/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16902567]

Marx reading list:

Brumaire
Manuscripts
Gotha
Grundrisse
Capital 1, 2, and 3 (yes you need to read all of them. 1 is not self-contained.)

Further Reading:
Michael Heinrich's Introduction (note: not an introduction)
Heinrich's 3-4(?) volume biography of Marx that he is still writing (vol 1 is out)
Love and Capital (another biography)
Isaak Illich Rubin's Essays on Marx's Theory of Value
Time, Labor, and Social Domination by Postone
Value by Diane Elson
Workers and Capital by Tronti
Law and Marxism by Pashukanis
Notebooks by Gramsci
The Principle of Hope by Bloch
Selected Writings by Benjamin
The Production of Space by Lefebvre
The Making of the English Working Class by Thompson (also read his essay on time.)
The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James
Antiquity to Feudalism and Lineages of the Absolutist State by Perry Anderson
The Essential Lenin
The Essential Stalin
On Contradiction and On Practice by Mao
Dialectical Logic by Ilyenkov
Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, I and IS Apparatuses, and Philosophy of the Encounter by Althusser
H and CS by Lukacs
Marx: Towards the Centre of Possibility by Karatani
Eclipse by Gilles Dauve
What Was the USSR? Towards a Theory of the Deformation of Value Under State Capitalism by Aufheben
Reading Marx Politically by Cleaver
Marx's Inferno by William Clare Roberts
Moneybags Must Be So Lucky: On the Literary Structure of Capital by Robert Paul Wolff
In the Long Run We Are All Dead: Keynesianism, Political Economy, and Revolution by Geoff Mann
Crack Capitalism by John Holloway
The Origins of Capitalism as a Social System: The Prevalence of an Aleatory Encounter by John Milios
Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy: On Subversion and Negative Reason by Bonefeld
There's No Such Thing as "The Economy": Essays on Capitalist Value by Samuel A. Chambers
Marx at the Millennium by Cyril Smith
Critiquing Capitalism Today: New Ways to Read Marx by Frederick Harry Pitts
The Dialectical Imagination by Martin Jay
Money and Totality by Moseley
The Constitution of Capital: Essays on Volume 1 of Marx's Capital by Bellofiore
The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View by Ellen Meiksins Wood

[Anonymous No.16902593]

How am I supposed to read all of this along with the fiction I want to read when I work 50 hour weeks?

[Anonymous No.16902631]

>>16902567
Until this WORKER'S REVOLUTION is fully operational we are vulnerable. THE BOURGEOISE is too POWERFUL. They're more dangerous than you realize.
>Dangerous to your PROLETARIAT commander not to this WORKER'S REVOLUTION.
THE BOURGEOISE will continue to gain INFLUENCE in THE UNITED STATES SENATE as long as
>THE UNITED STATES SENATE will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just recieved word that PRESIDENT TRUMP has dissolved THE LEGISLATURE permanently. The last remnants of THE OLD REPUBLIC have been swept away.
But thats impossible! How will PRESIDENT TRUMP maintain control without THE ILLUSION OF DEMOCRACY?
>THE PROUD BOYS now have direct control over THEIR TERRITORIES. Fear will keep THE MARXISTS in line. Fear of this WORKER'S REVOLUTION.
And what of THE BOURGEOISE? If ANTIFA has a complete BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST of this WORKER'S REVOLUTION it is possible however unlikely that they might find a weakness and exploit it.
>The BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST you refer to will soon be back in our hands.
Any ATTEMPT TO BURN DOWN THE ARBYS made by ANTIFA against this WORKER'S REVOLUTION would be a useless gesture no matter what BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS they've obtained. This WORKER'S REVOLUTION is now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we UNITE AS WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOOSE BUT OUR CHAINS it.
>Don't be too proud of this PHONEY SOCIAL-MARXISTS MOVENEMT you've constructed. The ability to CONVINCE A BUNCH OF BRAINDEAD ZOOMERS ADDICTED TO THEIR PHONES is insignificant next to the power of THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR.
Don't try and frighten us with your HORROR STORIES SHITLORD. Your sad devotion to that OPPRESIVE AND RACIST SOCIAL STRUCTURE has not helped you conjure up A HEALTHY WAY OF LIFE FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE or given you SUPREMACY enough to find ANTIFA'S SECRET POWER STRUCTURE
>I find your FAITH IN A FAILED WAY OF LIFE (MARXISM) disturbing.

