Here at the Critical Capitalist we do literary criticism from a capitalist perspective. In academia students are inundated with theories or literary criticisms from psychoanalytic to feminist to post-colonial to queer to Russian Formalist to Marxist (lots of Marxist theory) and many in between, but there rarely if ever any capitalist approach taught in literature/literary courses. Google it and you will not find it. Check wikipedia for literary criticism and you will find the ones mentioned above and many others, but you will not find capitalist or libertarian or freedom or egoist or Objectivist literary theories. This concentration on anti-capitalist theories has led to this attempt to break that mold. This article is a quick look at Capitalist Criticism.
First, what is literary criticism? Let's work with the definition offered by LitWeb,
Literary criticism [is] the evaluative or interpretive work written by professional interpreters of texts. It is "criticism" not because it is negative or corrective, but rather because those who write criticism ask hard, analytical, crucial, or "critical" questions about the works they read (LitWeb).
So, critics analyze literature by asking certain questions about the work. Sometimes the questions are informed by a particular theory such as Marxist theory. The critic using Marxist theory might ask questions about class, work, oppression, etcetera. Terry Eagleton is a well-known literary theorist. He describes Marxist criticism,
Marxist criticism is not merely a 'sociology of literature', concerned with how novels get published and whether they mention the working class. Its aim is to explain the literary work more fully; and this means a sensitive attention to its forms, styles and meanings. But it also means grasping those forms, styles and meanings as the product of a particular history (Eagleton, 3).
Capitalist criticism is much the same in the sense that it pays attention to form, style, and meaning. But form, style and meaning are informed not by ideas of class, exploitation or oppression as with Marxist criticism, but by ideas of freedom, ethics, individualism, justice, and reason. The term capitalist used here is not restricted to the economic theory of capitalism, rather it denotes a theory of ethics, a philosophy of a social system. This idea of a capitalist philosophy of a social system is illustrated in works of both fiction and non-fiction by many authors including Ayn Rand in her books Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal, Atlas Shrugged, and others.
The capitalist critic will ask questions of the literature concerning how the writer uses the different points listed above, intentionally or otherwise. These ideas are fleshed out by way of relationships, roles, and other aspects of characterization, setting, circumstance, etcetera. The critic helps understand the writer and the work by taking a specific approach to the literature.
There is also the larger question of the work that is considered. Who wrote it and why? What were the circumstances of the authorship and what were the motivations of the author in writing it?
At each level and with each point of concern the basis of capitalist criticism is the foundational elements of capitalist philosophy: freedom, ethics, justice, individualism/egoism and reason.
The posts at this blog are just short examples of the process of capitalist criticism. More complete critiques are generally much more in depth and certainly much longer.
Works Cited
Eagleton, Terry. Marxism and literary criticism. University of California Press Berkeley 1976.
LitWeb http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb05/glossary/glossary_l.htm
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
King and Queen of the Universe by Kurt Vonnegut
We should all realize that freedom is the ideal most important to the common good. The removal of our freedom, the making of laws that compel us to give our property to others in the name of being our brother's keeper, is said to be for the common good, but it is necessarily the opposite. Who is to say what is the common good? Who should we empower? Mob rule (democracy) is anarchy. "Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)" (Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, 121-2). That is whose freedom needs protected above all.
I have been a fan of Kurt Vonnegut for quite some time. At one point I think I read all of his books that had been published at the time. The story we look at here is called "King and Queen of the Universe." It is included in a book of short stories that was released after Vonnegut's death. The book is called Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut.
