in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis many capital reading groups were set up. the young (in particular those radicalised by the student struggles) participated in them. people began to meet politically again. people wanted to understand how capitalism had come to be in crisis (by its own lights) and they wanted to posses a theory that would enable them to see a way forward.
in the end the balance of political forces was such that the poor and the young paid for the crisis by way of austerity and the rich merely got richer. the student movement turned out to be the high point and the moment passed.
let us look at another capital reading group to see how it fared.
in early 1965 althusser, balibar, ranciere, macherey and establet sit down to read capital and comment on it, they all write papers and discuss them, a book is published lire le capital in two volumes incorporating papers from all of them.
'in the half-arranged, half-spontaneous division of labour which presided over the organisation of this collective study of capital, it fell to me to discuss marx's relation to his work...'
althusser and his allies wanted to move marx onto a firm philosophical footing, one he argues is there already if we could but teach ourselves to see it, for it is there already but not explicitly formulated.
'I close this forward with the conclusion that, if I have replaced the original project for this paper, which was intended to deal with marx's relation to his work, with a second project dealing with the peculiar object of capital, this was quite necessary... these reasons may be invisible to us at first glance... like all radical innovations they are blinding.' - reading capital, introduction to part II, the object of capital, louis althusser, 1965.
as we can see the object of capital has replaced althusser's original object (even to the extent of retroactively (as if) becoming the title of the section). he is giving us the method in microcosm, a lesson to be attentive to the shifting of objects of the text (for example between the object of the classical economists and the object of capital).
this shifting of objects in the text horsemouth took to be quite derridean but it is also like the episteme in foucault. but what does he know?
and yet the half-arranged, half-spontaneous division of labour in the capital reading group that althusser speaks of is already such a changing object.
for then an edition with only althusser and balibar's texts (and those altered) is produced, in part 'in order to allow the book to be produced in a smaller format'. althusser argues that nothing has changed between the object the text of althusser, balibar, ranciere, macherey and establet and the object of the text of althusser and balibar alone (and even these have endured some re-writing).
just think about that. this would indeed be an astonishing achievement,
the logo of new left books (who published the english translation of althusser and balibar's book and later go on to become verso books) is by ken garland and is a highly abstracted tower of babel (ok it can be objected it is in fact the soviet avant-garde version of this, an ascending helix displaced from the vertical).
the althusserian project (like the tower of babel) falls apart. the events of 68 happen and instead of trying to reform the PCF (the french communist party) people start to route round it. they do this via the philosophy of foucault, derrida, deleuze, in maoism (and the later in a return of many french leftists to reactionary social positions). and yet these positions, these new philosophies, are marked by althusserianism.
horsemouth's reading of all of this is unhealthily framed by derrida's spectres of marx and his subsequent reading of the thoroughly disgruntled ranciere. (the others seem to have reconciled themselves to it). horsemouth's understanding of the basic marxist categories is not strong enough to permit him to understand fully what is at stake, similarly his understanding althusser's concepts is not strong.
further he is not convinced that even if althusser had been able to make his project work he could have swung the great institutional weight of the PCF round to more radical positions or that this would have made any worthwhile difference to the outcome of 68. in fact horsemouth subscribes to the new left belief that it is necessary to re-found the marxist project away from the old communist parties.
he tends to read it all as a literary adventure. he likes the suggestiveness of althusser's writing, the tragic sorcerer's apprentice nature of the story.
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yesterday horsemouth was listening to a demo CD for musicians of bremen volume one (with some of b-sides thrown in).
the golden one (folk) then I'm sad and I'm lonely. he was on a hunt through the demoed up tracks for unreleased musicians of bremen. the hidden musicians of bremen that people do not know is there.
today horsemouth goes for a walk with TG. then he goes for a meeting of the communal endeavour (he hasn't seen people for a long time he wants to go for a beer after). thursday there was a plan for him to go over to howard's to do some recording (for it is half-term) but on the whole horsemouth thinks it is better to let howard get on with it on his own - howard is particular, it will not do to shift the object from under him. (conversely there may be tracks for which the shifting of the object is the precondition for their productivity). later thursday howard is off to stick in the wheel (horsemouth doesn't think he will be going).
at the weekend samhain (halloween). the clocks do something strange. horsemouth will produce an end of month books, films, gigs, events list.
