The term Indoor Marxman probably first reached a general audience with the publication in 1949 of Malcolm Lowry's stunning novel, Under the Volcano. Lowry adopted this term from the American poet Conrad Aiken who Lowry greatly admired -- even though, by using the phrase, Aiken was being critical of Lowry who he thought had been overly influenced by the Marxism of many European poets at the time.
I've been a fan of Lowry's work ever since the early 1980s when I was living in Vancouver and discovered Forest Path to the Spring, a short story about the author's sojourn in nearby Dollarton. You won't find anything in this blog about Lowry or his works, however -- I leave that to people much more learned than me. What you will find here is media criticism from the perspective of a guy who works in a blue collar job in Toronto and is often puzzled and sometimes outraged by certain blind spots in the mainstream media.
In other words, it's my blog and I can rant if I want to. Just letting off some steam after a long day of giving my labour to the man. There's a certain self-deprecating tone to the term Indoor Marxman that I like. I hope I can do it justice.
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