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Reviews tagging 'Classism'
Lumpen: a journal for poor and working class writers #11 by Fran Lock, Hannah Pearce, Dorothy Spencer
1 review
barry_x's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
My to-be-read pile is so large I've only just got round to reading this issue of Lumpen the week I think the next issue is on it's way!
As always it's a fine mix of short fiction, memoir, poetry and political or social justice related non-fiction by poor and working class writers.
This issue is a themed issue with the theme being 'the land'. Many of the pieces explore working class people's relationship to the land, and I suppose there is that almost Marxist perspective of the working class was created by moving people away from their land and into towns and cities. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that general analysis because even before the industrial revolution and early capitalism there were people with power and land and those without. In the context of this collection I can definitely see that connection to land and more importantly our past.
It was kind of cool when I was reading this issue, I had a neofolk playlist on and recently I have been reading and learning about folklore and our past and our stories. I guess as I am getting older I feel all the more keenly that connection to wild spaces, to places once known and now built on, to traditions and stories that were once rooted in community life and are now forgotten. I have probably said this in many reviews of 'Lumpen' but one of the things I appreciate about it, is that it allows stories to be told that would otherwise be forgotten, histories that fade away. I love that sense of connection reading Lumpen, in this case connection to my past and my class, but in this issue too, the land and what we know to belong to us, and also that sense of loss, that what we once had we are denied access to.
There wasn't much I didn't enjoy in this issue. There was a long piece about struggle in Iran which was quite early in the book. It didn't really land with me, maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but it didn't particularly grip me. I was struck by the notion of a 'Suicidal state' and how states used to cause harm to other states for territory, and now they wage war on their own population to their own harm. I'd argue perhaps that states have always done this, and one's perspective is on who they are waging war for - their class or their state, because however one answers changes whether it is an act of self-harm or not. I did find the concept quite thought provoking.
I loved Bell Selkie Lovelock's piece about taking a van to the Scottish highlands and depictions of the evictions from crofts when the people were no longer 'needed' on the land they worked. It's a story of healing and I was also struck by the personal reflections in the piece, of the worthy social activist who desires to change the world, but in saving the world they lose their connection to home and hearth and people left by the wayside. It's an oft-discussed conversation about activism in 'who gets to take part' and who doesn't and how people trying to do the right thing sometimes aren't that inclusive (and of course there is always a class element to it, with the middle class activists basically saying, 'you must be prepared to do time for the cause' which leads to very different outcomes for working class people).
Joe Conlon's 'Beside The Sea' was rather beautiful. It's a short piece about a former addict released from prison and living in a tent as he navigates the town and environment around him. It's been an awfully long time since I experienced homelessness but this story touched me in how people look and interact with homeless people. The first thing I always mention to people is to remember that homeless people are human with hopes, dreams, desires and needs. It's all to easy to 'other' them and view people in terms of their problems and not what they have in their life.
Jade Grogan's piece was quite sad, even though one could see the end coming a mile off. Reflecting back after reading, I love how there are different interpretations of what happened. It's a story set in a waste centre and two men working together, one who has been there forever and a young apprentice.
Enya Sullivan's piece 'Way Out' was probably my favourite. It's a story of trespass, of solitude, of finding quite spaces and of how space is transformed over seasons. It's a story of fences to keep people out and one is struck by even if there are quite places where one can rest or wide spaces where one can roam, how they are fenced in by private landowners who exclude those without privilege. There are a few pieces which touch on similar themes, how fresh air and green space is withheld from working class people as urban spaces sprawl and green spaces are built up on, how fields and woods are 'transformed' into private spaces where one must pay for the privilege. It makes me think about transport inequity too and the relationships between race and class and access to green spaces. Such a thought provoking story.
Always recommend Lumpen - go and support some working class authors https://www.theclassworkproject.com/p...
As always it's a fine mix of short fiction, memoir, poetry and political or social justice related non-fiction by poor and working class writers.
This issue is a themed issue with the theme being 'the land'. Many of the pieces explore working class people's relationship to the land, and I suppose there is that almost Marxist perspective of the working class was created by moving people away from their land and into towns and cities. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that general analysis because even before the industrial revolution and early capitalism there were people with power and land and those without. In the context of this collection I can definitely see that connection to land and more importantly our past.
It was kind of cool when I was reading this issue, I had a neofolk playlist on and recently I have been reading and learning about folklore and our past and our stories. I guess as I am getting older I feel all the more keenly that connection to wild spaces, to places once known and now built on, to traditions and stories that were once rooted in community life and are now forgotten. I have probably said this in many reviews of 'Lumpen' but one of the things I appreciate about it, is that it allows stories to be told that would otherwise be forgotten, histories that fade away. I love that sense of connection reading Lumpen, in this case connection to my past and my class, but in this issue too, the land and what we know to belong to us, and also that sense of loss, that what we once had we are denied access to.
There wasn't much I didn't enjoy in this issue. There was a long piece about struggle in Iran which was quite early in the book. It didn't really land with me, maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but it didn't particularly grip me. I was struck by the notion of a 'Suicidal state' and how states used to cause harm to other states for territory, and now they wage war on their own population to their own harm. I'd argue perhaps that states have always done this, and one's perspective is on who they are waging war for - their class or their state, because however one answers changes whether it is an act of self-harm or not. I did find the concept quite thought provoking.
I loved Bell Selkie Lovelock's piece about taking a van to the Scottish highlands and depictions of the evictions from crofts when the people were no longer 'needed' on the land they worked. It's a story of healing and I was also struck by the personal reflections in the piece, of the worthy social activist who desires to change the world, but in saving the world they lose their connection to home and hearth and people left by the wayside. It's an oft-discussed conversation about activism in 'who gets to take part' and who doesn't and how people trying to do the right thing sometimes aren't that inclusive (and of course there is always a class element to it, with the middle class activists basically saying, 'you must be prepared to do time for the cause' which leads to very different outcomes for working class people).
Joe Conlon's 'Beside The Sea' was rather beautiful. It's a short piece about a former addict released from prison and living in a tent as he navigates the town and environment around him. It's been an awfully long time since I experienced homelessness but this story touched me in how people look and interact with homeless people. The first thing I always mention to people is to remember that homeless people are human with hopes, dreams, desires and needs. It's all to easy to 'other' them and view people in terms of their problems and not what they have in their life.
Jade Grogan's piece was quite sad, even though one could see the end coming a mile off. Reflecting back after reading, I love how there are different interpretations of what happened. It's a story set in a waste centre and two men working together, one who has been there forever and a young apprentice.
Enya Sullivan's piece 'Way Out' was probably my favourite. It's a story of trespass, of solitude, of finding quite spaces and of how space is transformed over seasons. It's a story of fences to keep people out and one is struck by even if there are quite places where one can rest or wide spaces where one can roam, how they are fenced in by private landowners who exclude those without privilege. There are a few pieces which touch on similar themes, how fresh air and green space is withheld from working class people as urban spaces sprawl and green spaces are built up on, how fields and woods are 'transformed' into private spaces where one must pay for the privilege. It makes me think about transport inequity too and the relationships between race and class and access to green spaces. Such a thought provoking story.
Always recommend Lumpen - go and support some working class authors https://www.theclassworkproject.com/p...
Content Warnings
Minor: Classism, Racism, Drug use, and Child abuse
More...