I skipped ahead in David Denby's book to his chapter on Marx because I wanted to see how wrong his opinion was. He, in several words, said that it was comically bad, the prose was inappropriate, none of what Marx was suggesting ever came to fruition and never will. And that was the breaking point for me. I took Aristotle and Plato seriously for weeks because of you men! and you're not going to take this seriously. And listen, I respect someone who confidently says that men are superior. But this guy is such a hypocrite. He masks as this super liberal, open guy, but then has every dumb opinion in the world, and hates his job because he feels like it's below him, feels trapped in a dull 'middle class (it was the early 2000's) life, and the refuses to think critically about Marx.

Or, why bother bringing up the debate about what texts should be in the canon repeatedly (like once to a couple of times a chapter) if you are going to say that every person who disagrees with it is wrong.

I found his website and sent him an email to see if he could still feel the same way, considering how different the world is 20 years later. Also, I just had a little moment thinking about how quaint the early 2000s seem compared to right now. But I checked his site, and it looks like he wrote a very similar book to this one but with 'inner-city' students just like a year ago, so I am going to tap out of this one and say no.

boring book club

Marx, The Communist Manifesto