[Anonymous No.16902635]

No, I don't think so.

[Anonymous No.16902661]

>>16902635
I think so

[Anonymous No.16902681]

>>16902567
Is this a meme or do you actually have to read all this to understand Marxism?
>this is why it will never happen

[Anonymous No.16902711]

>>16902681
Education is important. You should read as much as you can.

[Anonymous No.16902772]

>>16902593
>fiction
well there's your problem

[Anonymous No.16902789]

>>16902567
Brumaire, Manuscripts, Gotha, and Grundrisse are good places to start but one should also read things like Value, Price and Profit, The German Ideology, and Anti-Dühring prior to reading Capital. Past Marx and Engels all that I would say is really required reading is some of the works of Sorel, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, Gramsci, Debord, and Althusser. I personally would recommend Daniel De Leon and Kautsky (mainly to read Lenin's criticism of Kautsky) as well but that is not vital to understanding Marxism.

[Anonymous No.16902809]

>>16902681
You absolutely don't, each of the actually important points in Marx could be boiled down to 2-3 page summaries. Ol' Karl only wrote so much because he had to systematically break down every braindead "well ackshually" point people tried to bring against him, a good 80% of what's in Capital is just example after example from British government trade data to prove everything. Russian or Chinese peasants picking up a gun against their abusive bosses maybe read one pamphlet, if that.

[Anonymous No.16902841]

>>16902681
Read as much as you can but if you were to read say only 3 of the further readings choose the Rubin, Postone, and the Heinrich intro.

[Anonymous No.16902846]

>>16902567
>lol dude workers
>what about government and human corruption
>lol workers and economy

[Anonymous No.16902869]

>>16902809
He wrote so much because his thought was constantly evolving because capital is constantly evolving. Capital is not a complete project. He actually wanted to rewrite the first volume. That's why it's good to read the further readings and see the interventions of what scholars had to say after Marx.

[Anonymous No.16902876]

>>16902846
his focus was capital itself not workers

[Anonymous No.16902878]

>>16902567
I miss when lit wasn't a bunch of pseuds obsessing over communism

[Anonymous No.16902889]

>>16902878
>when lit wasn't a bunch of pseuds obsessing over communism
never existed

[Anonymous No.16902956]

>>16902567
Thanks

[Anonymous No.16903122]

bump

[Anonymous No.16903124]

>>16902681
Absolutely not. If you read all of these you’d be at the cutting edge of current academic debate. This is a reading list for scholars who are interesting in Marx in the same way scholars are interested in Kant and Hegel.

Like the biggest thing that points out this as kind of a shit post is that he lists the volumes of Heinrich’s biography that aren’t just not published, they aren’t even written yet.

Hilariously he’s included two actual introductions to to Capital, (Moneybacks Musr be so Lucky, and Reading Capital Political) but they are way down the list.

A couple random books on marxist history writing is thrown in there.

The book by Tronti is pretty at odds with the general theme of the rest of the marxology.

I don’t really know why it would be important to read Bloch or Benjamin unless you had a specific interest in Christianity or literary criticism. The book by Lefebvre is a pretty difficult text on urban geography.

The book by Karatani was only published in English two months ago so I strongly doubt this person had read it.


The only actually helpful stuff here for the person approaching Marx for the first time are these
-Value by Diane Elson
-The Constitution of Capital by Bellofiore

Everything else is too advanced for the person approaching Marx for the first time. And even those texts I mentioned are for undergrads, not your coworker you are trying to get to join the cause.

