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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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June 25, 2003
George Orwell's 100th birthday
George Orwell was born 100 years ago today, June 25, 1903.
He wrote 1984 and Animal Farm, surely two of the greatest literary considerations of the psychology of totalitarianism ever.
Animal Farm particularly stands out as a classic to me. It comes presented as a children's book, cast as a parable with talking animals. Many people automatically consider it simply an adult book because of the heavy themes. However, the language and the construction in fact will work pretty well for even a fairly young reader. Tough topics, but broken down into reasonably small bites.
He was also, seemingly at odds with this, an avowed socialist for at least part of his life.
Yet at the same time, a realist. �When someone has dropped a bomb on your mother, there is nothing for it but to go and drop two bombs on his mother.�
He also wrote the classic and beautifully dispassionate essay "Politics and the English Language." This should be required reading for both English and civics classes. This essay explains the abuse of language for political demagoguery better than any other writing ever.
I wonder where Orwell would have come down on invading Iraq. Good commie liberals will assume that he'd have been against our invasion of Iraq. Yet this same guy was responsible for the "two bombs" quote. He would certainly have been highly conscious of the particular rhetorical manipulations of all sides, careful to distill essential facts while dispensing of the loaded terminology. Did we "liberate" Iraq, "conquer" Iraq, "attack" Iraq- or were we liberating, conquering, or attacking the people of Iraq, the Hussein regime?
Mister, we could use a man like George Orwell again.
posted by Al at 6/25/2003 02:56:00 AM
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