[lbo-talk] Tolkien and the new medievalism

Michael Pugliese debsian at pacbell.net
Tue Dec 23 10:38:51 PST 2003


On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 12:08:31 -0500, Brian Siano <siano at mail.med.upenn.edu> wrote:


> I have a question. Why is it that every major cultural event, or fad, or
> persona must be examined for political significance.... and almost always
> found to indicate a resurgence of conservative, tribal, or otherwise
> regressive beliefs? (Except Madonna and _Queer Eye_. They're
> _transgressive!_)

Lionel Trilling in, "The Liberal Imaginstion, " quotes this from Comrade Lenin.

"I know of nothing more beautiful than the Appassionata, I could hear it every day. It is marvellous, unearthly music. Every time I hear these notes, I think with pride and perhaps childlike naivete, that it is wonderful what man can accomplish. But I cannot listen to music often, it affects my nerves. I want to say amiable stupidities and stroke the heads of the people who can create such beauty in a filthy hell. But today is not the time to stroke people’s heads; today hands descend to split skulls open, split them open ruthlessly, although opposition to all violence is our ultimate ideal—it is a hellishly hard task."

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, quoted in Maxim Gorky, Days with Lenin http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/archives20031214.shtml

-- Michael Pugliese American imperialism has been made plausible and attractive in part by the insistence that it is not imperialistic. Harold Innis, 1948 http://www.monthlyreview.org/sr2004.htm



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list