To summarize:
-extremely suspect publisher
-suspect conference
-vapid speech
-endorsed deeply unserious peers (black fat flesh guy), don’t even bother defending GLP1S are black genocide smh
-but a great book everyone should read?? Just go back to hexbear lol
Making snarky comments in a public forum is bound to cause controversy.
Cause controversy with who exactly? The audience seems in on the humor. What even is the controversy by your account?
I also do find it funny to find a fellow traveler advocating to not read. Is the Marxist-Leninist worldview not suffecent to the task of reading a book critically and engaging with its content, regardless of its origins? Or should I have simply stayed in my Marxist-Leninist lane and kept to the classics as it were?
but a great book everyone should read??
Sure! I think it has some good history and has some rhetorical value, even if it is light on exactly what is to be done. It definitely exposed me to organizations and movements I wasn’t well versed in, and highlighted historical developments in a connected and materialist way that I hadn’t been exposed to before. The history is definitely one of the stronger parts of the book. You should read it, and we can have a chat about its merits and faults.
Just go back to hexbear lol
Na, most of you at grad are cool. Sorry! Can’t keep me away that easily.
You didn’t address much of what I asked. But I’ll reiterate myself once more. Have you read the previous works to be able to compare? For all I know its a worse version of past works to make a quick buck with some new history tacked on. My major contention is that you more or less omitted any of the possible concerns one might have with the author ect. While saying it’s a great book everyone should read.
the audience seems in on the humour
The audience…the Haymarket books socialism 2026 conference audience. Ok, so what? The american faux leftist Zionist conference thought something was funny… Its probably not that funny then. Again you admitted you only bought this book because that clip blew up. Not because someone recommended it as a good book on its own merits.
I also do find it funny to find a fellow traveler advocating to not read
Disingenuous. Never said that. Should probably read the referential books.
She clearly has no principles. She’s just in it for her own career. Participated in the fed op haymarket socialism conference with 200 dollar entrance fees. Sat alongside Zionists. Probably got paid for it too. Vouched for and is friends with the “Black fat flesh” guy (for those unfamiliar its their idea that Ozempic like drugs are genocide against black people because black people and fatness is inextricably linked?.. That obesity isnt a medical issue)
I’ve been slowly chipping away at theory. Is it just me or some of the old works are just really hard to understand, I feel really slow having to listen to the audiobook, then read it, then reread it sometimes even read it for a third time to understand. I feel really stupid, I have to translate so many words and search phrases and read threads in the middle of the book just to understand something and it ruins the pace too.
Honestly, I had a hard time feeling like I understood theory until I picked up and read The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism and eventually Historical Materialism. They are translations of Vietnamese text books on the topic of Marxism. They’re translated by Luna Oi!. They are dense but highly readable distillations of the philosophical worldview of Marxism-Leninism as well as Historical Materialism (the application of Dialectical Materialism to the study of history). I can’t recommend them enough. They have great glossaries in the back if you’re ever unsure about a term and what it means in these contexts.
Downloaded both of them, thank you for the recommendations comrade.
They were written more than a hundred years ago, so a lot of it is very context heavy. Marx’s economic works in general are quite difficult to understand.
Theory can be difficult! Sometimes it helps to set up a reading group with comrades to help bounce understanding off each other.
