Jews Without Money (Gold) - 1st week

The biography of Michael Gold I chose is:

"Masterpieces of Jewish American Literature" - Stanford V Sternlicht


http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iutOijQDzNUC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=Itzok+Granich+Biography&source=bl&ots=MSRHUvvgej&sig=0QzqXhsjJmgOfHD7DwPynIYciEY&hl=en&ei=1AWZS6KsA5aSjAfxxZH4Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=&f=false

5 facts about Gold that readers of “Jews without Money” should know:

1. His name was originally Itzok Isaac Granich. His gradual Americanization of his name growing up (and pen name of Michael Gold) reflects his having left his immigrant ethnicity (so prevalent in the story) behind. To get on, he has become more ‘American’ and English-speaking…something repeated in the story at least a couple of times

2. Gold didn’t make it implicit that the story was fiction. It is in fact semi-fiction – a fictional interpretation of his own background in the Lower East Side of NYC

3. Gold’s dislike of capitalism stemmed from this father’s failure to succeed and had to resort to being a handcart pedlar – although he had always worked so hard

4. Unlike some writers who flirted with Communism, Gold was a life long Communist. He had already been to the Soviet Union by the time he wrote JWM but was disillusioned by the country. His communism was more of the heart rather than cerebral adherence to theory. (This shows in his very heartfelt depictions of the conditions of the working poor in JWM).

5. While Gold may have known the seedier side of the Lower East Side himself, when writing this book, he was part of the Greenwich Village set, being friends with fellow writers like Dreiser and Eugene O’Neill (which may be reflected in his lack of moralising).

The chapter I find very interesting in relation to understanding American work attitudes is Chapter 2 “How babies are made.” The story of JWM catalogues many instances of poor immigrant types struggling to earn money, to live an “American Dream” of at least being comfortably off, but not succeeding despite all their hard work and effort. Chapter 2 highlights how some of what might be considered the dregs of the city – prostitutes, pimps, bar and gambling house owners, actually manage to earn a good living. What is put across is the ability to become ‘American’ to succeed. ‘Mikey’ is influenced by Harry the Pimp and Jake Wolfe the saloon keeper in the importance of English: “That is what I am always preaching to our Jews; become an American. Is it any wonder you must go on slaving in sweatshops?”

Characters understand capitalism and that morals of the old country can be put aside in the big American city: Ida the Madame ‘brags about the tenement houses she owned.’ Harry the Pimp is seen as a bit of a philanthropist, who teaches the girls he controls the value of thrift! ‘Rosie’ worked in a sweatshop until she became ill but on being rescued by a pimp, got on so well she could bring her parents over from Europe. The landlord Mr Zunzer ‘a pillar of the synagogue’ who appreciates in a truly capitalist way that the whores pay ‘3 times the rent you do’ (and promptly!) and was only too happy to fill his properties with them. All of these characters, no matter what their age, appear to have left the ways of the old country behind. They understand market forces and their niche in the market and the importance of becoming ‘American’ – or at least appearing to perform being one.

Robert Seguin

As I am late to post, I really couldnt find anything that wasn't sam or Jo's reviews but instead everywhere i looked i got the sort of "synopsis/review" from the publisher-

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Around-Quitting-Time/Robert-Seguin/e/9780822326755

I thought Seguins first chapter was as the others have previously said much about the idea of class in America or more so the lack of classlessness. He is comparing the idea of middle class in America in which is hard to define as it has become a mutual understanding for Americans, from low paid workers to the higher end, the majority feel middle class. So in some ways this works out well and does suggest a somewhat classless society. But what is happening in fact is that America considers itself classless and almost utopian as it does not follow the class system as Europe does.
It tries to deny class in its society by cutting off from the aristocratic European ways but in fact builds a class system through captialism. He talks about how middle classness is rooted in the mainstream of everyday life- capitalism and also has strong feelings about the link between capital and time. i.e. how capital does not exist withough human's time and labour. He calls America's class struggles "violent" and this is due to its sheer capitalised society.
One point which was unclear to me was the reference to the frontier and pastorialism as i couldnt figure out if he was being literal, meaning the sort of city vs the rural, or more like cooperation vs the small business but i guess both views are quite similar metaphorically.
In regards to Sister Carrie he is very interested in detailed descriptions of the cities visual elements, just like the book is and the idea of how the city becomes a different place at night, more alive and somewhat enchanted. This links to Seguins reference to labour and time, as he is saying that the night time is to be admired as it is when the worker can explore the night and the city. This is the Utopian element.

