George Orwell

[redunderthebed]

There is something about his writing that when i read it i have a hard time putting it down i finish down and out in paris and london in two days (which is really fast for me....). I read 1984 and Animal Farm many moons ago but i'm going to re-read them i enjoyed both of them throughly the first time when i was in high school, i was talking to a friend and she had to study animal farm at school and she hated the books and most of all the pigs. I will lend her 1984 when i get the collected works of george orwell in the mail one must not let one book not see the genius of the man.

[PsychoSerenity]

I do think most literature is ruined by any requirement to study it at school. I hated the things I had study. Fortunately I started reading Orwell of my own accord and have quite enjoyed what I've read so far.

[Rum]

Orwell mastered the art of novel writing. It is an art form and he learnt how to perform it better than almost anyone ever did. That plus his (slightly romanticised) view of working class life at the time made him a dead cert. He is one of my all tiome favourites, though I hate 1984 I must say - mostly because the good guys lose!

[Pappa]

There's an Orwell thread here already somewhere, several pages long IIRC.

[Audley Strange]

Orwell mastered the art of novel writing. It is an art form and he learnt how to perform it better than almost anyone ever did. That plus his (slightly romanticised) view of working class life at the time made him a dead cert. He is one of my all tiome favourites, though I hate 1984 I must say - mostly because the good guys lose!

Well "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is one of my favourite books because it is so rich with contempt and savage about ideology, all ideology. I don't recall much in the way of "good guys", Winston Smith deserved everything he had coming to him, which is the tragic and bleak point. Oh and he suggests the masses are essentially animals, and that intellectual liberals are collaborators with totalitarians. In "Nineteen Eighty-Four", only the rats come away looking good.

It is an astonishing, very deep, work.

[JimC]

His works, and indeed the intellectual trajectory of his life, are both an affirmation of the true value of socialist thinking, and a dire warning of how easily it is corrupted when applied by power-hungry men.

[pErvinalia]

I studied animal farm at school and enjoyed it. I've got 1984 on my shelf but haven't found the right time (and mood) to read it yet.

[redunderthebed]

1984 is a deep dark abyss of a book but most worthy of reading and i think everyone should read it once its all that you really should read to maintain some semblance of faith in humanity.

I've got the clergyman's daughter sitting on my bookshelf i can't wait to read it.

[Jason]

I've seen the animated Animal Farm and listened to the audiobook of 1984.

[Pappa]

There's an Orwell thread here already somewhere, several pages long IIRC.

Found it: http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1&p=888797

[HomerJay]

Eric Arthur Blair was the man, George Orwell the writer, not necessarily the same man.

Crick's book is excellent, I have it somewhere , I don't know if anything since has superceeded it?

[Svartalf]

I read Animal Farm and some of his social books in the Uni, never could get myself to dive into 1984.

[redunderthebed]

Eric Arthur Blair was the man, George Orwell the writer, not necessarily the same man.

Crick's book is excellent, I have it somewhere , I don't know if anything since has superceeded it?

They are i thought one and the same george orwell was his pen name.

[JimC]

Eric Arthur Blair was the man, George Orwell the writer, not necessarily the same man.

Crick's book is excellent, I have it somewhere , I don't know if anything since has superceeded it?

They are i thought one and the same george orwell was his pen name.

I think Homer was trying to make some sort of point that an author as a human being is often different to the picture of him one builds in one's mind after reading his books...

[Pappa]

Eric Arthur Blair was the man, George Orwell the writer, not necessarily the same man.

Crick's book is excellent, I have it somewhere , I don't know if anything since has superceeded it?

They are i thought one and the same george orwell was his pen name.

I think Homer was trying to make some sort of point that an author as a human being is often different to the picture of him one builds in one's mind after reading his books...

It's difficult not to with Orwell. All his protagonists are essentially the same person, and clearly an extension of the writer. Though obviously, those characters aren't who Orwell was, no matter how many similarities there may be to his own character.

I find Orwell's depiction of class to be the very best way to understand class cultural boundaries in the UK... even now, so many years later. Probably best conveyed through Burmese Days and Keep the Aspidistra flying, but present in all his books.