Oh yeah -- Orwell's v interesting, he was a raving socialist (one of his friends said somewhat wearily "He could not take out a handkerchief to blow his nose without discoursing on the conditions in the fabric industry") and actually went off to FIGHT in the Spanish Civil War, something none of his leftist buddies did. But he also really turned against Stalin (his indelible image was "Hitler and Stalin on a tandem bicycle") which put him totally at odds with the 1930s Leftists. I think he enjoyed being contrarian and pitched against everybody.
And Animal Farm -- talk about co-option. The first time I read that I was a kid (why do they give it to kids? Do they think it's like Wind in the Willows or Narnia?) and found it VERY CONFUSING. Then later I read an essay which laid it out like "The Major is Lenin, Napoleon is Stalin, Snowball is Trotsky, the cat is....well, being a cat" and I was all Ohhhh. And in the end the would-be revolutionaries, the thuggish farmers, are just the same -- brutish exploiters of the workers. I had actual nightmares about animal faces melting and changing. (THANKS, MOM AND DAD.)
no subject
And Animal Farm -- talk about co-option. The first time I read that I was a kid (why do they give it to kids? Do they think it's like Wind in the Willows or Narnia?) and found it VERY CONFUSING. Then later I read an essay which laid it out like "The Major is Lenin, Napoleon is Stalin, Snowball is Trotsky, the cat is....well, being a cat" and I was all Ohhhh. And in the end the would-be revolutionaries, the thuggish farmers, are just the same -- brutish exploiters of the workers. I had actual nightmares about animal faces melting and changing. (THANKS, MOM AND DAD.)