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Post by Sakari Lehtinen on Jun 16, 2005 3:59:57 GMT -5
Sakari has a perplexed look on his face, he can't imagine why any application would be 3 pages, especially one to a socialist bookstore. He feels the awkward silence between the two and does little to break it.
"Alright, I'll just fill this out when we get back." I say finally.
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Post by Cambridge Brackenfield on Jun 16, 2005 4:02:51 GMT -5
Cambridge nods and takes a deep breath when sie opens the apartment door. And that is all that happened with Sakari, just a walk and holding his hand a short distance.
Sie looks around the room and since sie can not give equally to all them, sie doesn't feel much like giving anything.
"And what is left for me?" Sie asks hirself quietly.
Sie goes to hir room after that. Sie decides that doing some reading is a Kapital idea. It is punny just like that in hir head.
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Post by Sakari Lehtinen on Jun 16, 2005 4:09:08 GMT -5
"What was that?" Sakari asked. "Ah nevermind, feel like reading together? I've been meaning to read Capital again." Sakari says Cambridge as he follows after hir to hir room.
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Post by Cambridge Brackenfield on Jun 16, 2005 4:11:37 GMT -5
"Sure, we can read Sakari." Sie closes the door and sits down next to him with the book. Sie starts reading aloud.
The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as βan immense accumulation of commodities,β[1] its unit being a single commodity. Our investigation must therefore begin with the analysis of a commodity.
A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another. The nature of such wants, whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or from fancy, makes no difference.[2] Neither are we here concerned to know how the object satisfies these wants, whether directly as means of subsistence, or indirectly as means of production.
Every useful thing, as iron, paper, &c., may be looked at from the two points of view of quality and quantity. It is an assemblage of many properties, and may therefore be of use in various ways. To discover the various uses of things is the work of history.[3] So also is the establishment of socially-recognized standards of measure for the quantities of these useful objects. The diversity of these measures has its origin partly in the diverse nature of the objects to be measured, partly in convention.
The utility of a thing makes it a use value.[4] But this utility is not a thing of air. Being limited by the physical properties of the commodity, it has no existence apart from that commodity. A commodity, such as iron, corn, or a diamond, is therefore, so far as it is a material thing, a use value, something useful. This property of a commodity is independent of the amount of labour required to appropriate its useful qualities. When treating of use value, we always assume to be dealing with definite quantities, such as dozens of watches, yards of linen, or tons of iron. The use values of commodities furnish the material for a special study, that of the commercial knowledge of commodities.[5] Use values become a reality only by use or consumption: they also constitute the substance of all wealth, whatever may be the social form of that wealth. In the form of society we are about to consider, they are, in addition, the material depositories of exchange value.
Exchange value, at first sight, presents itself as a quantitative relation, as the proportion in which values in use of one sort are exchanged for those of another sort,[6] a relation constantly changing with time and place. Hence exchange value appears to be something accidental and purely relative, and consequently an intrinsic value, i.e., an exchange value that is inseparably connected with, inherent in commodities, seems a contradiction in terms.[7] Let us consider the matter a little more closely.
A given commodity, e.g., a quarter of wheat is exchanged for x blacking, y silk, or z gold, &c. β in short, for other commodities in the most different proportions. Instead of one exchange value, the wheat has, therefore, a great many. But since x blacking, y silk, or z gold &c., each represents the exchange value of one quarter of wheat, x blacking, y silk, z gold, &c., must, as exchange values, be replaceable by each other, or equal to each other. Therefore, first: the valid exchange values of a given commodity express something equal; secondly, exchange value, generally, is only the mode of expression, the phenomenal form, of something contained in it, yet distinguishable from it. ....
Sie stops and kisses his lips.
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Post by Sakari Lehtinen on Jun 16, 2005 4:14:32 GMT -5
Sakari smiles when sie kisses his lips, and he returns the favor.
"Holy cow, maybe I'm not so much in the mood to read Marx right now... How does a nap sound?" I suggest.
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Post by Cambridge Brackenfield on Jun 16, 2005 4:16:15 GMT -5
"Sure Sakari..." Sie sets the book down beside hir bed and lays down beside him on top of the covers. Sie smiles and gets close to him, tucking hir head into his chest and wrapping hir arms around him. Sie closes hir eyes and rests.
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Post by Zivon Nechayev on Jun 16, 2005 4:25:33 GMT -5
Zivon wakes up in the middle of the night to a sound, he's really a light sleeper unless he is drinking that evening. He decides he's hungry anyway and gets up for a midnight snack.
I stumble my way into the kitchen and collide with Helvi.