Vonnegut takes us back to the Great Depression in 1932, meaning in the US since the rest of the world didnt really have a "great" depression though it did experience a depression. The main characters are Henry and Anne both 17 years old, children of wealth, Henry's father is a banker and Anne's father is a gas company owner. The children are, by arrangement, engaged to be married. The couple has been at a dance until late in the evening. As they are making their way through a dark park, where "people had been murdered," toward the garage and their car, they are greeted by a haggard, bum of a man, Stanley Karpinksy. They are nervous believing that Karpinsky intends to do them harm. But as Karpinsky speaks a bit they become more comfortable. Stanley calls the pair "King and Queen of the Universe." He suggests his mother would very much like to meet them. They agree to meet her. Stanley means right now, in the middle of the night. So, they follow Stanley to his home in a broken down house that has been made into apartments. Along the way it is noted that a policeman spots the trio. It turns out that Karpinsky is an industrial chemist. He has built what is called in the story an apparatus. He is interested in selling it. It is for this reason that he has asked Henry and Anne to come to his home to meet his mother. He informs his mother that the children's parents are going to buy the apparatus. Stanley will become wealthy, famous, and well-respected. Stanley explains to the couple that his parents were poor immigrants who worked very hard, his father to his death and his mother nearly there, to put him through college and graduate school.
One important point to touch on for the Capitalist Critic is how hard Stanley's parents worked; immigrants who came from nothing. They came to the U.S. to the opportunity to provide for their son, to give him a chance to obtain a master of science degree. It is Stanley's parent's dream for him to become rich and famous. Stanley comments,
"It's my mother's and father's dream come true," said Karpinsky. "It's what made their son rich and famous. Think of it--they were humble peasants in a strange land, unable to even read or write. But they worked hard in this land of promise, and every tearstained penny they got they put into an education for their son. They sent him not only to high school, but to college! Not only to college, but to graduate school! Now look at him--how successful he is!" (16).
Karpinsky's parents dreamed the American dream. To Stanley, their dreams will be realized when he becomes wealthy, whatever that may mean, the term is undefined. Vonnegut continues by saying that Henry and Anne are just too young and too sheltered to understand Stanley's rant for what it really was, "bloodcurdling satire" (16).
Stanley's big complaint is that despite all of his qualifications, he can't even get a job as a dishwasher. We know from the story that, as Stanley told us, he is a drunk, and as the sign on the door told us, he is an industrial chemist with a master of science degree. The implication, given the setting from the beginning of the story, is that there are no jobs to be had during the Great Depression. If there was a job, Stanley would have it. Stanley's mother is having an operation in the morning. Stanly is informed that her chances are not good. So, he has to make a good impression and make his mother's dreams come true right here, tonight. He wakes his mother and tells her the good news. She is elated. Henry and Anne are there to confirm to her, by their presence, what Stanley has told her. As they were celebrating, police crashed into the room. They grabbed Stanley. When his mother saw this she "groaned and died" (18). It was the young pair's fathers who had called the police. They had reported them as kidnapped.
Anne and Henry are depressed. Anne begins to write a book, "There was a depression on. Most of the people in the city were poor and heartbroken, but there was dancing at the Athletic Club" (18). Henry sleeps until noon and then feels an urge to go somewhere, though he doesn't know where. He ends up at Anne's house where he meets Anne and her mother. Anne's mother, Mrs. Heiler, is broken up about the incident. She is keeping it together, but barely. Her primary worry is her daughter. Because of the experience with the Karpinskys, Anne and Henry have lost their innocence. Mrs. Heiler feels a little bit of guilt about the whole thing. She tells Anne and Henry that a job was found for Stanley, this should make them all feel better. Mrs. Heiler is not happy about the Depression, of course. She asks the children if they think the wealthy adults are happy that so many people are out of work, and what would the children have them do? She thinks the Depression is "sickening, just sickening" (20). Mrs. Heiler is portrayed as someone who keeps her head in the sand in order to remain happy and to deal with the horrors of times. Vonnegut writes that Mrs. Heiler felt that "the most beautiful thing money could buy was a childhood a lifetime long" (20). She prefers to remain innocent; unmarked and unaffected by the miserable, real life taking place all around her. This is Vonnegut's wealthy, adult female during the Depression, uninformed and willing to stay so. In fact, longing to stay blissfully ignorant.
The Critical Capitalist question that quickly comes to mind is, "Why would the wife of a rich producer feel guilty?"
