Marx: "Best Selling Author"

[RedMaterialist]

I thought this was hilarious. Amazon has a new edition of Capital from a company called Pacific Publishing Studio. The front cover screams, "...International Best Seller..." from "the landmark best selling author..."

Maybe this means more people will read the book because it is a best seller (which I believe it is, second maybe to the Bible.)

http://www.amazon.com/Das-Kapital-Ka...&keywords=marx

On the other hand has "Karl Marx" become a best selling commodity?

[Taters]

I find reading the reviews on prominent Marxist works a lot more amusing...

I'm a Marxist. I'm a capitalist, a Republican, and a Christian.

Also, yeah, it's marketing. "From the visionary author who brought you the The Eighteenth Brumaire
of Louis Bonaparte..."

[RebelDog]

If Marx was around today he'd be loaded.

[Goblin]

I believe Maos little red book is the second most sold book of all time, next to the Bible.

[Brutus]

I thought it was the most printed other than the bible

[Jimmie Higgins]

On the other hand has "Karl Marx" become a best selling commodity?

No more than ever - probably even a little less. First, in contemporary times, controversy sells and so I'm sure the all the "Obama is a Socialist" stuff has caused some interest in the US in people revisiting these works, economic busts are also always a time for "re-discovery" of Marx by the mainstream.

Generally the mainstream take on Capital is "this work has surprizingly sharp insights into the workings of capitalism... there's also all this stuff about the working class which is obviously anarcronistic and in no way relevant because we all know workers are happy... actually they don't exist at all, we're all rich now... but anyway, good insights into the market."

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Not to mention the various "Marxian" authors who are currently trying to prove that we have entered a new era of global peace, that the proletariat doesn't exist anymore, that politics is dead etc.

[Brutus]

that the proletariat doesn't exist anymore

Im fading away...away...away...

[The Jay]

I find this hilarious. It doesn't really do any harm so it doesn't bother me. At least they aren't putting words in his mouth.

[Q]

I find this hilarious. It doesn't really do any harm so it doesn't bother me. At least they aren't putting words in his mouth.

Of course they are: While stating how he was "right", they're cutting out all the political conclusions flowing from this. Also, there is another contradiction: While Capital is a 'bestseller', the ruling class will never skip an opportunity pointing out how 'difficult' it is. So, they want to sell it, but not for the purpose that you actually read it, it seems.

[The Jay]

Of course they are: While stating how he was "right", they're cutting out all the political conclusions flowing from this. Also, there is another contradiction: While Capital is a 'bestseller', the ruling class will never skip an opportunity pointing out how 'difficult' it is. So, they want to sell it, but not for the purpose that you actually read it, it seems.

I'm just talking about smacking 'best seller' and what not on the cover. Even so, them doing that can't really hurt interest in Capital since it is a largely self-selecting group.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I find it funny that whenever it's written or talked about it's "Capital" but the book covers are always titled: "Das Kapital".

[Luís Henrique]

Of course they are: While stating how he was "right", they're cutting out all the political conclusions flowing from this. Also, there is another contradiction: While Capital is a 'bestseller', the ruling class will never skip an opportunity pointing out how 'difficult' it is. So, they want to sell it, but not for the purpose that you actually read it, it seems.

To be sure, it's not just the ruling class that spreads the myth of Das Kapital being difficult; academic "Marxists" interested in preserving an oligopoly on the interpretation of the book are also prone to do it.

Perhaps we need a Marxist Luther to defend the free interpretation of Das Buch.

Luís Henrique

[Brutus]

Wasn't das kapital written for a working class audience?

[Tenka]

Yeah it's not difficult. I sort of zone out when going over the math, but the prose is easily comprehensible to anyone familiar with 19th century popular fiction--and that's more people than you might think. The book is rather boring though. I still haven't read very far into it....

[Brutus]

Yeah it's not difficult. I sort of zone out when going over the math, but the prose is easily comprehensible to anyone familiar with 19th century popular fiction--and that's more people than you might think. The book is rather boring though. I still haven't read very far into it....

I can't say I have. About 100 pages.

[RadioRaheem84]

Reading Marx is almost like reading literature. He had a way with words. His prose is pretty eloquent. I love his writing style.

It's not difficult but like Tenka said I just totally zone out on the math. I'm sure others would to.

[Q]

Perhaps we need a Marxist Luther to defend the free interpretation of Das Buch.

Don't we have one already?

[Die Neue Zeit]

Of course they are: While stating how he was "right", they're cutting out all the political conclusions flowing from this. Also, there is another contradiction: While Capital is a 'bestseller', the ruling class will never skip an opportunity pointing out how 'difficult' it is. So, they want to sell it, but not for the purpose that you actually read it, it seems.

To be sure, it's not just the ruling class that spreads the myth of Das Kapital being difficult; academic "Marxists" interested in preserving an oligopoly on the interpretation of the book are also prone to do it.

Perhaps we need a Marxist Luther to defend the free interpretation of Das Buch.

Luís Henrique

Wasn't das kapital written for a working class audience?

The left hasn't done much of a job historically in "best-selling" Contribution (1859), Grundrisse, or Kautsky's Economic Doctrines, and I'm of a mixed opinion on Capital's audience.

A shorter but large book "outlining" the six areas of political economy Marx intended to critique would definitely have been written for a working-class audience. Capital as a theme is one-dimensional without wage labour, landed property, the state, international trade, and the world market.

Don't we have one already?

Too bad he himself hasn't taken up the task to write a book integrating the five areas I mentioned above.

[Brutus]

Too bad he himself hasn't taken up the task to write a book integrating the five areas I mentioned above.

Has anyone?