#!/bin/env slides
George Orwell
"More than just 1984 and Animal Farm!"
By Bruce Hill
Quick Bio
Born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 in British India.
"Lower-upper-middle-class" family
Mother moved with him and his sisters to Oxfordshire, England in 1904
Grew up miserable at school ("Such, Such Were the Joys") (Coincidentally, was later taught French by Aldous Huxley)
Burma
After studying at Eton, Blair's family couldn't afford to send him to university, so he joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma.
Really intensified his hatred of British Empire See: Shooting an Elephant and: A Hanging
Got knuckle tats:
While in Burma, he acquired a moustache similar to those worn by officers of the British regiments stationed there. [He] also acquired some tattoos; on each knuckle he had a small untidy blue circle. Many Burmese living in rural areas still sport tattoos like this—they are believed to protect against bullets and snake bites.
(foreshadowing)
Excerpt: A Hanging
From the essay A Hanging
It was about forty yards to the gallows. I watched the bare brown back of the prisoner marching in front of me. [...] And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.
It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working –bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming–all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned – reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone – one mind less, one world less.
Down and Out
In Burma, he contracted Dengue Fever and went back to England on medical leave, where he decided to quit the police force.
Spent a period of time exploring the poor parts of London and later, Paris. Initially, disguising himself as a tramp, but later, genuinely destitute and living on the edge of starvation. Went by "PS Burton".
First published essay, "The Spike" about "tramp houses" also called "spikes" for homeless people.
Did odd jobs as a journalist writing pieces for various left-leaning publications about the conditions of the poor and the social systems that led to them.
First novel based on his time in this period: Down and Out in Paris and London
Back to England
After getting sick (again) and returning to England (again), Blair did some time as a teacher.
A Clergyman's Daughter is based on this period of his life.
Later, worked in a used bookstore, which was the basis for Keep the Aspidistra Flying in which, the protagonist declares a personal war on money and vows to never get a good job, but finds that being poor means spending more time thinking about money than being rich.
The Pseudonym
Started publishing essays and articles under a pseudonym to prevent embarrassment to his family over his behavior.
Chose "George Orwell" because "It is a good round English name."
I think there was sort of a Batman/Bruce Wayne dynamic, where "Eric Blair" was more of a facade than "George Orwell." Blair was trapped in British respectability politics, but Orwell was free to more honestly express his political opinions.
Wigan Pier
After this, Orwell spent time researching the living and working conditions of coal miners in Northern England.
Resulted in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
A very dry first half about documenting the horrible conditions of coal miners, followed by a very spicy second half about why we need socialism to prevent such things, and why socialists are so bad at getting that idea across.
It would help enormously, for instance, if the smell of crankishness which still clings to the Socialist movement could be dispelled. If only the sandals and the pistachio-coloured shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian, teetotaller, and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City to do his yoga exercises quietly! But that, I am afraid, is not going to happen.
Very unpopular with his socialist publishers.
Socialism
I think a lot of people get the wrong idea from his later criticisms of Stalinism that he was some kind of reactionary right-winger (he's often embraced by the American political right today), but he was really an ardent atheist socialist who was opposed to totalitarian regimes.
Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.
Spanish Civil War
After Wigan Pier, Orwell got married and then immediately left to go fight in the Spanish Civil War (lol).
Rough breakdown:
- The Spanish Republic, the legitimate democratic government
- Francisco Franco, fascist coup
- Pro-republic socialist Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM)
- Pro-republic communist Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (backed by the USSR)
- Pro-republic anarchist Confederación Nacional de Trabajo (CNT)
Orwell enlisted with the anarchists.
Absolute shitshow on all fronts.
Orwell Plaza
Survived a battle in the heart of Barcelona.
(I've been, it's cool!)
Uh Oh
Later, shot in the neck by a sniper.
Seems like the knuckle tats failed.
...but got super lucky and the bullet missed all the arteries and left a clean wound.
Political infighting on the left led to total chaos on the pro-republican side of the war.
The USSR-backed Spanish communist party started hunting down dissidents, including Orwell's POUM as allegedly Trotskyist.
Orwell escaped Spain and was tried in absentia as a Trotskyist.
Oops, All Fascists
It turns out that it's a very, very bad idea to prioritize political purges while you're fighting a civil war.
Francisco Franco wins the civil war.
Spain has to endure Franco's fascist dictatorship until 1975!!!
This is a guy who took power at the same time as Hitler and ruled until bell bottoms went out of fashion for the second time.
Homage to Catalonia
Orwell wrote an autobiographical novel about his experiences in the Spanish Civil War: Homage to Catalonia
WWII
During WWII, Orwell really, really wanted to fight against fascism again, but was medically unfit (the guy low-rolled on his VIT stat).
Suffering from Tuberculosis and Bronchitis.
Joined the British "Home Guard", a civilian militia.
Spent a lot of time writing pro-socialist and anti-Stalinist essays and articles:
One could not have a better example of the moral and emotional shallowness of our time, than the fact that we are now all more or less pro Stalin. This disgusting murderer is temporarily on our side, and so the purges, etc., are suddenly forgotten.
Had a brief stint as a radio presenter (no recordings survive).
Essays
I think it's almost more accurate to think of Orwell as a journalist and essayist than a novelist.
He wrote a huge volume of essays throughout his life.
Some of my personal favorites are:
Politics and the English Language
"Politics and the English Language"
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
Can Socialists Be Happy?
Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache.
Charles Dickens
I have been discussing Dickens simply in terms of his ‘message’, and almost ignoring his literary qualities. But every writer, especially every novelist, has a ‘message’, whether he admits it or not, and the minutest details of his work are influenced by it. All art is propaganda. [...] On the other hand, not all propaganda is art.
Why I Write
Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it. It seems to me nonsense, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects. Everyone writes of them in one guise or another. It is simply a question of which side one takes and what approach one follows. And the more one is conscious of one’s political bias, the more chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one’s aesthetic and intellectual integrity.
The Other Stuff
Oh, I guess he also wrote a book called "1984" and one called "Animal Farm" near the end of his life.
They're really good I guess, but everyone was forced to read them in high school.
He died of tuberculosis shortly after finishing 1984 and shortly before the invention of antibiotics that are effective against tuberculosis.
The End
Go read an Orwell novel or essay today!