Famous Dukburg author Don Rosa finally let out the truth about why he quit. It is a terrifying tale about the Disney business model. http://career-end.donrosa.de/

Faste lesere av denne bloggen har oppdaget at "Ronny vinner tegneserierelaterte konkurranser" er en egen sjanger, eller "genre" som det het da jeg var ung! (Se http://venstresida.net/?q=node/3562 og http://venstresida.net/?q=node/698) Vel, nå er tiden her igjen - spis støv suckers! Jeg er vinneren av Tempos Facebookpåskekonkurranse!

Innimellom leser jeg bøker. Noen ganger kommer jeg også med en kort eller lengre rapport om hva jeg syntes om dem. Da blir det litt slik som under:

Busemannen av Knut Nærum m fl.:

As sometimes happens - luckily - things fall into public domain, and anybody can share and read the fantastic Tarzan stories of great masters like Hal Foster, Russ Manning or Burne Hogarth:
http://www.erbzine.com/comics/

Etter at Senterpartiets Marte Løvik tok et betimelig oppgjør med en ukultur rundt behandling av kvinner i det politiske miljøet i Trondheim, har hun fått mange støtterklæringer og mye ros, både i avisen og på sosiale medier. Men rosen har stort sett kommet fra kvinner.

Dette er noe vi kjenner godt igjen fra andre ganger kvinner har forsøkt å ta lignende oppgjør. Responsen fra menn er ofte taushet eller bagatellisering. I noen tilfeller krasse motangrep, og ikke bare i avisenes kommentarfelt der dette er regelen heller enn unntaket. Flere ganger har kvinner som er synlige i offentligheten også meldt om betydelige mengder hets og trusler.

As the few determined readers of this off-and-on column probably have gathered by now, I believe that one of the most important contributions Antonio Gramsci has made to modern political thought, is his break with the economic determinism of many early Marxists.

It has been an ongoing debate, to which extent Marx himself can be blamed for the rather dogmatic and mechanistic turn historical materialism took around the turn of the 19th century. It can however hardly be contested that the major contributions to this ideological blind alley, came after Marx death, by other Marxists such as Karl Kautsky and Nikolai Bukharin.

All though it is uncontroversial that humans are formed by the material conditions under which they grow up, and their thoughts are thus to an extent shaped by social class. To go from this, to claim that all of human history by necessity goes through certain distinct phases, with revolutions in-between, is naturally to take a leap into a world where the human mind’s need to construct order and patterns overshadows what can be actually concluded from empirical data.

Like Antonio Gramsci found himself confined to Mussolini's dungeons, having to jot down short lines of thought in small notebooks, I at times find myself confined to the kitchen table, by a laptop, forced by an uncontrollable impulse to comment on something I have seen or read, to write a few short lines about some subject.

I recently aquired a (Norwegian language) copy of Franz Kafkas “Letters to Milena” [1], collecting some of Franz Kafka's letters to Milena Jesenská from 1920 to 1923.

Like Antonio Gramsci found himself confined to Mussolini's dungeons, having to jot down short lines of thought in small notebooks, I at times find myself confined to the kitchen table, by a laptop, forced by an uncontrollable impulse to comment on something I have seen or read, to write a few short lines about some subject.

I recently started reading Monthly Review Press’ edition of Antonio A. Santucci’s Antonio Gramsci. One of the best known concepts Gramsci developed is the concept of "common sense". Gramsci describes common sense as:

common sense identifies exact, simple, and practi­cal causes through a set of judgments, and it does not allow itself to be drawn into metaphysical, pseudo-profound, pseudo-scientific, etc., quibbles and absurdities” (Q, p. 1334) (quoted in Santucci p 139).

This is a description which I find quite precise to this date. The focus on exact and simple causalities makes it difficult to introduce more complex ideas (or ideas that seem more complex) when you have political opponents that counter your ideas with more simple concepts.

This years Marxist X-mas carol is about the italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci. Enjoy:

I unfortunately did not have time to make a video. Perhaps Next X-mas?

Lyrics: "Must Be Gramsci"

Who's updatet marxist theory
Gramsci updated the theory

Who coined the term hegemony
Gramsci coined hegemony

Theory, Hegemony

Must be Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci
Must be Gramsci: Tony G

Who's got glasses and curly hair

New RedStar Budapest album release with brand new electronica mixes of classic Iceberg trax: http://redstarbudapest.blogspot.no/2013/09/uj-mp3-new-mp3.html

Download and enjoy!