WCL5: DD Johnston's proletarian apocalypse, part 1
Working Class History
Working Class History
5.0 • 813 Ratings
🗓️ 6 December 2022
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Darren also reads passages from Disnaeland and his first novel, Peace, Love and Petrol Bombs.
Full information, sources, further reading, acknowledgements and eventually a transcript on the webpage for this episode: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/wcl-5-6-dd-johnstons-proletarian-apocalypse/
Get books mentioned in this episode
Peace, Love and Petrol Bombs: https://bookshop.org/a/80203/9781849350617
Disnaeland: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/disnaeland/9781909954533
Acknowledgments
Our theme tune is Bella Ciao, thanks for permission to use it from Dischi del Sole. You can purchase it here: http://www.alabianca.it/en/store/bravo-records-en/le-canzoni-di-bella-ciao-aa-vv/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In his new novel, Disneyland, Didi Johnson tells the story of a working-class Scottish community in the midst of a global blackout. |
| 0:07.0 | Faced with a harsh winter and total societal collapse, residents have the choice of either turning on each other in a war of all against all, |
| 0:14.0 | or coming together on the basis of mutual aid and cooperation to build a new world from the ruins of the old. |
| 0:54.3 | This is working class history and literature, because of the support of our listeners on Patreon. |
| 0:59.8 | If you like what we do and want to help us with our work, join us on patreon.com slash working class history, where you can get benefits like early access to episodes, exclusive bonus content, |
| 1:04.6 | discounted books, merch and more. Link in the show notes. |
| 1:08.7 | This is the first part of a double episode with an author that we've been big fans of for a while. |
| 1:13.6 | Dee Johnson's new novel, Disneyland, is a Blackley comic tale of Proletarian Apocalypse, |
| 1:17.6 | but he's also going to speak to us about some of his other works, as well as his life, political activism, |
| 1:22.6 | and thoughts on working class writing more generally. |
| 1:25.6 | With regards to working class writing, Darren brings up a number of issues not just in relation to how we think about what working class writing more generally. With regards to working class writing, |
| 1:28.9 | Darren brings up a number of issues, |
| 1:32.4 | not just in relation to how we think about what working class writing is, |
| 1:34.3 | but also what we want it to do, |
| 1:36.9 | and even the different ways that we think about and experience class itself. |
| 1:39.4 | Well, I think the term working class is a, it's a funny one, isn't it? |
| 1:43.5 | Because it means different things in different contexts. |
| 1:45.6 | And in common usage in the UK, certainly, it tends to be associated with people and families that drive their income for manual or unschooled work. |
| 1:59.4 | And because of, I guess, changes to the sort of labour that capitalism requires, |
| 2:05.6 | increasingly working class refers to a disadvantaged minority in our society in terms of popular |
| 2:13.6 | usage. Now, at the same time, working class also refers to the same, you know, what Marxists |
| 2:18.5 | would call the proletariat, that great majority of people that I've got no way to access |
... |
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