To live a life consigned to the margins of history
September 12, 2015 11:27 AM   Subscribe

 
Fascinating!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:44 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


I am glad you posted this as its own FPP, infini - it is really interesting!
posted by ChuraChura at 12:18 PM on September 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


I want to see inside the nightclub, though.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:21 PM on September 12, 2015


MN Roy Internet Archive (as this is Marxists Internet Archive, it mostly has stuff from his Communist period 1919-1929). The biography, if you read it, has serious shades of Stalinism.
posted by graymouser at 12:33 PM on September 12, 2015


I'm inspired to live life now aiming at this for my epitaph:

To live a life consigned to the margins of history, but remembered as that exclusive invite-only nightclub.
posted by infini at 12:57 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


That was wonderful, thanks for posting it! I'd seen occasional mentions of Roy, but basically knew nothing about him. I love the quote "Any country would be better off without its inhabitants, filled, as they are, with prejudice, hate, and parochial pride"... but where is it from? Google finds nothing! Why don't comics come with bibliographies?
posted by languagehat at 2:39 PM on September 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


I reckon the author of the comic is MeFi's own beijingbrown.
posted by dhruva at 5:30 PM on September 12, 2015 [5 favorites]


Oh wow, thanks for posting this, infini!

@Dip Flash: This is the only article I could find about the interiors.

@languagehat: the comment is from Roy's memoirs. It's on Page 66 of this document.

This is part of a larger comic I'm working on about Mexico City, and you can read pages from it here. I'll put the full comicbook on Mefi Projects when it's done next month!
posted by beijingbrown at 7:01 PM on September 12, 2015 [10 favorites]


Oh! How cool is this!
posted by infini at 12:26 AM on September 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


Roy is probably the only Communist who ever sought refuge in Palo Alto, California. I don't know why that's so amusing to me, but it is.

I don't know if I agree with the statement that Roy lived on the margins of history. The early Communist movement was hardly a historical footnote, as much as some would rather ignore it for ideological reasons. In fact, historian Eric Hobsbawm famously marked the Russian Revolution as the divider between the "long nineteenth century" and "short twentieth century."

I also don't know if Roy would have enjoyed his epitaph being a nightclub. Hedonistic bohemians (not to mention private nightclub attendees!) and hard left political radicals often have a difficult if not hostile relationship. Of course, knowing very little about Roy, I can't say for sure.

If you're doing a comic about the history of Mexico City, don't omit the most famous revolutionary to have lived (and died) there: Trotsky (although, Victor Serge died in Mexico City as well!).

I find the lives of these early-20th-century political radical globetrotters so fascinating. It seems like some of them are truly in the running for "most interesting (wo)man in the world." I can suggest some other obscure but interesting candidates over MeMail.
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 4:20 AM on September 13, 2015 [3 favorites]


@Noisy Pink Bubbles: You're right! I guess I was trying to say that he lived on the margins of Indian history - many of these alternate strands of pre-independence thought have been crushed by the Gandhi juggernaut.

Also (and this is by no means an academic analysis), I feel like he was somewhere halfway between a hedonistic bohemian (atleast in his Mexico years) and a political radical. There's a film about him that sort-of bolsters my case.

Also also, I'd love to hear your suggestions on radical globetrotters. Memailing. =)
posted by beijingbrown at 6:51 AM on September 13, 2015


fwiw, the other day i was listening to this eyewitness account by his grandson of trotsky's assassination in mexico city...
posted by kliuless at 8:44 AM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


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