You think? I'd be more of a Dickensianesque uncle - send you up the chimneys or something. And you'd better have a word with Kitty - she seems to have gotten it into her head that she's getting my books........ ........it is rather worrying that both of you are plotting how to dispose of my estate and I ain't even dead yet. EDIT: Just saw Spidge's response - see what I mean - everyone knows that Kitty's got her eyes on my tomes!
Me? Up a chimney? Well, I love getting dirty but you'd have to have some big chimneys! Still, at least I'd get to run around on roofs with Dick Van Dyke...;-) Kitty? Are you kidding me? She'd come across some obscure book on 617's Mossies and propose to the thing! At least I'd give the collection the respect it deserves...over time given my reading speed at the moment! Kitty, I'll borrow them at a rate of one pack of Maltesers per book per week? Okay?
Kitty, you are going to end with a serious Malteser overdose with that proposition. Andy, if you only borrow one book a week then you'd better be around for another 70+ years (though I'd doubt you'd be interested in Gramscian Marxism or Kellners theories on postmodernism - but Foucauldian philosophy may rock your boat).
It is indeed - it helps me relax (and I'm not joking. Foucault was an awesome philosopher): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault Gramsci was an Italian marxist who developed some great ideas. Worked with Mussolini on socialist newspapers before WW1, when Mussolini was still a socialist. But once Mussolini split and became a fascist, he had Gramsci arrested and imprisoned, where Gramsci wrote his greatest books. He died in a fascist prison. His theory on hegemony is still the best: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramsci
Well it is! OK, so I happen to know what hegemony is - a bit difficult to study sociology without it. But leaving aside his philosophical work, Gramsci's relationship with Mussolini, and Mussolini's shift from the extreme left to the extreme right is fascinating (though this was not uncommon at that time). And Gramsci and Italian Communist Party are very cosely associated with the rise of Mussolini, especially as he used the threat of them taking power as leverage with the middle and landed classes. just as fascinating is the parallels between the Italian and the French Communist parties in their attempts to combat fascism, and the way that Stalin interferred with this. This became especially difficult between the signing of the Soviet-German treaty on 1939 and the invasion in 1941. During this time the communists had to toe the Stalinline that they would not combat the Nazis/fascists because the war was one between imperialsit powers. All very strange.