Economists argue about what caused the Great Depression and they argue about why it was so long. Until the 1930s the US had experienced many deep recessions--sometimes called market corrections--but nothing quite of the scale of the Great Depression of the 1930s and 1940s. Regulation and other forms of government control along with the policies and actions of the Federal Reserve all helped to cause the problems. Many economists would also suggest that the behavior of corporations and banks, including greed driven actions, contributed to the problems. The place where the problems of this type of financial woes hits home is unemployment. People have plans, dreams, ideas, and hopes that are dashed and destroyed by the failed policies of our government. This is happening again today as unemployment has risen despite the efforts of our government, taking from one man to give to another, has failed to curb this important statistic.
But, as with many of our so-called representatives, Vonnegut seems to want to blame the businessman. He makes Mrs. Heiler a rube, a naïve or stupid woman who wants to stay that way. She thinks that there is "nothing wrong in the world that could not be repaired easily" (19). Henry's mother is "sweet" and "sheltered" (19). Vonnegut also portrays Anne's father and Henry's father as presumptuous, heavy-handed, and high-minded. As the police break into Karpinsky's house that the Vonnegut says that the men were "wild with fear" (18).
The children, Henry and Anne, don't have tough times nor have they been "touched by the soul-deep aspects of love" (10). They have "Winnie-the-Pooh mood[s]" (10). Henry is even said to consider "his tuxedo as safe-conduct pass through the park" (10). When they were first approached by Stanley Henry became a "fool" and Anne became "a fuddled butterball" (11).
Karpinsky on the other hand is a drunk, but he can also play the magician (15) and he is educated (13). He is a good son who wants to please his parents (17). He is also in tune or observant enough to notice that the children, Anne and Henry, were innocent in the entire tragedy (21). He recognizes that the kids have been shaken by the tragedy, so he tries to console them by saying, if we had fooled her last night, I would have considered my life at a satisfactory end, with all debts paid. I would have wound up on skid row, or maybe I would have been a suicide. Now, if I'm ever going to square things with her, I've got to believe in a Heaven, I've got to believe she can look down and see me, and I've got to be a big success for her to see" (22). Vonnegut writes that all three of them felt better.
It seems that in many ways Vonnegut tries to make the rich folks the bad guys, stupid and self-absorbed, and the kids and the Karpinsky the poor man, the innocents, held down and impoverished in one way or another by the wealthy, bad men. He seems, like a good socialist will, to be more concerned with outcome than with opportunity. Apparently Vonnegut would rather the rich be more like the poor, unless of course he feels that it is okay to be greedy, stupid, and uncaring.
As for the guilt that Mrs. Heiler displays: I suppose that someone may actually be guilty and therefore perhaps Mrs. Heiler should feel so. But, if Vonnegut meant for her to feel guilty because she was still living above the standard of Karpinsky, or that she had some money and he or others did not, which I believe is what Vonnegut was implying, she surely had no reason. The producers produce and therefore reap often despite attempts by others to remove any profits. They also pay/employ those who work for them according to an agreed upon contract between the worker and the employer. The employed is free to choose whether or not s/he can work for the offered payment just as the customer chooses where to shop for groceries and other goods. On the other hand, when a government makes these decisions freedom is diminished as enforcement of any law is at the point of a gun; there is no choice and this is not freedom.
Works Cited
Rand, Ayn. The Virtue of Selfishness. New York: New American Liberty, 1964.
Vonnegut, Kurt. "King and Queen of the Universe." Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut. New York: Delecorte Press, 2009.
I have been a fan of Kurt Vonnegut for quite some time. At one point I think I read all of his books that had been published at the time. The story we look at here is called "King and Queen of the Universe." It is included in a book of short stories that was released after Vonnegut's death. The book is called Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut.
