Finished Why Orwell Matters by Christopher Hitchens - some parts were lively and interesting: For example, Hitchens observes that Orwell was an early and influential commentator on popular culture! Hitchens devotes a large portion of the book to defending Orwell against attacks by prominent leftists, deliciously skewering some, but this part went on too long for me.Better is reading Orwell himself. Orwell's essay Lear, Tolstoy, and the Fool is very interesting, and Reflections on Gandhi has this very thoughtful observation:
The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals. No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid.
I like that passage, and will forward it to Colin so that he will save me seats in crowded theatres, something he has previously resisted. (I hope he will be more "willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty")
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ReplyDeletealthough maybe that's not what Orwell (or Gandhi) had in mind
ReplyDeleteI think Orwell was probably thinking of this quote by social commentator Colin Drumm: "If I had to choose between my theater seat and my girlfriend, I hope to god I'd have the guts to choose my girlfriend", which in turn is derived from the widely-quoted observation by E.M. Foster: "If I had to choose between my country and my friend, I hope to God I'd have the guts to choose my friend".
ReplyDeleteDid you see this?
ReplyDeletewww.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?em
Oh! This is the story on how Amazon electronically "extracted" some books, fittingly including 1984, from people's Kindles. Pretty wild! (I didn't read the full story, though, so will do that now.)
ReplyDeletewhoa, just read that story.
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