June 25, 2003
-
George Orwell -born June 25, 1903
George Orwell is rightly famous for his political novels, but the two books of his I like most are autobiographical.
Down and Out in Paris and London, an account of Orwell's experience of destitution, is the best story about homelessness I know of. Reading this, you can see where the feeling of weariness and resignation in 1984 came from.
Homage to Catalonia is about Orwell's service in the Spanish Civil War. It's a quiet, matter-of-fact recounting of how tired, frozen and starving idealists drove themselves beyond imaginable endurance for what they believed in. And how they got stabbed in the back. It's one of the greatest war books written from a combatant's point of view.
Words and phrases George Orwell contributed to the English language:
newspeak
Big Brother is watching
War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.
doublethink
thought police
unperson
thought crime
Orwellian
revisionist history (I'm not sure about this one)
Comments (11)
Saw an article in the paper the other day which revealed that Orwell had actually submitted to the government a list of people he suspected of being Communists or sympathisers. So he pretty much lived out the worst of Big Brother.. I was devastated when I read that
I haven't read those two books. Interesting list of words and phrases, too. I didn't realize he contributed all of those.
Your always a fountain of Knowledge and interesting to read
Cheers JJ
PS thanks for comment on mine, helps me be more motivated to take more pics
J
Attractive guy, ain't he? Kinda reminds me of Charlie Chaplin.
A wounderful thought process beneath the hair, mind you.
This was an article in the weekend's paper, it seemed very new. It mentioned Orwell (real name: Eric Blair.. coincidence?
) deliberating over whether or not to submit the list and then doing so. Apparently there was a woman involved whose esteem he was trying to win. I'll have a look on the Guardian website and see if I can dig up the article for you.
Yeah ~ here you go. There's a follow up in today's paper as well.
(So technically yes, a letter to a friend ~ but the friend happened to be a beautiful young woman who worked for the Foreign Office
)
great author 1984 and animal farm are two of my favorite books ever.
and i love citizen kane. .. o damn that's orson welles
I reread 1984 last year and it's actually quite striking when you realize that a lot of the "out there" stuff he was writing about has materialized. Creepy.
I was riveted by 1984 when it was required reading in a high school class. Thanks for mentioning the book about being homeless, which I'd never heard of (ouch -- how not?? stupid me!). Must look that one up!
Wow!... This one brought back some memories... Never did read those books though.....
Comments are closed.