Jim Devine:
>I'm sorry, but this use of the words "dialectical understanding" reminds me
>of a (poor) novel about the Spanish Civil War, in which a CP type uses the
>term "dialectics" to mean a double cross.
Isn't that "Farewell to a Trotskyite"? I believe this was discussed in Alan
Wald's "Revolutionary Intellectuals of the Spanish Civil War", now
regrettably out of print. It was written by Irving Cohen-Perez, a second
rate Hemingway imitator who hung out with Mike Gold. He used a literary
device called "proletarasky mishigoyim" that operated on a strict
mathematical basis. If the average length of a sentence in a chapter
exceeded 5 words, then it was considered reactionary. Here is a bit of
Cohen-Perez that Wald cites:
Ricardo said, "Where is the dynamite".
Jorge said, "A Trotskyite is storing it in his delicatessen."
Ricardo said, "You can never trust a Trotskyite".
Jorge said, "But at least he has delicious dill pickles."
Louis Proyect
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