[Anonymous No.16903132]

>>16903124
>This is a reading list for scholars who are interesting in Marx in the same way scholars are interested in Kant and Hegel.
yall are literally larping rn

[Anonymous No.16903146]

Can you hit me up with something that covers the mercantilist period?

[Anonymous No.16903302]

>>16903124
what are books to get my coworker to join the cause?

[Anonymous No.16903313]

Youre a really bad marxist

[Anonymous No.16903497]

bump

[Anonymous No.16903594]

>>16902567
But what the fuck does one read BEFORE Marx?

[Anonymous No.16903604]

marx was right about capitalism but wrong about the solutions. commiefaggots just want free gibes. socialism could only work in white ethnostates

[Anonymous No.16903672]

>>16903604
people like this should be sent to camps desu. the imbecility of rightists and the void in their heads will swallow everything up and will sabotage and destroy you with them. libertarian leftists are delusional. auth left is the only way.

[Anonymous No.16903689]

>>16903604
>bro just keep workers divided because muh special snowflake whities deserve an ethnostate

[Anonymous No.16903708]

>>16903604
>commiefaggots just want free gibes
I can't understand people who don't want free gibes. Are you worried life will be too easy, worried you won't have to discipline to seriously pursue your interests with your newfound freedom? We will always have problems to overcome. But why not try to improve material conditions?

[Anonymous No.16903715]

>>16902593
this is all fiction as well so it won't be a huge readjustment

[Anonymous No.16903732]

>>16903302
bullshit jobs

[Anonymous No.16903874]

How can he expect me to read all this shit when he couldn't even be bothered to account for human nature? Fuck off already.

[Anonymous No.16903889]

>>16902661
How did he reconcile the change in LTV between Vol 1 and 3?

[Anonymous No.16904106]

>>16903594
Read Worldly Philosophers by Heilbroner, gives you a very good summary of political economy up to Marx and goes further past him as well

[Anonymous No.16904220]

Bump

[Anonymous No.16904222]

Why read all this shit? Whatever system we have today is more or less approximating communism than anything the actual marxist movement ever attained. Everyone's going to be eating zogchow, no one will starve, there will probably be some form of ubi and semi automation where money is basically meaningless. The globalists are in the process of neutralizing politics and any autonomous form of life informed by political theology, ethnicity, tradition, etc. Communists have a really dumb conception of communism where everyone is a goethe or some bizarro pseudo mystical geimenweisen wherein we occupy some weird primordial dreamtime that seems like a materialist inversion of neoplatonism. Communism is really just people reduced to their stomachs and the elimination of the transcendent.

[Anonymous No.16904226]

if commiefags hate capitalism so much then why aren't they taking up arms and forming militias like the alt right does? checkmate trannys

[Anonymous No.16904273]

>>16904222
>Why read all this shit
So they aren't brain dead like you
"Why read" says the rightist. Classic. Rightists are disgusting and need to be put in camps.

[Anonymous No.16904295]

>>16904273
Refute everything after this first sentence.

[Anonymous No.16904308]

>>16903874
*blocks ur path*

[Anonymous No.16904325]

Can't wait to execute every single Communist in this country.

[Anonymous No.16904330]

>>16904295
The post refers to your entire post. You are a retard.righist idpoler and your knowledge of communism comes from memes instead of reading.

[Anonymous No.16904352]

>>16903302
If somebody at work asked me ‘what’s this Marx guy all about?’ This is probably the book I would give them.

If they just wanted to know about left wing stuff in general I’d just talk to them about it. Maybe have them watch like, Michael Moore.

[Anonymous No.16904369]

>>16904222
None of that changes our position of suffering under the abstract domination of generalized commodity production, which is the one thing communists want to change.

[Anonymous No.16904385]

>>16904222
Communism is about worker abolition and value abolition. The way the apparatuses of capitalism are forming are working to suppress that.