Seguin and Toil of the Laborer

The SIS II blog would not let me contribute a new post; I have commented on one of Jude's postings and I will post on here aswell.

The review of Around Quitting Time I have found is from http://www.amazon.com/Around-Quitting-Time-Middle-Class-Americanists/dp/0822326701. This site gives two reviews from academics, and is aimed at people who are possibly contemplating buying the book.

Seguin aims to look at the notion of Middle-classness in the united states, and juxtaposes this with the notion that America is a classless society; on page 2 he argues "the term "middle class" itself in effect becomes synoymous with "classlessness", an ideologico-practical inhabitance of the world wherein class has been putatively superseded, or at least temporarily suspended".

Seguin aims to outline that although America views itself as a largely classless society, most Americans describle themselves as middle-class, therefore showing how America is imagined as an ideological utopia by its residents.

The extract of Dreiser's Toil Of the Laborer counters this, showing how the working man is exploited, overworked and underpaid. He describes from his own experiences how manual labour is hard and boring and meagerly rewarded; the worker, he says, is treated like a machine and pushed to his physical limits. He also shows from the perspective of a foreman how the hierarchy is so powerful; although he wishes to ease the lives of the laborers in his promoted role, there are many constraints from above, showing how the world of work involves taking orders from superiors, and in Drieser's experience, is unfulfilling.

Seguin "Around Quitting Time"

The review of Seguin's book "Around Quitting Time: Work and Middle Class Fantasy in American Fiction" I have chosen is :

Review: Producing Middle Classlessness
* Amy L. Blair
* American Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Jun., 2002), pp. 341-348
* Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

on JSTOR. Sorry, I just couldn't seem to get the link to come up correctly!

(I personally found Seguin's ideas very difficult to understand but hopefully the I have got the general idea in the following summary!)

Robert Seguin is of the Marxist school of thought and seeks to correct a postmodern preoccupation with consumer culture whereby class and lifestyle are intertwined - you are defined by what you desire, therefore in a truly American way of thinking anyone can participate in class identity, making the U.S. a classless society (in theory, at least!) Seguin sees that there are differences which are not purely material. Middle classness rather than classlessness. People are identified by the question, "What do you do?" To understand middle class functions Seguin cites 'quitting time' as the crux of this, a shifting and variable state between working and not working as work prepares to end and leisure prepares to start. (Seguin also quotes Andre Gorz who identifies modern leisure with being solitary, compared historically to it being a group activity). While he says that class is at heart about economics, he also says it is about time and this shifting time at that part of the day is one which could be possibly understood in future as important in a non-alienated relationship to labour.

Seguin explains that Dreiser positions Carrie's arrival in Chicago (a big American city at the start of rabid consumerism)at 'quitting time' shows American middle classness with a synthesis of frontier ideology of forward movement and dynamism and pastoralism, citing the text where the street lamps stretch out further and further to the prairie, which can also be read in reverse. Seguin suggests that the twilight time which Carrie arrives at of finishing work is interpenetrated with the approach of leisure - it is a moving, interconnectedness of all these things; what Seguin says of Dreiser as a 'utopian breathlessness' moment.

In "The Toil of the Labourer" Dreiser explains how hard work is artless and thoughtless. It is hard graft with a taskmaster foreman and paltry wages with no humanity, and even when he is made foreman himself he has a problem with equating his ideals with getting the job done or losing it. However, when the work is completed he could see 'that this lovely thing might be' - that all the trials and tribulations of hard graft made something beautiful. As he finishes work in the end, he exhibits that 'utopian breathlessness' at all the incredible sights of the city around but knows the labourers will not get to share it. Ultimately seeing the contrast of this, watching the Italian workers trudge wearily home, he decides he does not want to be a part of it. Both "Sister Carrie" and Dreiser's own labouring experience reflect the time where there is a certain excitement at the end of the day in this transitional period, but of a time when consumerism was coming to the fore but working roles, although changing, were clearly delineated.