Mao's "Little Red Book" Considered from a Literary Perspective

[Clarksist]

Many people here have probably read The Quotations of Mao Tse-Tung, and there is probably a fairly wide range of reactions to it.

I find the text itself to be a wonderful read. Taking out any logical argument and just selecting the conclusions leads to a very "eastern" and "axiomatic" experience.

It is one of the only communist books I recommend to people who aren't communists, and it isn't even really to make them think about communism. I feel like a lot of the terms can be swapped out for more general ones, and when depoliticized the book becomes a good way to live in the world generally. The values of self sacrifice, self criticism, honest intercourse with the people of the world, and struggle against oppression are good to live by regardless of your political beliefs.

Has anyone else found The Quotations of Mao Tse-Tung moving on a personal level?

Also, if we could keep the realities of Mao's leadership to the side and consider the book from a literary standpoint for the thread? I just think that it could start derailing side arguments that are best left to History of Theory. Thanks!

[union6]

I totally agree with everything you have said.
It's probably one of the only books that I repeatedly go back to every now and then. What makes it so easy to pickup and read is the way it's laid out, I don't know about you but I find myself just browsing the contence picking a subject and the flicking threw the quotes.

[Per Levy]

Has anyone else found The Quotations of Mao Tse-Tung moving on a personal level?

yeah, i got huge dissapointment out of this book, especially considering the huge fuss that is made about the book, it was boring to read and the quotes themselfs were really weak from a political viewpoint, again really dissapointed about that. now about the lyrical value of the book i cant say to much, the critique i've read from the version i have was that the lyrical value was lost in translation and therefore i found the read pretty boring and uninteresting. might be that it could've been better if the lyrical stuff was as good as in the original but meh, i'll never find out.

[Aurora]

I just read the first three chapters and two others and to leave aside its atrocious mangled politics it was devoid of any literary character aside from some awful analogies to dusty floors and dinner parties.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Generally speaking I cannot read any "quote books" because when you only have abstract quotations you have no clue as to what exact historical situation the author is writing from, this is doubled when the current subject is talked about because Mao himself never actually compiled it. That being said if you understand the situation of each and every quote then it can be better and as an introductory text to revolutionary strategy it is not the worst by any means, but from a purely literally stand-point any quotations book is a bit lacking.