Marx in Motion: A New Materialist Marxism

by Thomas Nail

Karl Marx is the most historically foundational and systematic critic of capitalism to date, and the years since the 2008 financial crisis have witnessed a rebirth of his popular appeal. In a world of rising income inequality, right-wing nationalisms, and global climate change, people are again looking to the father of modern socialism for answers.

As this book argues, every era since Marx's death has reinvented him to fit its needs. There is not one Marx forever and for all time. There are a thousand Marxes. As Thomas Nail contends, one of the most significant contributions of Marx's work is that it treats theory itself as a historical practice. Reading Marx is not just an interpretative activity but a creative one. As our historical conditions change, so do the kinds of questions we pose and the kinds of answers we find in Marx's writing.

This book is a return to the writings of Karl Marx, including his under-appreciated dissertation, through the lens of the pressing philosophical and political problems of our ecological crisis, gender inequality, colonialism, and global mobility. However, the aim of this book is not to make Marxism relevant by "applying" it to contemporary issues. Instead, Marx in Motion , the first new materialist interpretation of Marx's work, treats Capital as if it were already a response to the present.

Thomas Nail argues that Marx was a new materialist avant la lettre . He argues that Marx did not believe history was determined, or that matter was passive, or that humans were separate or superior to nature. Marx did not even have a labor theory of value. Marxists argue that new materialists lack a sufficient political and economic theory, and new materialists argue that Marx's materialism is human-centric and mechanistic. This book aims to solve both problems by proposing a new materialist Marxism.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, Nonfiction

264 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2020

Reviews

[Kyrill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not hate this as much as I could have done! It's a nice book! Quaint and kooky with helpful illustrations of ideas through literary examples. There is a particularly memorable extended discussion on the queerness of otters which alone makes the book worth reading. However in reading it you're also being asked to accept that Marx had a different ontology to Engels (I'd say the strength of Marx is in carefully avoiding any ontology), that he did not subscribe to a labour theory of value and that he was basically a DNC intersectional feminist. I do think it's helpful if people think this but I'm not sure it's true.

To the author's credit, the rather audacious strategy of reading Marx through the lens of his doctoral thesis on Lucretius does not get lost in the jargon on New Materialism as other similar books do. There are a number of recurring concepts from Deleuze's "The Fold", but Marx's own text is foregrounded throughout. Some might complain that he has not taken note of the existing body of work crossing over agential realism, New Materialism and Marxism but I think keeping Marx front and centre was a good bet.

Although I do not think the reading is right, I think it is both creative and necessary. It is completely right to point to the role of dynamic systems in Marx's thought. I happen to think this can be done more coherently through Hegel (and Engels!) but the clear and focused aims and narration of the problem points us in the right directions. For all the authors' ire for Soviet Marxism, I'd recommend him Ilyenkov's concept of "activity" and related work.

I also think the author has a good political head on him and is genuine in his socialist aims. As a tract for winning people over to Marxism I think this clear narrative could be effective for some.

[JC · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Better than I thought it would be. I actually enjoyed the chapter on metabolism a lot (the one entitled "Metabolic Drift"). Perhaps one of the most useful parts was Nail's clarification about what is often termed "rift" in metabolic rift theory is better translated as tear or rip, or 'rough' and uneven. I know a lot of marxists who hate new materialism, but I think this was actually a really generative and interesting philosophical exercise. I know a lot of communists I organize with would really dislike this book, but I'm an STS student and I actually found it a rather enjoyable read. (Hopefully I will return soon to share more thoughts and/or excerpts from the book).

[melancholinary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming effort to "de-anthropocentralise" Marx (or to be precise, de-anthropocentrism Capital Chapter One). However, I don't entirely convince by this effort. It's a bit of stretch and somehow sees Marx as a 'new materialist' prophet that recognises nature as something not to be rationally controlled for human benefit. I don't see why we need to rethink Marx that way (apart from the book thesis on a rather interesting connection of Marx with kinetic and motion). I mean, it's quite explicit that Marx sees indigenous culture or "ancient social organism" and their relation to nature as "immature development of man" (Capital, 173). And in this book, the author refers to ancient Greek male to explain that passage of the ancient world in Capital... which I think it's more about 'primitive' society—as hunter-gatherers. Well, I did enjoy the writing about Marx's dissertation and his philosophy of motion though.

[Maty Candelaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be a very novel reading of Marx.

Unlike most readers and philosophers, Thomas Nail begins his analysis of Marx from his doctoral thesis on Lucretius and Epicures through chapter one of Capital Vol.1. Although this may seem like a narrow scope, this has not been done before.

Nail’s reading is historical, linguistic, and most importantly rooted in a materialism of kinetic movement. As opposed to crude materialism, Kinetic Materialism is a materialism of how the movement of things ‘hangs together’ (Zusammenhängen) as opposed to being discreet and static.

I believe this work is also highly influenced by George Bataille’s work on “General Economy”. According to Bataille, most economics (especially Bourgeois economists) follows a restrictive study. Economics doesn’t begin with human behavior, but rather the cosmic conditions (the Sun, the Earth) which make conditions possible. Similarly, Nail’s outlook is decidedly non-anthropocentric.

For example, matter is itself viewed as an agent of change and movement. This also means that causality isn’t deterministic, but pedatic.

Part if Nails’s strength lays in his deep readings of Marx’s footnotes, and translation work. Turns out, latent in Marx’s work are descriptions of the process of production in kinetic, metabolic language. Nail achieves this through a close reading, and translation of key passages from Capital Vol. 1 and his doctoral thesis.

As any good Marxist work should, Nail ends his work with a chapter one how his concepts may be put into practice. Here, Nail provides an alternative (speculative) concept to oppose against the fetishistic, and violent economy of capitalism: Metabolic Communism.

Metabolic communism, for Nail, is a non-teleological movement of general economy which is fully transparent about what conditions go into production, and which is also collectively realized.

Overall, I found this work valuable and interesting. My only “issue” for this book is that it’s repetitive. However, I think this might be a result of Nail being defensive about his works thesis.

If you are looking for a novel, and useful interpretation of Marx, I would suggest checking out this book.

[Timothy Morrison]

Of course, Marx is about diamet

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

The exploitative bourgeoisie at its best: the white male who lives off the taxes paid by the working men and women is going to tell you how you should think and act. And to add insult to injury, pay your taxes because Something University Press has to publish his next work, in order for the bourgeois to climb to the next level of job security and buy a bigger home.