What is indicated (at least in some of the more politically cynical group of essays) is that Orwell has had a profound impact on our contemporary and faithful opportunist Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens' prose as well as many of his quirks are quite easily traced back to Orwell's vitriol filled ink well. However I think that Orwell (as history has demonstrated) was no opportunist, he was quite justifiably disillusioned with left-wing politics, but at least he had hope.
My first impression is that Orwell has completely misread Trotskyism, or perhaps I have misread what Orwell's stances are on it. He couples Trotskyism with nationalism as one in the same...which quite frankly given the internationalist tendencies of "permanent revolution", I don't see how one could be so mistaken. In an eerie way his essays on politics and the British and American Intelligentsia mirror Hitchens' rants about "Islamofascism", (terrible term) and theocratic-friendly press and intelligentsia. Orwell employed the term "Russophile" ad nauseum in two of his essays. An immediately contemptuous term, "Russophile" applied to those who in his eyes blindly accepted the new religion of Marxism as it had been expressed in the Communist Party of Russia. He blanketed this term upon Anglo and American Stalinists, Trotskyists, and Communists...which is of course absurd, given the actual tendencies of these different groups. Both the substance and direction of these political entities (especially in the case of Stalinism and Trotskyism)were quite different.
On a lighter note, his criticism of Salvador Dali as a human being and an artist was riveting. Though it was rigorous in the decimation of his character, it oddly had me much more interested in Dali as a person and artist as nothing else did before. There's always something compelling about a "disgusting human being". His critique of Dickens, his naivete, his bourgeois dreams, and simple even childish schemes to make the world a better place, again ironically made me interested in Dickens and his body of work.
This is the craft of Orwell and of our contemporary Hitchens (who has as many of you know has written a book about Orwell); their contempt draws you in to look at what someone could be so angry about. However sadly, I think cynicism has crept slowly over both leaving their faculties immersed in a hopeless cycle of knowing too much and not knowing what to do with it. (4 STARS out of 5)
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Identity, love and death
7 years ago
2 comments:
It's funny you review this now cuz I recently read a book of Orwell's essays and was actually pleasantly surprised. I liked your comparison to Hitchens, however Orwell never went to the right - so he wasn't as cynical. And I'd actually be interested in reading a Hitchens' book about Orwell. And I'm not sure which essays were contained in your volume, but mine contained critiques of Imperialism, class oppression in Britain, his dedication to fighting fascism in Europe (and a hilarious indictment of Gandhi and pacifism), and how he wanted all his art to be used as a political tool.
Hahaha who knows, maybe this just reveals my growing level of negativity.
Really what book did you read? Was it "Why i write." ?
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