Germinal, Emile Zola

I have an ambitious reading list for 2012. Ambitious is the word Patrick used. But I feel pretty good about having read one book already this year.

I started the year off with this book, Germinal by Emile Zola, because I was dreading it. And in a way, it was terrible. But it was also extremely compelling and interesting.

The action takes place during Napoleon III's reign. It takes place between a series of coal mines and is about the struggle between capitalism, socialism, and anarchism.

I appreciate the author's rather characterization of all three, which is rather objective, and that he seems to stress that no way is right when it goes too far.

One quote I particularly liked was from the main anarchist character to the socialist:

"Can you understand this? A couple of hat-makers at Marseilles have drawn the lucky number in a lottery - a prize of a hundred thousand francs - and straight away they have invested it in annuities, saying they were never going to work any more! Yes, all you French workers have that one idea: you want to dig up a treasure and live on it for evermore in selfish and lazy isolation. You make a great song against the rich, but when fortune gives you some money you haven't the guts to give it back to the poor. You will never deserve to be happy so long as you have personal possessions, and your hatred of the bourgeois simply comes from your mad desire to be bourgeois yourselves in their place!"

It seems like that is still true today. The loudest voices against capitalism are only the most envious.

It's true also that capitalism is wrong when it goes so far as to drive people to starvation and death, only because it can. Exploitation for profit is wrong.

The book is way better than my poor ability to describe it, especially at midnight. Zola gives amazing descriptions of factories and the degeneration of people into animals. I'd recommend it if you are interested in socialist or anarchist ideologies, or want an interesting and slightly challenging read. It does have some pretty horrifying descriptions of death and dying though, so be prepared.

I'm not sure what I'll read next, but Germinal was a great start to 2012.