Comrade Mishra
In an engaging essay “The East was Red,” published in today’s Guardian, Pankaj Mishra examines the Sovietphilia of his youth. (Thanks, Kitabkhana. The piece had appeared earlier in the Fall, 2005 issue of n+1 under the title “First Love.”) Pankaj’s essay pays homage to a childhood and youth shaped by reading. It also reveals what is wonderful about books. That even when they lead to fantasies–in this case, politics experienced as a fantasy–they grant a reader the pride of involvement and growth. It is satisfying to discover in such accounts that the inevitable disillusionment comes about not simply because of real events or history but also as a result of reading. This makes it possible to imagine the whole process not with a beginning and an end, and life not as merely mired in nostalgia, but as a long, continuous, productive relationship with books.
“that the inevitable disillusionment comes about not simply because of real events or history but also as a result of reading. ”
What is glaringly apparent in Mishra’s account is his dis- engagement with action. I found it strange that for all his admiration for the Soviet Union and hence socialism, it did not lead him to activism but at its best to a reader’s interest and at his best to his seeing himself transported to the Utopia that he imagined Soviet Union to be.
It did not inspire him to work for socialism and its ideals in his own country. It is very clear from the recent neo- Narodnik turn that he has taken (see the lead in last week’s New Statesman.)
Mere reading, as mere activism, is what leads to disillusionment, not the reality of “socialism” in the former USSR or its aftermath.
Comment by bhupinder singh — February 4, 2006 @ 8:01 pm
Where’s that photograph from?!
It’s beautiful.
Also enjoyed reading Comrade Mishra’s essay.
Comment by Fingers — February 5, 2006 @ 10:27 am