Sunday, February 7, 2010

Vive Le Revolution!!

It's sad that Karl Marx's solution to the world's problems created the very things he hated, and strives to get away from. When Marx asks the working class to head towards Communism he is asking them to be slaves to society, trapped in their class. Marx never seemed to figure out that rich and powerful people will always find a way to be rich and powerful regardless of political views.
When looking at the Marxism Criticism there's a call to revolution. We must read a text in order to know the bourgeoisie so that we can rally the people against it and towards Communism. It makes sense that texts will show the state of the society the writers are living in. Writing can also show or warn a society where they might be heading. This has been used in many different ways. Works like Fahrenheit 451 show what could happen if books are outlawed if people stop thinking critically, Ray Bradbury shows even people's emotions are affected. New movies are coming out like Gamer, and Surrogate with a clear message of what could happen if we keep pushing technology to its limits. These warn society that this could happen if we don't change our ways soon. But are these written by the bourgeoisie for a purpose to push everyone in the direction they want to go? That's the job of the critics.
The critics have a very heavy load to bear. They must read texts and figure out what exact message the bourgeoisie is saying so that they can tell the working class to do the opposite. My problem with that though is what critics can the working class trust? Would the critics be part of the working class or the bourgeoisie? It seems to me that most likely it would be a more lucrative state to work for society itself and not the lower class.
For me this way of criticism gives more questions than answers. Although it's called Marxism, as critics, we have to leave that side behind (at least I hope no critics are pushing Communism). Basically this form of criticism is looking at a work with all of the author's society in context to the work. What are our texts saying about us and how should we change after we find out the truth.

1 comment:

  1. You really make some beautiful points in this blog. Really from beginning to end. I was gonna quote the first part and piggy back on it, then as I read further I was thinking the same about the next part, then the next part. Then, I thought you were straying a bit with the technology thing; i was like: ut-oh she's veering a lefty and ranting, but then you pulled it all together nicely. Made sense, comepletely. So rather than point out one or two specific parts, I thought I would write about the entire blog in a way that was saying I didn't know which part to write about. I just agree word for word with everything you say here.

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