Comments on: Thesis Workshop: When Is It Safe to Go on Reading Capital?

By: N Pepperell

N Pepperell — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:40:28 +0000

lol – yes – but here’s to hoping the actual thesis doesn’t require multiple editions… ;-) The book that derives from the thesis – that’s fine… ;-)

By: Kvond

Kvond — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:36:56 +0000

Sorry to hear about the committee. One should never push the committee, no matter the fate of Benjamin’s Habilitation, and his most offending but brilliant Prologue.

You can always include the appendix on the reprint of the thesis, in its second or third edition (you never know).

The best.

By: N Pepperell

N Pepperell — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:09:00 +0000

I actually learned today that the research committee here frowns on appendices (frowning taking the form of counting the content as part of the word count of the thesis…). I’m quite close to the margins, unfortunately, of the word count as it is, so this option is probably barred…

But yes: the main concern – I mean, a thesis is a somewhat indulgent thing in the best of cases, and so there’s an issue of not pushing that even more by tossing in material that the reader doesn’t really need to know, to follow the substantive argument. I may just eventually make the material available here – there’s a great deal, in any event – and on Marx, not just Hegel – that hasn’t made it into the thesis. Blog grist for the year to come… ;-)

By: Kvond

Kvond — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:07:14 +0000

I don’t know, I haven’t looked at the material. And one might say that any proposed interpretation is somewhat audacious, especially of a well-trod thinker like Marx. The way that I look at it in general is that your reading of Hegel may not have immediate bearing upon anything that you are strictly saying of Marx, but can serve as a conceptual constellation touch-point, bringing about a perspective that might make your treatment of Marx more clear, broadly so. Even your short explanatory paragraph above would help position the text.

I understand though that there is a kind of guilt here. You want to include it because there is “some pretty good stuff in there” (or something like that), and there is a hiistorical/traditional connection between Hegel and Marx. If it is just a question of guilt over indulgence, I would say go forward. Just write an expanded bridge introduction like the above, orienting the text. The way that I think of it is like a cartography: Here is a very detailed map of this island chain, and in the appendix is located a broadscale map of the continental coast line that has had much historical interaction with this chain.

take care.

By: N Pepperell

N Pepperell — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:10:12 +0000

Hey Kvond – Sorry you were held in moderation – should only happen the first time you comment. Thanks for this – I had been thinking of doing this, to be honest, although a bit worried that it’s somewhat self-indulgent, even as an appendix. The justification for it would be that Marx doesn’t particularly do justice to Hegel (and, when he mentions Hegel explicitly, is often clearly thinking of some appropriator of Hegel – like, say, Proudhon) – and so, when I speak of Hegel in the main text of the thesis, I’m sort of necessarily going through Marx to get to him. An appendix would offer an opportunity to think more explicitly about what this relationship might look like, seen from the Hegelian side, so to speak. But precisely for that reason, it might not actually be relevant to the thesis, even as an appendix…

In any event, still worrying over it… But I think it’s definitely right not to splice it in.

Take care…

By: Kvond

Kvond — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:33:43 +0000

Rough Theory: “So I alternate between wincing because I can explain Hegel’s position much more adequately, and reminding myself that the thesis isn’t about doing justice to Hegel’s work, but only needs to talk about the much more limited topic of how Marx uses Hegel…”

Kvond: Don’t splice it in, post the Hegel chapter as an Appendix

By: Reading Capital and Beyond « Larval Subjects .

Reading Capital and Beyond « Larval Subjects . — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:34:30 +0000

[...] Politics, Relation, Repetition, Subject, Writing N.Pepperell has begun posting chapter drafts of her long awaited thesis on Marx over at Rough Theory. The work that she’s doing is well [...]