[Milton-L] Milton and Marx

[James Rovira]

Much appreciation to Carrol Cox for providing context for Marx's comment.

Seems to me that Marx saying Milton produces literature the way a
silkworm produces silk is that he seeks to remove Milton's production
from consideration as capital.  Milton, in other words, is -not- a
laborer, even though he produces a product that can be sold and
marketed, any more than silkworms are laborers, even though they
produce a product that can be sold or marketed.  The point with a real
laborer is that "his production is from the outset subsumed under
capital, and only takes place so that
capital may valorise itself."

Milton would write poetry whether his labor could valorise itself as
capital or not, just as the silkworm would produce silk whether we
were harvesting it or not.  In that sense Milton's product is
"natural" or "part of his nature," like the silkworm's silk.

Jim R