[Anonymous No.16904388]

>>16904330
Demonstrate it. Additionally the idea that marxists read to not be "brain dead" demonstrates a completely bourgeois point of view that is indicative of the grad student and upper middle class origins of western european and American marxist movements. You are a theorycel and a probable homosexual.

[Anonymous No.16904413]

Leftism does not work.

[Anonymous No.16904435]

>>16904388
>the idea that marxists read to not be "brain dead" demonstrates a completely bourgeois point of view
Not at all. Communists saw literacy and education as very important. Rightists want to destroy education and critical thinking which is why they are enemies of university and want to make it less accessible to everyone and even destroy it. rightists want everyone to be retarded and easy to manipulate, like yourself

[Anonymous No.16904442]

>>16904388
Unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprived of the right to speak on it. Isn't that too harsh? Not in the least. When you have not probed into a problem, into the present facts and its past history, and know nothing of its essentials, whatever you say about it will undoubtedly be nonsense. Talking nonsense solves no problems, as everyone knows, so why is it unjust to deprive you of the right to speak? Quite a few comrades always keep their eyes shut and talk nonsense, and for a Communist that is disgraceful. How can a Communist keep his eyes shut and talk nonsense?

It won' t do!

It won't do!

You must investigate!

You must not talk nonsense!

[Anonymous No.16904452]

>>16902567
The list of primary texts leaves out much that is important and the list of secondary texts includes loads of garbagio

[Anonymous No.16904490]

>>16904442
Yes they can speak as long as they are guided by the immortal science of marxist leninist maoism this is the correct marxist perspective.

[Anonymous No.16904511]

>>16904325
suck my balls for now

[Anonymous No.16904520]

yeah, no. there's no point in reading all this unless you want to be mr. smartass on reddit threads. I read the manifesto and I'm currently reading Vol. 1. Don't tell me I need to read more than that you absolute neet faggot.

[Anonymous No.16904547]

>>16904520
Read all the volumes. 1 is not self contained and you would be missing out on a whole lot. And at least read Rubin after he is the best secondary source.

[Anonymous No.16904554]

>>16904435
Doesnt make sense, one type of"rightist" is obsessed with classical education and other types of rightists seem to have no problem with stem shit since all of those sci/tech schools are feeders for the M.I.C. must be more complicated then your goofus and gallant tier observation.

[Anonymous No.16904585]

>>16904385
What does the aboltion of value mean in terms of the operation of any communist society? So what, no economy? No division of labor?

[Anonymous No.16904587]

>>16904520
pseud

[Anonymous No.16904600]

>>16904554
Education was already on its last legs through all the reactionary attacks on it, all but entirely discredited, and now pandemic “remote learning” has killed it. Now it will be just for elites, and the new serf class get only what’s needed to function. Easier to control, exactly what the elites and rightists want—neofeudalism is here

[Anonymous No.16904601]

>>16904547
wow I really give n0 shits bruh
perish

[Anonymous No.16904604]

>>16904435
Lol ok let me try. Rightists want true education that elevates the great men in society whereas the leftist wants to squeeze his retarded ideology into the curriculum so he can mold the minds of impressionable idiots and indoctrinate him with his slave-morality. All to protect his ego

[Anonymous No.16904632]

>>16904604
>>16904600

[Anonymous No.16904645]

>>16904600
If only we had neofeudualism. Nice cognitive bias either way

[Anonymous No.16904651]

>>16904604
The reason that "anti-intellectual intellectual" rightists are so against academia and people getting a higher education is because they themselves are dumb—but they’re “intellectuals” so they need the public to be dumb enough to believe their bullshit

[Anonymous No.16904659]

>>16904645
>If only we had neofeudualism
The rightist exposes himself as a useful idiot.

[Anonymous No.16904660]

>>16904651
>>16904645

[Anonymous No.16904671]

>>16904600
oh no, the plebs are being robbed of their right to public school brainwashing... state education is a method of control you slimy bootlicker

[Anonymous No.16904672]

>>16904600
So why are rightists chimping out about the lockdowns? Sorry m8, you have a manichean tier take on politics & society. I think you need to employ more of that critical thinking you were talking about and engage in a substantive good faith evaluation of non Marxist intellectual positions instead of employing rightist as synonymous for "things I dont like".

