Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 10:00:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: Re: M-TH: List die or Princess Die?


At 11:58 AM 9/14/97 +0100, James Heartfield wrote:
>Yes, it is a brilliant book. Indeed though its a sprawling kind of a
>production, I think it's one of his best. History and Class
>Consciousness, though excellent, I have found, is too readily
>assimilated into the kind of Weberian/Frankfurt sociology that
>predominates in American and European universities these days.

Do you have any other thoughts as to Lukacs' development from pre-Marxist to
revolutionary Marxist to Stalinist periods?  I'm far from a knolweledgable
person in this area.  Many people dismiss later Lukacs as a Stalinist.  It
seems aspects of his aesthetics are most questionable from this period, but
I don't have a grip on this whole thing.  Some people treat Lukacs'
conversion to materialism after H&CC as a cardinal sin, whereas it seems to
me that is a real advance.

>Last year I gave a paper at the Rethinking Marxism conference 'Politics
>and Languages of Contemporary Marxism'. When I took a pop at Adorno the
>entire room went bonkers. They all seemed to be astounded that Marxism
>was not the same thing as Frankfurt pessimism about social progress.

Your pop at Adorno was what exactly?  And yes, you're right: one should
never assume that Frankfurt School scholars have any feeling for Marxism at
all.  In fact, Frankfurters are their substitute for Marxism; their real
credo is intellectual alienation.

>Oh and 'what's the last thing to go through 
>Princess Diana's mind?' 'The windscreen'.

Thanks, and also for the web site info.  This joke looks rather familiar,
not very original.  I believe I heard something similar in one of the
Challenger explosion jokes.  I'm still thinking of Prince Charles as a
tampon, but I can't connect this to Princess Die, since Charles' string was
pledged to another.



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