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Re-reading a classic: 1984 in 2020

1984 by George Orwell

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Y’all know the broad strokes of 1984: Big Brother, newspeak, telescreens, doublethink, “We have always been at war with EastAsia.” It’s entered the popular consciousness in a profound way; and for some reason thinkpieces about it have proliferated since 2016.  (I wonder why!  Truly it is a mystery.) So our small book club decided to re-read this one as adults, to see how our reactions to it might have changed, or if it was really all that.  The consensus: it’s a classic for a reason. […]

“If there is one man to whom I do feel myself inferior, it is a coal-miner”

The road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

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George Orwell is not a great writer, but he is an admirable journalist. He does not shy away from difficulty or experiencing hardship on his own body. I admire him a lot for this trait of character. In The road to Wigan Pier he was commissioned by “the left bookclub” to write about the experience of miners in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Orwell has never been anything but clearly socialist and this is a book about socialism and an attempt to argue for its benefits for […]

The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting.

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

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Orwell is a man of strong convictions. He believes so passionately in the fight against fascism that in 1936 he travels to Barcelona to fight in the revolution. Homage to Catalonia is a detailed account of the politics surrounding the revolution, a fervent defense of the working class and a witness of war from the trenches. “All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.” I will be honest and say that the politics interested me […]

Don’t let this happen. Go out and vote!

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Holy crap this is depressing.  And terrifying. We have our main character, Winston, who’s 39.  He starts off by doing a forbidden thing: writing in a diary. He is terrified that the Thought Police will find him and kill him, or if not that then send him to 25 years of hard labor.  The Thought Police can find you anywhere. There are screens that are constantly on playing propaganda news and military music and whatever else they want the people to see, and the Thought […]

A Dual Biography that works

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I read Churchill and Orwell because I am a fan of the author, Thomas E. Ricks.  Ricks is best known as a military historian who wrote Fiasco and The Generals, both of which I highly recommend.  This book is a bit of a departure for Ricks but the topic seemed interesting.  Churchill and Orwell is a dual biography of two British men who had similarly parallel lives during WWII-era Great Britain.  I was surprised to find how much the two men had in common, especially […]



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