[lbo-talk] More on Literature and Revolution

[Joanna]

"During my time as a student in the arts, two then current and well 
known writers were definitely kept out of the discussion of US art 
history -- Arnold Hauser and Andre Malraux. So then the social condition 
of the arts and their psychological unity and function that Trotsky 
talks about were both excluded. These writers including Trotsky of 
course in effect represented the illegitimate realm, as opposed to the 
legitimate realm of the academy."

Thank you Chuck. You picked out some great passages. When I read the 
above...about the critics excluded from criticism, it brought back 
something even more incredible.

When I used to teach the  introductory composition class at various 
colleges, I always included Marx's very brief essay on money (Money is 
the pimp between man and the object of his desire...) into the reading 
list. It's short; it's beautifully written; it's easy to understand: 
nearly undergraduate proof. I used it to show the students that Marx was 
comprehensible and that he had interesting things to say.

On time, at the end of a class where we had discussed this essay, 
everyone filed out except one student who just sat at his desk, shaking 
his head. I asked him if anything was the matter. No, he replied, it was 
just that he had taken a class on Marxism and they had never read 
anything by Marx. This essay was his first experience with reading Marx.

Joanna