movement. After the military and police crackdown on student demonstrations at Thammasat University on 14 October 1973, Khamsing became politically active and was elected vice-chairman of the Socialist Party of Thailand. It is said that on two occasions in the early-1970s, Khamsing sold off many of his milking cows to finance unsuccessful campaigns for election to Thai parliament. In 1975 a Committee for the Revision of Textbooks in the Ministry of Education sought to revise the school curriculum to emphasize the role of average people in society. As a result, on 17 May a new reading list for Mathayom Suksa 4 and 5 was published in Sayam Rat which made the work of Khamsing, along with fifteen others, part of the mandatory reading. After the Thammasat University massacre of 6 October 1976, Khamsing fled with many others to the jungle, eventually making his way to Laos. His work was banned by the incoming government. Several months later, in 1977 he went into exile with his family to Sweden after a disagreement with the Communist Party of Thailand. In Sweden he was made a member of the Swedish Association of Writers and was able to promote his work in Europe. While in exile, he went on a lecture tour in the US. He also began again working on his first novel Maeo (, ) ['Cat'], which is a metaphor for Thailand itself. Khamsing first began working on Maeo after the events of 14 October 1973, but he manuscript was lost in the turmoil of 1976. Eventually, the novel was published in 1983 after Khamsing returned to Bangkok in 1981. Influence on Thai literature Even though he is not a prolific author, Khamsing is credited with starting a shift in Thai literary style and focus. While the majority of Thai literature before the 20th century was dominated by royal and elite authors writing for the kingdom's gentry, Khamsing's divergence from typical Thai literary subject matter created the concept of the Thai peasant as hero. By giving voice to the common peasant, often in the vernacular in the village setting, Khamsing's writings, most notably Fa Bo Kan, worked to democratize Thai literature. In his works, Khamsing has depicted the plight of the Thai peasant, and in so doing, seek social justice and the betterment of Thai society in general. His writing is seen as a preeminent example of the "life as art" movement