Book review, The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
I read this about a month ago, but it's percolating through my mind, especially with politics the way it is right now. I wasn't initially sure it was a good book, but anything that percolates round one's mind for a month probably is.
The main innovation is that it's four notebooks, kept by one woman (Anna, who I assume is somewhat autobiographical) who understands that life comes in different segments. There's her disastrous love life, her youth in what is now Zimbabwe in which she was part of a group which ruined a black man's life for essentially no reason, her membership of the British Communist Party, and her relationship with her friend Molly.
The one that resonated with current politics was the British Communist Party (the British Rhodesia part is painful too). It enunciated what I'd suspected - that the problem with left wing organisations is that left wing people tend to be self-critical, thoughtful, and principled. Which means they can never precisely agree on an agenda or priorities; even if they are broadly aligned, one is bound to say something the other will find unforgiveable. So the best size for full agreement within a left-wing organisation is, unfortunately, one. But, that's not very effective, so people who want to organise have to put up with people who don't 100% agree with them.
Anyway - I was thinking this because I am now connected on Facebook with some rightwingers in the US (what we have in common: geese. OMG maybe geese people = Nazis after all) and reading some of the stuff they like. And it's like 'being a member of the World Worker's Party' is a point against someone. Now, I'm not an expert on modern day far left parties, but the WWP appear to have taken some positions on North Korea and Venezuela that later history doesn't really support, including sending Kim Jong-Un a letter of commiserations on the death of his father. In 1994. They haven't killed anyone (I'm not sure they've even really committed violence during protests). Their main agenda today seems to be to get rid of the Confederate statues and associated symbolism. Which seems like a good idea to me. I mean, you can ignore loathsome symbolism, but once you drag it into the open and realise loads of people like the symbolism, it makes sense to get rid of it. That's what symbolism is.
The rest of the book didn't resonate so much, although I think it's saying something about the conflict between being a woman who likes men and would quite like to be in love with one, and a woman's sexual freedom, namely that all the men she dates are kind of arseholes (and she's kind of homophobic). Thank goodness, men are not all like that.
The Golden Notebook is all freeform and inchoate and meant to make you think and not draw clear conclusions. Which is, come to think of it, a very leftwing perspective on anything.
The main innovation is that it's four notebooks, kept by one woman (Anna, who I assume is somewhat autobiographical) who understands that life comes in different segments. There's her disastrous love life, her youth in what is now Zimbabwe in which she was part of a group which ruined a black man's life for essentially no reason, her membership of the British Communist Party, and her relationship with her friend Molly.
The one that resonated with current politics was the British Communist Party (the British Rhodesia part is painful too). It enunciated what I'd suspected - that the problem with left wing organisations is that left wing people tend to be self-critical, thoughtful, and principled. Which means they can never precisely agree on an agenda or priorities; even if they are broadly aligned, one is bound to say something the other will find unforgiveable. So the best size for full agreement within a left-wing organisation is, unfortunately, one. But, that's not very effective, so people who want to organise have to put up with people who don't 100% agree with them.
Anyway - I was thinking this because I am now connected on Facebook with some rightwingers in the US (what we have in common: geese. OMG maybe geese people = Nazis after all) and reading some of the stuff they like. And it's like 'being a member of the World Worker's Party' is a point against someone. Now, I'm not an expert on modern day far left parties, but the WWP appear to have taken some positions on North Korea and Venezuela that later history doesn't really support, including sending Kim Jong-Un a letter of commiserations on the death of his father. In 1994. They haven't killed anyone (I'm not sure they've even really committed violence during protests). Their main agenda today seems to be to get rid of the Confederate statues and associated symbolism. Which seems like a good idea to me. I mean, you can ignore loathsome symbolism, but once you drag it into the open and realise loads of people like the symbolism, it makes sense to get rid of it. That's what symbolism is.
The rest of the book didn't resonate so much, although I think it's saying something about the conflict between being a woman who likes men and would quite like to be in love with one, and a woman's sexual freedom, namely that all the men she dates are kind of arseholes (and she's kind of homophobic). Thank goodness, men are not all like that.
The Golden Notebook is all freeform and inchoate and meant to make you think and not draw clear conclusions. Which is, come to think of it, a very leftwing perspective on anything.