For sure, and how many parents saw their children beaten and starved by the bosses? My point is that for a reader (presumably) far removed from that contemporary China, we definitely have the advantage of analyzing the material context: landlords being beaten to death was brought about by the conditions the landlords themselves created! It still sucks on a human level for children of any class to experience such horror, but that just kind of is what it is.
Yeah, i guess I was just kind of struck by the bleak observation, made possible by distance, that these periods of exploitation and abuse, these stories of blood and misery, always seem to end in one big ironic crescendo that’s never fair to the kids. Such a horrible self fulfilling prophecy where the powerful will exercise unlimited violence to keep their power, and make any outcome other than open conflict inpossible. It’s like they know no solutions to unrest other than ultraviolence, and can’t stop even when it comes home to them.
For sure, and how many parents saw their children beaten and starved by the bosses? My point is that for a reader (presumably) far removed from that contemporary China, we definitely have the advantage of analyzing the material context: landlords being beaten to death was brought about by the conditions the landlords themselves created! It still sucks on a human level for children of any class to experience such horror, but that just kind of is what it is.
Yeah, i guess I was just kind of struck by the bleak observation, made possible by distance, that these periods of exploitation and abuse, these stories of blood and misery, always seem to end in one big ironic crescendo that’s never fair to the kids. Such a horrible self fulfilling prophecy where the powerful will exercise unlimited violence to keep their power, and make any outcome other than open conflict inpossible. It’s like they know no solutions to unrest other than ultraviolence, and can’t stop even when it comes home to them.
It definitely has the vibe of an inevitable cycle. Breaking the wheel means eternal vigilance, I guess.