No Subject

[you idiot]

wow, for a guy/guyess who is so capable of demonstration of intrinsic 'smartness', you did a good job of spelling the author's name incorrectly. go buy a book

[Someone Not]

I think this jackass comment is a result of someone who had a rich dad spend to much money sending his idiot kid to colledge for to long hoping he would learn enough to not embarass himself...it apparently back fired

[Unregistered]

you've got some serious problems. accept the book for what it is. a classic adventure story for kids. i loved it when i was a youngster

[dr Okos]

Yes, you might be right, particularly if we tend to read the novel from contrapuntal position.

[Jan]

You three anonymous people:<br><br>While the very fact of your choice of anonymity is interesting, neither of you offered an argument actually attacking Chris' IDEA. You all just dissed him personally. Come on, "r" and "e" are next to each other on the keyboard - how easy is it to accidentally add an "r" to "Defoe"? It was a typo. No big deal, and first of all: no barrier to communication. Whereas a closed mind is. And swearwords are, too.<br><br>Your comments perfectly represent the problem Chris' comment eventually points to: arrogance, closed-mindedness, and the blind conviction that oneself and one's own culture is automatically "right" and that everybody else better adapt pdq. <br><br>A book can be more than an entertainment medium. It is also a product of its time, written from the perspective of a person from that time. Imagine a contemporary book in which a hero soldier being captured in Iraq but in an exciting process teaches the savages/Iraqis that the only valid way of life comprises certain religious rituals, baseball and dating - because this is the way S/HE does it. The analogy might be a bit overstretched - but my point is: Nobody likes to be patronized. It's arrogance that causes wars. Machism kills. <br><br>We are not alone on this planet. We should be humble, and constructive.

[Chris]

Do you agree that this novel is, besides a good adventure story, analogous of the growth of capitalism within eighteenth century England thanks to the driving force of the (largely Calvinist) Protestant work ethic? This capitalism in turns drives the colonial theme of the novel. As Lenin put it Imperialism is the highest form of capitalism, and here we have a demonstration of the justification of that imperialism. Defore, by placing Robinson on the 'blank canvas' island, can reduce Crusoe's development as a homo econimus and prototype imperialist to common sense questions of survival. Clever.