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Thanks very much for your helpful and friendly reply! It especially helped me understand how getting in early on a given instance of technological innovation allows a capitalist to exploit the difference between the new, shorter amount of labor time required and the "socially necessary" amount that in a sense hasn't caught up yet with the implications of the new technology (this despite the fall in in the price of the given commodity, which I suppose is outweighed by this advantage). Capital is definitely a book to change one's worldview. You begin to want to point out to your friends "but look, let's think about how this stuff was *actually* made!" and items you once considered unitary (a subway car, say) begin to dissolve into their components. I guess that is what they call "demystification." One other thing I would say about it is that whereas I was once intimidated by the book and felt that I should start with other works by Marx that seem somehow easier (such as the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts), after getting about halfway through Vol 1 of Capital I would actually reverse course and say that newcomers can really benefit from starting with that work, because while it's long, its exposition is manifestly clear and methodical, and because you are able to understand the phenomena Marx talks about in the early works by virtue of the systematic understanding he gives you in Capital. At any rate, thanks again and I'll continue to come to this list with questions that I will try to make substantive and discussion-worthy. In terms of aids, I have been watching David Harvey's videotaped lectures after I read the chapters, which are helpful in terms of refreshing one's memory. I find myself wondering if those interpretations represent a specific ideological valence within the field of Marxist interpretation more generally (as would anyone's personal take), but I'm not sure what exactly that would be. AB ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
