"They were, rather, an endless confrontation with, discussion on,
> reinterpretation of Marxism -- best exemplified perhaps by Jean-Francois
> Lyotard's delirious suggestion in _Libidinal Economy_ that there have always
> been *two* Marxes, the old, bearded rationalist obsessed with totality, and
> a young, chesty Bavarian waitress keener on transgression aned intensive
> signs."
"Why the two groups found ideological inspiration in Wagner's theories was another story. But in those days Wagner's brand of psychoanalysis deemed sufficiently deconstructive, diagonal, libidinal, and non-Cartesian to provide some theoretical justification for revolutionary activity.
"It proved difficult to get the workers to swallow it, so at a certain point the two groups had to choose between the two workers and Wagner. They chose Wagner. Which gave rise to the theory that the new revolutionary protagonist was not the proletarian but the deviate."
(Umberto Eco, _Foucault's Pendulum _)
It isn't the thought of Marx's youth, his supposed femininity, not even his alleged chestiness with which I must register offense, but rather the notion of him as a Bavarian. Aside from Bismark himself, has a more obvious Prussian ever lived?
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."