In which I tackle the big one
Dec. 7th, 2022 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodygranuaileMy yearlong read for 2022 was Capital: Volume 1 by the inestimable Karl Marx, because I figured that after five years of doing socialism it was high time I actually read it. I’d read some of the earliest chapters way back in the day when I first got involved, but was only able to make two or three book group meetings before I basically gave up going. This I think prepared me a little bit for the first few chapters on this read, since they are the densest and most difficult to follow, so it was nice to have this be the second attempt.
From a modern perspective, the experience of actually reading the book is very uneven. Some parts of it are perfectly easy to read, describing the conditions in various industries and the history of attempts to improve them. Others are harder to read because they involve more abstract theoretical stuff about value that takes some concentration to get one’s head around. And other parts of it are just tough to read because they are responses to other writings by various political economists and journalists and commentators whose opinions nobody still cares about. Marx spends plenty of time rebutting the ideas of people who are still considered influential, like Adam Smith and Richard Malthus, but apparently there were also a lot of two-bit chatterers participating in The Discourse in the 1860s and Marx was determined to rebut every last one of them.
That said, it was a very valuable and often entertaining read. Some of the incredible length is because Marx does try to repeat stuff until you get it, which I found helpful for remembering what everything means. I am still not sure I could give you an accurate off-the-cuff definition of “valorization of capital” but there are a lot of other little bits of Marxist discourse that make more sense now that I’ve seen them fitted into one big framework. I do feel sort of like I should go back and read it all again until more of it sticks (1,200 pages of content is a lot to remember) but more seriously I think if I do read it again, I should probably read it alongside one of those companion/explainer works.
The other thing I’m tempted to do is jump right into Volume 2 for next year’s read, but I think I will give myself a break and try to tackle one of the books that’s been sitting on my TBR shelf for years instead. Maybe I’ll read Volume 2 for 2024.
From a modern perspective, the experience of actually reading the book is very uneven. Some parts of it are perfectly easy to read, describing the conditions in various industries and the history of attempts to improve them. Others are harder to read because they involve more abstract theoretical stuff about value that takes some concentration to get one’s head around. And other parts of it are just tough to read because they are responses to other writings by various political economists and journalists and commentators whose opinions nobody still cares about. Marx spends plenty of time rebutting the ideas of people who are still considered influential, like Adam Smith and Richard Malthus, but apparently there were also a lot of two-bit chatterers participating in The Discourse in the 1860s and Marx was determined to rebut every last one of them.
That said, it was a very valuable and often entertaining read. Some of the incredible length is because Marx does try to repeat stuff until you get it, which I found helpful for remembering what everything means. I am still not sure I could give you an accurate off-the-cuff definition of “valorization of capital” but there are a lot of other little bits of Marxist discourse that make more sense now that I’ve seen them fitted into one big framework. I do feel sort of like I should go back and read it all again until more of it sticks (1,200 pages of content is a lot to remember) but more seriously I think if I do read it again, I should probably read it alongside one of those companion/explainer works.
The other thing I’m tempted to do is jump right into Volume 2 for next year’s read, but I think I will give myself a break and try to tackle one of the books that’s been sitting on my TBR shelf for years instead. Maybe I’ll read Volume 2 for 2024.