[Anonymous No.16904690]

>>16904672
You can't reason with marxists. Only treat them with paternal love whilst keeping them far away from power. Marxism, much like libertarianism, is a cult

[Anonymous No.16904696]

>>16904672
rightists don't give a shit if education is dismantled they see it as a good thing about lockdowns

[Anonymous No.16904704]

>>16904671
“Fuck college! It’s a bunch of liberal bullshit. Just watch YouTube videos and listen to podcasts that’s all the education you need. Then learn one skill or trade you can do, so you can be useful to the ruling class, but not interested in questioning them.” -Karl Marx

[Anonymous No.16904727]

>>16904704
Tbf one electrical worker after the revolution is probably worth a thousand grad student marxist revolutionaries.

[Anonymous No.16904734]

This the thread where I beat the ever loving shit out of strawmen?

[Anonymous No.16904745]

>>16904704
Hol up do marxists think that their system will make them all polymath uberchads

[Anonymous No.16904746]

>>16902593
You take a lifetime. Unfortunately.
Capital, all 3 volumes would still be more than the vast majority of people. Also stop reading fiction it's useless except some rare ones.

[Anonymous No.16904752]

>>16904704
The intelligentsia isn't a nation's brains but its shit
t. Lenin

[Anonymous No.16904755]

>>16904704
Who controls education?

[Anonymous No.16904760]

Why are people who base their whole identities around hating the rich so credulous and trusting of the ruling class's institutions?

[Anonymous No.16904772]

>>16904745
Lol they literally do, trotsky in literature and revolution says:

"It is difficult to predict the extent of self-government which the man of the future may reach or the heights to which he may carry his technique. Social construction and psycho-physical self-education will become two aspects of one and the same process. All the arts – literature, drama, painting, music and architecture will lend this process beautiful form. More correctly, the shell in which the cultural construction and self-education of Communist man will be enclosed, will develop all the vital elements of contemporary art to the highest point. Man will become immeasurably stronger, wiser and subtler; his body will become more harmonized, his movements more rhythmic, his voice more musical. The forms of life will become dynamically dramatic. The average human type will rise to the heights of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. And above this ridge new peaks will rise."

[Anonymous No.16904780]

>>16904746
I assume one should also stop watching movies? Hell why not forego all forms of entertainment?

[Anonymous No.16904798]

>>16904746
you probably haven't even read Marx's novel

[Anonymous No.16904810]

>>16902661
based. currently taking a class on marx taught by his grandson and it's very informative, although a bit dense.

[Anonymous No.16904830]

>>16903889
he didn't

[Anonymous No.16904861]

>>16904760
don't know who you're replying to but like what institution? all the commiefags i know are atheist/agnostic and jobless. i think their problem is that they DON'T believe in any institutions. the right is better at this because we have nationalism and the church

[Anonymous No.16905621]

bump

[Anonymous No.16905626]

>>16904780
>one should also stop watching movies? Hell why not forego all forms of entertainment?

[Anonymous No.16905817]

>>16902681
'marxism' is not a thing that can happen and understanding marxist theory and the workers revolution have nothing to do with each other
the prophets did not conjure the messiah

>>16903302
your politics an emergent property of you, an idea will not change that

[Anonymous No.16905827]

>>16904772

>the left on twitter are mentally ill people obsessed with children media
>the "true" left on bunkerchan are theorycels who seldom read fiction because their reading habits are guide by utilitarian logic
>this brainpower would bring about the next Goethes after they do away with capitalism

[Anonymous No.16905887]

>>16904435
It's exactly the opposite. Read Ellul.

[Anonymous No.16905964]

>>16902567
>Reading Grundrisse AND Capital
FVR WHVT PVRPOSE?