Before it gets any uglier....

[joyandthunder]

...Daniel should actually read Animal Farm and 1984Maybe Orwell was a shitbag. I didn't know the guy. I know he fought in the Spanish Civil War and I know his two most famous works. I refuse to judge him negatively based on one four-page essay about shooting an elephant. I consider him to be a thoughtful man, eloquent and insightful

Comments

[dgink]

Honestly, summaries are good enough if the source is reliable. Over time I've read more about these books than these books contain (you can't grow up in America with a public education without this experience).

[joyandthunder]

But you should read the books. As a budding media critic, you should REALLY know that the source of the information is... well, the source.

The good news is that you can apply all of these interpretations of Orwell as you read him. <.winky-face.>

[dgink]

You're right, and sadly now that I want to read those books (not to defend a point that I don't even know if I believe, but to actually formulate an honest opinion) I don't have time now. Regretfully, the next time Orwell comes up I'll have to say "I don't know" because I really don't. All I have is the opinions of others and the internet to go on and it isn't fair to Orwell (or his admirers) to judge him according to second-hand information.

I haven't read Orwell. It's on my list... buried beneath college and other personal interest reading. I have no opinion to offer on the subject at this time.

[redqueenmeg]

I oughta read Animal Farm.

*mutters something about not having read 1984 in eighteen years*

*creaks off to old folks' home*

[iskender]

I don't know how much to carry on back there, but as an aside, let me say that I'm not even that much of an Orwell fan. He could be treacherous, especially late in life; he was known on at least one occasion to name people he thought to be communist sympathizers, some of them colleagues. Now what that meant for him is a whole discussion, but I want to say that it doesn't sit well with me. Orwell's a troubling figure.

But he was brilliant and few have expressed truths of political language like he has. His essays on the use and misuse of vocabulary are wonderful. 1984 is as much a psychological exploration of tyranny as can be found (though I still urge others to read Brave New World as a vital companion piece). And his life experience is something you can't dismiss. He saw the nascent social democracy of Spain quashed by fascism and Stalinism. He saw the liberal democracies turn their backs on the Spanish Republic. He was there, he was on the barricades. He got a bullet through his neck for it. All safe, dry, and warm

[dgink]

Apologies for my ranting. I haven't read Orwell. It's on my list... buried beneath college and other personal interest reading. I have no honest opinion to offer on the subject at this time. :)