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/lit/ - Literature

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1825832 No.1825832 [Reply] [Original]

Orwell has the best selling pair of books out of any 20th century author. His books Animal Farm and 1984 are routinely taught in high school classes and are widely referred to, with words such as Orwellian, newspeak, thoughtcrime, and so on becoming parts of our standard vocabulary. He's my favourite author. The thing is, Animal Farm is shite compared to his other works (Homage to Catalonia, Keep the Aspidistra Flying), and 1984 had been almost bowdlerized. George Orwell was cited by a Republican politician as being one one of his intellectual role models. Why? Why has Orwell been so popularized as to lose sight of his original messages? Remember, Orwell was a socialist. He was a member of the Independent Labour Party. He fought in a communist, near-Trotskyist militia during the Spanish Civil War. At times in his life he said he was nearly an anarchist. He wrote, "Every line I have written since 1936 has been against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism." But yet in a recent introduction to 1984, the passage was quoted and the "democratic socialism" part was censored. How apropo. So how can one read 1984 without being led astray? Personally, I feel it's important to know more about Orwell before reading 1984. There needs to be context to understand what he was saying. Politics and the English Language ties in perfectly, and Homage to Catalonia gives you Orwell's personal experiences, where he's coming from when he writes.

>> No.1825833

I don't know what I'm going for here, if I have some grand narrative, so I'll just list my points:
Animal Farm is one of Orwell's worst books, yet is one of the most highly regarded and best selling.
1984 is bowdlerized.
Why don't people read his other works, the ones that deal with poverty and colonialism, the ones that are actually good? Orwell wrote thousands of articles and essays over the years, these are almost entirely ignored.
How has Orwell come to mean something completely different than he was?
I love the man, but damn he is ugly.
Also, get off my lawn.
Thank you for wading through my rambling.

>> No.1825880

This is the 2000th best thread on George Orwell this week.

Animal Farm and 1984 are good for what they were, prose infused essays, but holy fucking monkey balls read and/or discuss other shit.

>> No.1825883

>>1825880

>prose infused essays

What the hell are you doing?

>> No.1825889

>>1825883
Making a snide remark of valid opinion.

>> No.1825892

>>1825889

You're aware that essays are prose, right?

>> No.1825897

>>1825892
Nope.
*Narrative infused essays.
Thanks.

>> No.1826117

I think this is the only time I'll ever say this, but everyone except OP is a fag.


Keep fucking that chicken, /lit/.

>> No.1826136

>Homage to Catalonia

I usually don't remember lines from books as I do scenes, but

>I was saved once again by the marksmanship of Spaniards

Great line. That's not an exact quote, but something like that. I've been meaning to read Down and Out.