"Ah, what the fuck?!" Zivon says surprised to see anyone.
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Post by Helvi Toivonen on Jun 16, 2005 4:26:55 GMT -5
I am a little frightened by his sudden appearance, but calm down quickly.
"Sorry, I was just cleaning up from earlier. You must have had fun after I left." I say in a whisper.
"Can I make you something?"
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Post by Zivon Nechayev on Jun 16, 2005 4:29:27 GMT -5
Zivon calms down.
"Oh, it's you. Yeah, I guess so..." Zivon scratches his head. "Sorry. If you feel like making something, I'll eat it, otherwise I'm not really hungry..." I say, lying somewhat.
"I could probably just eat a granola bar or something."
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Post by Helvi Toivonen on Jun 16, 2005 4:34:06 GMT -5
"I will make you a humpty dumpty. My father made them for me, before school." I say to Zivon as I pull out a frying pan.
I get some butter, bread, and a few eggs. Using a mug, I cut a hole into the bread, then fry an egg into the hole.
"It is called a humpty dumpty since it looks like humpty dumpty did when he fell off the wall." I say with a smile as I cook.
"My father was a nihilist of a kind. He was a horrible man. He killed my pet cats when I went away to basketball camp. When I got home he said that they ran away, but I found their bodies out in the woods. They had been shot." I add. I flip the egg and sigh.
"He hated animals. He really did. Peachfuzz was my favorite cat. I called her Peachfuzz because she had pretty peach colored spots. She was a kind of calico."
I put his egg on the plate and hand it to him. I smile faintly.
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Post by Zivon Nechayev on Jun 16, 2005 4:37:07 GMT -5
Zivon never cared for animals much, with the exception of a few cats that his friends had, but can sympathize with her story.
"Wow, what an asshole." I reply. "I can't believe you tell me these things and aren't a nihilist." I take the humpty dumpty plate, and somehow feel a strange nihilist connection to the story of humpty dumpty.
"Thanks." Zivon says, sits down at the kitchen table, and cuts into his humpty dumpty.
"You gonna have any?"
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Post by Helvi Toivonen on Jun 16, 2005 4:43:17 GMT -5
"Sure, and it is no problem. I like to cook." I sit across from him and have my own humpty dumpty.
"My father did abusive things to me, but you know, I don't blame him. Things were hard for him. He worked hard. Sometimes he was laid off and we didn't have money. It stressed him out. I think he was broken up about my mother too. So what do you do when you are angry? Kick the dog? Well, he didn't have a dog. He only had me."
"But I am sure you don't care about it. I just..oh I don't know why I am telling you anything at all. It was all long ago." I smile and eat.
Zivon reminds me of my father, but maybe not as bad. There is something about the way he acts and thinks that reminds me of that man. I watch him eat but don't say anything. I become cautious of my own watching, and look down at the plate.
"Tell me about you."
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Post by Zivon Nechayev on Jun 16, 2005 4:47:09 GMT -5
Zivon feels a strange sentiment towards Helvi, and is utterly repulsed by it.
"That doesn't justify being an asshole to his daughter. It's part of that liberal nonsense of not holding accountability for your actions. Maybe we are the product of our environment, but that doesn't give us a free pass to do whatever we want to whomever we want." I reply, and realize just how hypocritical this statement is.
"I don't really know what to say about myself, you should be more specific." Zivon says, nibbling on his eggs.
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Post by Helvi Toivonen on Jun 16, 2005 4:51:54 GMT -5
"About growing up, or how you became a nihilist." I reply.
"And I am not a nihilist since I am too hopeful for that. Maybe the world will end someday, but that is a long time from now, and there is a lot that could happen from now and then. The same goes for life. It could all end tomorrow, or at 80. So I feel...like as long as I am here I should make the most of it. I should try to make people happy. I want to be kind and hopeful in all things I do. I want to love and live a good life. The world is bad, but I will not be a moral cassualty in the war of living." I state.
"It is the most I can do. It is the best I can do. I want to add an ounce of goodness to this existance. A little good goes a long way. Like the light of a match in a dark cave. It isn't much but preferable to total darkness."
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Post by Zivon Nechayev on Jun 16, 2005 4:59:09 GMT -5
Zivon leans back in his chair. He usually hates arguing these kinds of debates, but for some reason, Helvi seems different. He can't conjure up his normal animosity and misanthrope and instead gives a watered down response.
"But what will that all accomplish anyways? All ideas can be used for evil purposes, so shedding this excess baggage will bring a person onto a totally different plane from everything else." I say in a non confrontational tone of voice.
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