From: glevy-AT-acnet.pratt.edu
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 08:05:01 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Scary novels/future


Luciano Dondero wrote:

> I wonder why nobody has mentioned Jack London's "The Iron Heel".
> This was written in 1905, long before fascism and Stalinism had raised their
> ugly heads.

It was certainly a prophetic work which foretold the coming of fascism. 
Obviously Jack couldn't have anticipated the rise of Stalinism though.

I recommend it highly, especially for teenagers. A good collection of 
London's political writings is Philip S. Foner ed. _Jack London: American 
Rebel_. The introduction by Foner is very revealing and would make an 
excellent story line for a movie if written by a political person. There 
was at least one full-scale movie on London, but there was hardly any 
emphasis on his political activism and his political demoralization and 
degeneration.

There is in many ways more drama and relevance in Jack's life than his 
writings. Interestingly, he thought that his popular novels were just 
trash that he wrote quickly in order to gain some cash.

There is also, BTW, an interesting dinner-table conversation in the early 
part of _The Iron Heel_ concerning the nature and origins of capitalist 
exploitation.

Jerry


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