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Re: Did Orwell hate the state or was 1984 purely fiction?

Autolykos — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 21:21:22 GMT

From what I understand, Orwell was essentially a "social anarchist" from the time of the Spanish Civil War until his death.

Re: Did Orwell hate the state or was 1984 purely fiction?

Aristophanes — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:38:58 GMT

Interesting little article.

Have you ever read his essays Propaganda and Demotic Speech or The Prevention of Literature or Politics and the English Language? Basically, while not explicitly stating this (he describes the use of language in white papers), bureaucrats use language foreign to the common man and this is what allows them to publish their ill doings in public; the people don't know what it means. He also talks about the tendancy towards totalitarianism in the English literary intelligentsia.

Re: Did Orwell hate the state or was 1984 purely fiction?

Smiling Dave — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 23:59:33 GMT

He said that 1984 was not intuition or divine revelation, but rather a logical extrapolationation of policies and actions he already saw in existence in his lifetime.

At the same time he was a socialist, believing, like so many then, that it would bring joy to the world. This even though he saw what was happening quite clearly in Russia, as described in Animal Farm.

You might be interested in my humble article about Orwell, right here: http://smilingdavesblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/where-and-why-george-orwell-got-it.html

Did Orwell hate the state or was 1984 purely fiction?

Aristophanes — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 22:25:58 GMT

What I am curious about is if George Orwell actually thought of the government as turning into big brother.

I realize H.G. Wells and Aldous Huxley were pro-socialist state, but was Orwell merely writing a fiction novel or was it tacit criticism of the direction of government? Did he hate the state, so to speak.

I ask because of the new Rap News. I usually like these (and I do like this one), but the Orwell character seems to be awfully callous toward the state and for some reason i don't think Orwell was actually like that...

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