Marx's work Capital is more a performance of thought than a straightforward treatise. In this performance, Marx adopts the characteristics and concepts peculiar to capitalist thought. In other words, he speaks in a variety of voices in the text, but rarely his own. When he does speak in his own voice, it is reined in by the norms of capitalist reasoning. Although Capital tells us a lot about capitalism and its functioning, it tells us little about Marx, who does not speak straightforwardly in the text. Thus, we must decode the text with some care.¹