Morewell

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.