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I don't understand why some of these are for socialists. The Master and Margarita is a pretty damning take on socialist Russia. And it didn't get past the cen

by krupan 3y ago

I don't understand why some of these are for socialists. The Master and Margarita is a pretty damning take on socialist Russia. And it didn't get past the censors as the author of this page seems to assume, Bulgakov was deathly afraid and kept it hidden! Also, interesting that Atlas Shrugged is on this list with the reason being "know your enemy" and 1984 is not.

DicIfTEx 3y ago
Authoritarian socialism is one of two strands of the socialist movement. Vanguardist authoritarian socialism (i.e., Marxism–Leninism and its offspring) are a substrain of that wider current and, much like that xkcd strip about crazy straws, you can keep going down into endless internecine fights, squabbles and historical mass murders between its different factions. As far as I can tell, Miéville has historically been some sort of Trotskyist, so including works criticial of the Soviet Union and Stalinism would be pretty on-brand. However, he left the Socialist Workers Party some time ago. The path from Trotskyism to anti-authoritarian socialism is shorter than from some other forms of Marxism–Leninism, so he could be anywhere nowadays. He didn't include Nineteen Eighty-Four, but he did include We which I understand to be similar in its anti-totalitarian message (though I've not read it myself). He also left off Brave New World FWIW.
turtleyacht 3y ago
Someday, we may be able to categorize books into a list of types. We have TV Tropes¹, for example. Folks surveying a rich field like books could quickly get oriented along their interest axis--a literal map of preferences. We also see it in Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop RPGs (TTRPGs), where one or more words make up a phrase summarizing a monster's abilities and describing the subsequent mechanics: Berserker Hunger. Suddenly, the creature can move 1d4 additional feet and grapple target player. Something like that. My wish, though, is we look back on these works and handle stuff through the lens of Dramatica Theory of Story²: characters are "functions" for solving the central problem; each work is a self-contained StoryMind trying to look at the problem in a variety of ways; and there are four Throughlines through the story. All of which is a long way to say, if these works are related to socialism, each presents a menu of ideas in a certain way, and advances a central argument (with certain degrees--or absence of--nuance). ¹ https://tvtropes.org/ https://tvtropes.org/ ² https://dramatica.com/theory https://dramatica.com/theory
- LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
  ³ https://allthetropes.org/ https://allthetropes.org/

by krupan 3y ago

DicIfTEx 3y ago

Authoritarian socialism is one of two strands of the socialist movement. Vanguardist authoritarian socialism (i.e., Marxism–Leninism and its offspring) are a substrain of that wider current and, much like that xkcd strip about crazy straws, you can keep going down into endless internecine fights, squabbles and historical mass murders between its different factions. As far as I can tell, Miéville has historically been some sort of Trotskyist, so including works criticial of the Soviet Union and Stalinism would be pretty on-brand. However, he left the Socialist Workers Party some time ago. The path from Trotskyism to anti-authoritarian socialism is shorter than from some other forms of Marxism–Leninism, so he could be anywhere nowadays. He didn't include Nineteen Eighty-Four, but he did include We which I understand to be similar in its anti-totalitarian message (though I've not read it myself). He also left off Brave New World FWIW.

turtleyacht 3y ago

Someday, we may be able to categorize books into a list of types. We have TV Tropes¹, for example. Folks surveying a rich field like books could quickly get oriented along their interest axis--a literal map of preferences. We also see it in Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop RPGs (TTRPGs), where one or more words make up a phrase summarizing a monster's abilities and describing the subsequent mechanics: Berserker Hunger. Suddenly, the creature can move 1d4 additional feet and grapple target player. Something like that. My wish, though, is we look back on these works and handle stuff through the lens of Dramatica Theory of Story²: characters are "functions" for solving the central problem; each work is a self-contained StoryMind trying to look at the problem in a variety of ways; and there are four Throughlines through the story. All of which is a long way to say, if these works are related to socialism, each presents a menu of ideas in a certain way, and advances a central argument (with certain degrees--or absence of--nuance). ¹ https://tvtropes.org/ https://tvtropes.org/ ² https://dramatica.com/theory https://dramatica.com/theory

LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
³ https://allthetropes.org/ https://allthetropes.org/