Re: Will we have ( a sort of italic ) value in Socialism ?

Hi Paula

I had forgotten that Richmal Crompton  had written the Just William 
books, had to check it out on wikipedia. I hadn't realised that she 
was a North Manchester person. I had read some of the Just William 
books in my youth.

I have read some of Phillip K stuff, "Do Androids Dream of Electric 
Sheep" of Bladerunner fame, another one that I can't remember and a 
book of his short stories that included the "Total Recall" story 
although it was called something else someone told me not be 
recently.

I think that although Philip K Dick was clearly off his head, he had 
been in the communist party and there is some of that kind of stuff 
in his material I think and I suppose it makes it interesting for 
that. I believe the block busting sci fi films, Bladerunner, Total 
Recall, The Matrix and Minority Report are all based on his stuff. 

If I remember rightly this came out in a discussion a few years ago 
at a Birmingham school. We were talking about "Socialist Mesaages" 
in film. Paddy, cleverly I think, was arguing that there was 
something in the films Total Recall and The Matrix. It was clever in 
my opinion because he didn't know that Total Recall was based on a 
Philip K Dick short story and that he had been a communist of some 
type. I think it started off with a discussion on the Sparticus film 
of Kirk Douglas fame that obviously had commie paw prints all over 
it. But then again I don't have total recall myself.

I only found out recently that The Matrix was based on a Philip K 
Dick idea that he presented at some Sci Fi convention or something. 
I think most of the stuff of his that I have read, not much, 
revolves around things not being what they seem to be etc. Like with 
Bladerunner and Decker not realising that he is in fact himself a 
replicant, possibly. But who knows as you yourself are not supposed 
to, like in The Matrix.

As you mention it, I generally don't like science fiction much, I 
have probably only read about 20 in my life. However I have a friend 
who is a sci-fi fan and she talked me into writing something with 
her. 

As I think most sci fi  books are written like comics I thought it   
might not be too difficult to turn out something mediocre.

I think taking Anti Duhring on holiday with you is not such a bad 
idea. You could pretend to read it while sat by the pool and people 
might think you are clever. Maybe that or "Anthropogenesis, A Study 
of The Origin of Man" by Anton Pannekoek. 

Although as a bit of a suffragette type yourself, like Ricmal, you 
might object to part of the 
title                                                   


--- In WSM_Forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Paula McEwan <pmce@...> wrote:
>
> Hello Dave
> 
> What is your novel about?
> 
> I have a copy of Anti Duhring, because it has previously been  
> recommended to me. I prefer reading Philip K Dick and Richmal  
> Crompton, so I may never get around to reading it. I'm going on  
> holiday, and I'm not taking Anti Duhring with me.
> 
> Paula
> 
> 
> 
> On 22 Aug 2006, at 18:27, balmer_dave wrote:
> 
> >
> > Thanks for that post Lillia.
> >
> > I have been reading Anti Duhring and there is some really
> > interesting stuff in part II and III on this kind of stuff about
> > labour vouchers or Owens labour certificates and what socialism
> > might be like etc. Its fairly readable. I think there is some
> > parecon relevant stuff there as well for those interested in that
> > kind of stuff.
> >
> > I think this book should be alot further up the reading list 
than it
> > is. The crap in the first 150 pages may have put many off, 
although
> > i found fairly interesting for self amusing reasons.
> >
> > I am attempting to take a different propogandist approach at the
> > moment by arrogating to myself the ability to write a novel with
> > someone else. So I am busy doing other stuff at the moment, so 
some
> > may be pleased to hear that I may not be posting much.
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>