Re: [OPE-L] Bloody Capital and Dead Labour Cultural Studies or the Critique of Political Economy? By Mark Neocleous

From: Rakesh Bhandari (bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU)
Date: Tue Apr 25 2006 - 15:27:26 EDT


The point remains that Neocleous emphasizes (and insists)
that he has clarified the meaning of the vampire
metaphor--that capital is undead as it appropriates
the sensuous energy of living labor. Your vampire
comment in 1996 is long way off from that. I am worried
that Neocleous' idea entered OPE-L discussion without
any acknowledgement. Whether you or someone else is responsible
(and someone else may be responsible)
is of no importance; what is of more importance is we
insist upon proper acknowledgements in this forum.
Especially when a thinker of importance is insisting that
he has contributed this very idea. Which is more than an example
or a throwaway comment but at the very heart of a major article
and even a book.
I hope you see my point.
Rakesh


>  > >Who "appropriated" Neocleous's interpretation?
>>  Who referred to capital as undead? That would be
>>  the answer to your question.
>
>Rakesh,
>
>The answer to the question is that no one did anything improper
>on the list re Neocleous -- except you.  In your haste to post
>his article, you did not take note of his stipulation that:
>
>"Electronic copies of this paper may not be posted on any
>other website without express permission of the author."
>
>Your careless action has meant that I (and possibly Allin
>and Hans) might have to clean up the mess you created
>since when you posted his article it meant that it was
>automatically archived on the 'ricardo' and 'utah' servers.
>Please try to be more careful next time. Thank you.
>
>===================================
>
>To repeat (and for the record),
>
>I never saw Neocleous's "Blood Capital and Dead Labour"
>paper until you recently posted it on OPE-L.
>
>I was unaware of his _History of Political Thought_  article
>until a few days ago and still haven't seen a copy.  The
>abstract, which is online and I read the other day, says very
>little about the content of his paper.
>
>I only became aware of anything Neocleous wrote on this
>subject on November 4 when I received a post from Andrew
>Chitty sent to the mps list concerning MN's book
>_The Monstrous and the Dead_.  That same day I forwarded
>that announcement to OPE-L.
>
>I have referred to vampires,  the undead and Marx on OPE-L
>going at least as far back as May, 1996.  As I explained
>previously, the idea that labour is undead using the vampire
>metaphor only makes sense if capital is posited as vampiric
>and hence also undead.
>
>***I have done ABSOLUTELY nothing improper and I strongly
>resent any suggestions to the contrary.***
>
>======================================
>
>***If there is anyone on the list _other than Rakesh_ who believes
>that there has been even an iota of evidence put forward  that I have
>acted improperly, _please_  speak up. If not,  then let us move on to
>discuss other topics.***
>
>In solidarity, Jerry


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