So I received (indirectly) a piece of criticism on Goodbye Chains the other day, which tickles me to no end:
I enjoyed it, but had to quit because the characters a Marxist-Leninist, not a Marxist, and the Prenachronism was too annoying.Why am I pleased? Because I KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN.
Time for a history lesson! What is the difference between a Marxist and a Marxist-Leninist? There are a few major differences, but by my reckoning the major difference is that Lenin introduced the idea of a vanguard party, or a group of intellectuals directing the proletariat for maximum effectiveness. There are some other points of divergence (the need for a violent overthrow of capitalism, the introduction of farmers and underdeveloped areas to what had previously been a movement based in the industrialized world), but this one seems most relevant to our purposes. For all intents and purposes, Colin is acting as a vanguard, and a violent one at that, which would appear to make him a Marxist-Leninist--which is fine, except Lenin didn't start working on the problem until a good 15-20 years later.
This is of course problematic unless you forget one thing: Colin is kind of crazy.
Properly speaking, Colin isn't acting as a vanguard (he never refers to himself as such); he's intended to be working more in the tradition of the lone wacko yelling about the CIA trying to steal his teeth, although with more education and less schizophrenia. He's also Irish, which doesn't make him violent per se, but it DOES mean that he's paying attention to current attempts to liberate his homeland, especially the actions of the "dynamite-agitators" (Irish domestic terrorists [and practitioners of a so-called "scientific warfare"] who had a good deal of sympathy and support in the US, to the point that some Irish-Americans may have been sending men and materiel to help them out). Add to this the knowledge that the Communists of the era were not all that fond of Colin (being dominated by German immigrants, and New Yorkers besides), and you get a fellow with some interesting ideas, an admiration for politically-motivated property damage, and very few people to temper his more revolutionary urges. So Colin is a lone voice crying in the wilderness (and occasionally blowing up important things), but this is not a key feature of his political ideology--just something he thinks will work.
To reiterate: Colin is not a Marxist-Leninist; he is a lone nutjob with dangerous hobbies. Thank you for your time. :D
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goodbyechains
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heykidzcomix were turned down. XD We couldn't find "manly" engravings for that time period, so I went with a loud design. When I ink it, I will try to make it look engraved.
