This is why I made an account on here. No libs no new baby communist thinking they know everything about Marxism and whatever the fuck this guy was
this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Same. There's way too much theory to go thorough. My kindle is filled to the brim with theory and I don't think I can finish it with in my lifetime tbh. How did Gramsci manage to write faster than I can read?
You don't have to read everything. The best thing I can advise is to learn the basics, getting an idea of the fundamentals of Marx and Lenin (these guys are like your primary literature). You don't have to spend too long on this for now. And then after that find a topic that you enjoy and start to learn through that topic.
ex lets say you like Che then maybe you want to try learning about Cubas history and modern situation. Learning about Cuba in this way would give you some knowledge on material conditions, their revolution, important figures, their economy (historic and modern), government...you get the point.
Now that youve learned more specific stuff you can go back and learn a little more primary literature. I find there is this relationship where you can bounce back between the primary/fundamentals, and more specific topics, and they inform each other allowing you to understand more each time you go back and forth between them.
And don't worry about how much you know. I'm still a beginner too. Just take it at your own pace.
Good advice. The ProleWiki reading list is a good place to start. I also got a lot out of Rev Left Radio and Proles of the Roundtable podcasts. They have some great theory episodes a well as themed/topic episodes on art, Cuba, and more. They're good for reading recommendations, too.
Also worth remembering that it's not necessary to read every page of every book. For some books, yes. But not all of them. Sometimes it's enough to read the intro and/or conclusion. Sometimes just a select chapter. It depends on what you need/want from the text. Even with Capital I started by reading a chapter here, a chapter there. It wasn't until a year or so later that I sat and read it cover to cover.
One difficulty with reading new material – and most of Marxism is new material to most people because western education has severe shortcomings – is that every sentence can be a string of unfamiliar vocab. Each word might represent a new concept, covered by a whole body of literature. If all this is new, it's sooo dense. But the more you learn about and around a topic, the more the concepts become familiar and the easier the texts become to read.
That's why I advocate starting with management texts/selections, and building up. It's also why I think podcasts are helpful. It's all about helping to build up a core knowledge of the basic concepts. David Harvey's books are good for this. Especially Rebel Cities. It's short and applies Marxist concepts to everyday examples (wine production, coca cola, student housing, access to public spaces, etc) without using too much jargon.
Plus, if communists had to read everything before they could call themselves a communist, there wouldn't be any!
Might I also recommend Marx Madness? I've been listening to them and it has helped me a ton. I'd have never had the attention span to read Capital myself but listening to it being read to me while working swings when nobody is around? That I can do.
Season 1 does have super long episodes so if you already have an understanding of the Marx Labor Theory of Value, you can probably skip straight to Season 2, Lenin's State and Revolution.
Laughs in Lenin
Collected Works are 55 thick books and not even everything is included.
It helps that all Italian words are three letters or less, so Italians can write really fast.
I have a good list on my kobo waiting for the opportunities to dig in, I get to spend some time almost every day.
I have a good bit of the basics, and when there's a decent bit of age on them they can get a little heavier... I'll take a break and read some parenti because my brain can digest that easily. But there's been PLENTY of "ah ha! MFr" moments in Marx's heavier stuff where something fell into place