Caesar’s Column: In Response to Prof. Hanley (Continued)

As stated in my previous post, Donnelly’s futuristic New York City illustrates societal declination within a context of technological evolution. And Donnelly’s resolution, his ideal society, is a modification and incorporation of “past governmental philosophies.”

According to Donnelly, “usury” is the “root of all evil,” and his economic theoretic, in part: the abolishment of “usury,” corporations, and “excess” (because “excess” is “destructive”), will create “universal prosperity” within a prescribed set of laws, government, and political economy: Donnelly’s “Utopia.” That is, no one person will have the advantage over the other. Altruism and beneficence will prevail when one’s surplus, by a governing body is appropriately distributed and invested.

In Donnelly’s “Garden in the Mountain,” he restructures a society by establishing a body of governing laws “to protect ourselves from ourselves.” For example: formulated a constitution detailing fundamental laws and religious belief, with a preamble stating that:

“This government is intended to be merely a plain and simple instrument, to insure to every industrious citizen not only liberty, but an educated mind, a comfortable home, an abundant supply of food and clothing, and a pleasant, happy life” (236);

three branches of government, wage and labor guidelines, a judicial system, trial by jury, penal institutions, tariff laws, a national treasury, and municipal laws and ordinances. However, if you did not abide by the “reformations,” one was “transferred to the outside world, where they could enjoy the fruits of the time-hallowed systems they praised so much” (239).

The absence of free choice and free enterprise overshadows Donnelly’s idealized universal prosperity and a “pleasant, happy life.” Ultimatums position one to prefer to “reign in Hell than serve in Heav’n,” without objectively considering the consequences and aftermath.

Edith

Man’s Fate, Part I

“Anguish,” bewilderment,” revulsion,” and “nausea”: the emotional prescriptive for the terrorist. (To be continued).

Edith

Red Calvary: An Overview, Part III (pages 106-169)

“We went, limping with broken legs, waving our crippled arms, holding each other up” (152).

The young journalist is “overcome with self-pity and loneliness; and numb with despair.” As his narrative voice changes, Babel’s emotions and perspectives shift from warfare to loss and emotional attachments. The death of one’s steed produces uncharacteristic and candid sentiments from the regiment: ‘“A horse—that’s a friend,” Orlov answered.”’ ‘“A horse―that’s a father,”’ Bitsenko sighed. ‘“The horse saves your life more times than you can count. Bida is finished without his horse”’ (120). Babel places the reader in the epicenter of his emotions.

Edith

Red Calvary: An Overview, Part II (pages 66-105)

“Comrade,” she said, after a short silence. “All of this makes me want to hang myself?”

Babel maneuvers the reader towards his emotional center and aesthetic consciousness. His psychological subjugation is temporarily relieved: “Savitsky, the commander of the Sixth Division, rose when he saw me, and I was taken aback by the beauty of his gigantic body. […]. He smelled of perfume and the nauseating coolness of soap” (66). The young journalist illustrates the need for acceptance, and the necessity to diminish the ridicule by the Cossacks with disdain and aggression: when a village woman refuses his order to prepare him a meal, he arbitrarily kills a goose by stepping on its neck. Babel reveals to the reader that he is “oppressed” by the repetition of their criminal acts and fighting strategy: “hack to pieces.” And seeing wounded men eating in ditches, dead bodies covering the fields, and more importantly, lost friendship.

Edith

Red Calvary: An Overview, Part I (pages 1-65)

“The stench of yesterday’s blood and slaughtered horses drips into the evening chill” (39).

Isaac Babel’s diary of the 1917 war between Russia and Poland: the Cossacks and the Poles, is a perplexing and disturbing diary of exploitation, destruction, and carnage. At the onset, the reader is placed in Babel’s emotional periphery. His objective, abstract, and non-responsive reporting of the brutal and seemingly arbitrary slaughter of people, livestock, and religious artifacts, reveal a systemized method of dehumanizing, degrading, and annihilating resistors in Poland’s towns, communities, and villages. “The naked shine of the moon poured over the town with unquenchable strength” (59). Babel incorporates provocative imagery and poetic description of war and its aftermath.

Edith

Caesar’s Column and Communist Manifesto: In Response to Prof. Hanley

Technological progress reduces society into two classes: the bourgeois and the proletariat as defined and illustrated by Ignatius Donnelly, and Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. (To be continued)

Edith

Caesar’s Column: In Response to Prof. Hanley

Donnelly’s futuristic New York City illustrates societal declination (of Donnelly’s “present”) within a context of technological evolution. And Donnelly’s resolution, his ideal society, is a modification of his “past.” (To be continued)

Edith