Hello. Today I’m reviewing George Orwell’s Why I Write. Did I do this before? I don’t think so. I think I talked about it a little bit, but I didn’t actually review the book. Well, my review will consist of reading a few passages to convince you why you should read this book. Here’s one. You’ve probably heard of the novel Animal Farm? If you haven’t read it, you really should. He says here, “Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried with full consciousness of what I was doing to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. I have not written a novel for seven years, but I hope to write another fairly soon. It is bound to be a failure. Every book is a failure, but I know with some clarity what kind of book I want to write.” I really like that kind of assertiveness there in his writing, what he says, what he intends to say. Let us see.
“Looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose, that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.” Wow. I could say that about a lot of what I see on the internet.
Well, oh, cheers, everybody. Yes. Espresso for the espresso type. Let’s see.
But here’s what I really love. This introduction to
“The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism, and the English Genius”
“Part One: England. Your England”
As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead trying to kill me. [That is an opening sentence.] They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are only doing their duty as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kindhearted law abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life.
On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any of the worst for it. He is serving his country, which has the power to absolve him from evil. One cannot see the modern world as it is unless one recognizes the overwhelming strength of patriotism, national loyalty. In certain circumstances, it can break down, at certain levels of civilization, it does not exist. But as a positive force, there is nothing to set beside it. Christianity and international Socialism are as weak as straw in comparison with it. Hitler and Mussolini rose to power in their own countries very largely because they could grasp this fact and their opponents could not.
That’s all I’m going to say, and I think it explains everything I tried to say about a certain tech company many, many years ago.
Cheers, everyone, and I’ll be seeing you, and yes, do get this book. I highly recommend it for anybody who writes, at least, if not everybody in the world. I don’t know, maybe not all the whole world, but anybody in the western world should really read this book. The end. Talk to you later. Cheers.
You can get the ebook from these retailers.
You can also get it in print from my online bookstore and support indie bookstores.