Vonnegut takes us back to the Great Depression in 1932, meaning in the US since the rest of the world didnt really have a "great" depression though it did experience a depression. The main characters are Henry and Anne both 17 years old, children of wealth, Henry's father is a banker and Anne's father is a gas company owner. The children are, by arrangement, engaged to be married. The couple has been at a dance until late in the evening. As they are making their way through a dark park, where "people had been murdered," toward the garage and their car, they are greeted by a haggard, bum of a man, Stanley Karpinksy. They are nervous believing that Karpinsky intends to do them harm. But as Karpinsky speaks a bit they become more comfortable. Stanley calls the pair "King and Queen of the Universe." He suggests his mother would very much like to meet them. They agree to meet her. Stanley means right now, in the middle of the night. So, they follow Stanley to his home in a broken down house that has been made into apartments. Along the way it is noted that a policeman spots the trio. It turns out that Karpinsky is an industrial chemist. He has built what is called in the story an apparatus. He is interested in selling it. It is for this reason that he has asked Henry and Anne to come to his home to meet his mother. He informs his mother that the children's parents are going to buy the apparatus. Stanley will become wealthy, famous, and well-respected. Stanley explains to the couple that his parents were poor immigrants who worked very hard, his father to his death and his mother nearly there, to put him through college and graduate school.
One important point to touch on for the Capitalist Critic is how hard Stanley's parents worked; immigrants who came from nothing. They came to the U.S. to the opportunity to provide for their son, to give him a chance to obtain a master of science degree. It is Stanley's parent's dream for him to become rich and famous. Stanley comments,
"It's my mother's and father's dream come true," said Karpinsky. "It's what made their son rich and famous. Think of it--they were humble peasants in a strange land, unable to even read or write. But they worked hard in this land of promise, and every tearstained penny they got they put into an education for their son. They sent him not only to high school, but to college! Not only to college, but to graduate school! Now look at him--how successful he is!" (16).
Karpinsky's parents dreamed the American dream. To Stanley, their dreams will be realized when he becomes wealthy, whatever that may mean, the term is undefined. Vonnegut continues by saying that Henry and Anne are just too young and too sheltered to understand Stanley's rant for what it really was, "bloodcurdling satire" (16).
Stanley's big complaint is that despite all of his qualifications, he can't even get a job as a dishwasher. We know from the story that, as Stanley told us, he is a drunk, and as the sign on the door told us, he is an industrial chemist with a master of science degree. The implication, given the setting from the beginning of the story, is that there are no jobs to be had during the Great Depression. If there was a job, Stanley would have it. Stanley's mother is having an operation in the morning. Stanly is informed that her chances are not good. So, he has to make a good impression and make his mother's dreams come true right here, tonight. He wakes his mother and tells her the good news. She is elated. Henry and Anne are there to confirm to her, by their presence, what Stanley has told her. As they were celebrating, police crashed into the room. They grabbed Stanley. When his mother saw this she "groaned and died" (18). It was the young pair's fathers who had called the police. They had reported them as kidnapped.
Anne and Henry are depressed. Anne begins to write a book, "There was a depression on. Most of the people in the city were poor and heartbroken, but there was dancing at the Athletic Club" (18). Henry sleeps until noon and then feels an urge to go somewhere, though he doesn't know where. He ends up at Anne's house where he meets Anne and her mother. Anne's mother, Mrs. Heiler, is broken up about the incident. She is keeping it together, but barely. Her primary worry is her daughter. Because of the experience with the Karpinskys, Anne and Henry have lost their innocence. Mrs. Heiler feels a little bit of guilt about the whole thing. She tells Anne and Henry that a job was found for Stanley, this should make them all feel better. Mrs. Heiler is not happy about the Depression, of course. She asks the children if they think the wealthy adults are happy that so many people are out of work, and what would the children have them do? She thinks the Depression is "sickening, just sickening" (20). Mrs. Heiler is portrayed as someone who keeps her head in the sand in order to remain happy and to deal with the horrors of times. Vonnegut writes that Mrs. Heiler felt that "the most beautiful thing money could buy was a childhood a lifetime long" (20). She prefers to remain innocent; unmarked and unaffected by the miserable, real life taking place all around her. This is Vonnegut's wealthy, adult female during the Depression, uninformed and willing to stay so. In fact, longing to stay blissfully ignorant.
