One person that I like to read outside of my usual circle is the literary critic, Bloom. Quite often I find myself in agreement with him in regards to the Left overpoliticizing their readings of literature. On top of that, I make it a point to NOT read only political tracts (or technical books for my work) and to read lots of literature. I think the novel can help us to withold our judgement of characters long enough to help us understand them integrally. That's important for being a human being, because politics -any politics- is very judgemental and tends to view people according to categories.
I read a lot of Lenin back in my "vanguardist" youth and I dont feel it worthwhile to revisit the leninist literature or the maoist. That's a closed book for me now. I guess on the Left one author I should read more would be Gramsci.
-Thomas
===== "The tradition of all the dead generations
weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"
-Karl Marx
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