The Critical Capitalist question that quickly comes to mind is, "Why would the wife of a rich producer feel guilty?"
Economists argue about what caused the Great Depression and they argue about why it was so long. Until the 1930s the US had experienced many deep recessions--sometimes called market corrections--but nothing quite of the scale of the Great Depression of the 1930s and 1940s. Regulation and other forms of government control along with the policies and actions of the Federal Reserve all helped to cause the problems. Many economists would also suggest that the behavior of corporations and banks, including greed driven actions, contributed to the problems. The place where the problems of this type of financial woes hits home is unemployment. People have plans, dreams, ideas, and hopes that are dashed and destroyed by the failed policies of our government. This is happening again today as unemployment has risen despite the efforts of our government, taking from one man to give to another, has failed to curb this important statistic.
But, as with many of our so-called representatives, Vonnegut seems to want to blame the businessman. He makes Mrs. Heiler a rube, a naïve or stupid woman who wants to stay that way. She thinks that there is "nothing wrong in the world that could not be repaired easily" (19). Henry's mother is "sweet" and "sheltered" (19). Vonnegut also portrays Anne's father and Henry's father as presumptuous, heavy-handed, and high-minded. As the police break into Karpinsky's house that the Vonnegut says that the men were "wild with fear" (18).
The children, Henry and Anne, don't have tough times nor have they been "touched by the soul-deep aspects of love" (10). They have "Winnie-the-Pooh mood[s]" (10). Henry is even said to consider "his tuxedo as safe-conduct pass through the park" (10). When they were first approached by Stanley Henry became a "fool" and Anne became "a fuddled butterball" (11).
Karpinsky on the other hand is a drunk, but he can also play the magician (15) and he is educated (13). He is a good son who wants to please his parents (17). He is also in tune or observant enough to notice that the children, Anne and Henry, were innocent in the entire tragedy (21). He recognizes that the kids have been shaken by the tragedy, so he tries to console them by saying, if we had fooled her last night, I would have considered my life at a satisfactory end, with all debts paid. I would have wound up on skid row, or maybe I would have been a suicide. Now, if I'm ever going to square things with her, I've got to believe in a Heaven, I've got to believe she can look down and see me, and I've got to be a big success for her to see" (22). Vonnegut writes that all three of them felt better.
It seems that in many ways Vonnegut tries to make the rich folks the bad guys, stupid and self-absorbed, and the kids and the Karpinsky the poor man, the innocents, held down and impoverished in one way or another by the wealthy, bad men. He seems, like a good socialist will, to be more concerned with outcome than with opportunity. Apparently Vonnegut would rather the rich be more like the poor, unless of course he feels that it is okay to be greedy, stupid, and uncaring.
As for the guilt that Mrs. Heiler displays: I suppose that someone may actually be guilty and therefore perhaps Mrs. Heiler should feel so. But, if Vonnegut meant for her to feel guilty because she was still living above the standard of Karpinsky, or that she had some money and he or others did not, which I believe is what Vonnegut was implying, she surely had no reason. The producers produce and therefore reap often despite attempts by others to remove any profits. They also pay/employ those who work for them according to an agreed upon contract between the worker and the employer. The employed is free to choose whether or not s/he can work for the offered payment just as the customer chooses where to shop for groceries and other goods. On the other hand, when a government makes these decisions freedom is diminished as enforcement of any law is at the point of a gun; there is no choice and this is not freedom.
Works Cited
Rand, Ayn. The Virtue of Selfishness. New York: New American Liberty, 1964.
Vonnegut, Kurt. "King and Queen of the Universe." Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut. New York: Delecorte Press, 2009.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
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Welcome to The Critical Capitalist blog. Using a capitalist perspective as literary criticism.
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