Just "finished" picrel, and by that I mean I read all the stuff that I thought I'd find valuable. I haven't yet read Kipling, so it seemed like a waste to read that essay now instead of returning to it in a few years.Other than a few similar cases, I read all the essays. In high school, I remember being made to read "To Shoot an Elephant," and liking it a good deal. In college, I found his essay defending Shakespeare from Tolstoy, which was also fun. I spent the next couple years kicking myself for not having read the collections.Now I have, and they're... okay. I even went back and reread "To Shoot an Elephant." In my memory, he spent a long time considering the options, what each would signify, and how his perception of himself would change, but it doesn't really. There are moments of contemplation, but he skims by it and reaches a rather empty conclusion, though I'd still argue that the central metaphor is great.The essay about his childhood was more of a rumination, which I enjoyed, but I don't think it amounted to enough of a point to make me love it. Still, the hyperbolic descriptions of the grossness of it all did a good job of capturing a youthful disgust. I spent most of the collection unbothered, but a little let down. He turns a phrase, or says something interesting about the roots of words, but it's rare that an epiphany is rightly communicated. It always felt like he was holding back a little. Heading into the final essay, "Why I Write," I thought I'd finally be in store for his passion. This was an essay I had seen people talk about. I imagined an enflamed, irrational kind of writing about how he just can't help himself. He has to write. Maybe it would even self reference his favorite passages or sentences. Hell, maybe even a short list of his inspirations, but none of that really happens, either. It has some witticisms. It talks blandly about politics. Then it ends. I've never read 1984, and I've only read Animal Farm once on a whim. That kind of entry-level dystopian literature never appealed to me, but in my years, I've always held Orwell in good regards. "He writes a fine essay," I would say, but now that I've read and reread some of them, did he? Or were they just okay?
>I've never read 1984Ngmi
>>23923232This mfer shot a poor elephant in burma
>>23923232>this kind of entry level dystopian literature never appealed to meIt's literally the best you retard.If you didn't like his essays you're just not interested enough in politics or history. They're great, though again, it's just politics and history: if you want some kind of Dosto esque psychological insights then of course you're knocking at the wrong door.t.read most of Orwell, including these essays.
>>23924667I think you might be mindbroken
his soul lies in Road to Wigan Pier and his Homage to Catalonia.
it's all just emo teenage girl whining, of course it can't appeal to you. the only times i find myself love reading his essays is whenever fags on the internet bully me and i want to feel le moral superior. people who read his trash tend to be losers with no job or low paying ones. there are exceptions of course: people who don't even read a lot can absolutely love him
>>23924667You think 1984 is the best? Are you in high school? Legitimate question btw
Chadstoy was right about shitspeare. Orwell's essay on the matter is extremely dismissive and lame.
>>23923232I remember animal farm not being very good, the prose being too bland, too on the nose about its allegory and its political messaging not very impressive. Is 1984 much better?
>>23924667>The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletariat to the level of bourgeois stupidity.No one actually likes politics, unless they are broken.
>>23924689>Homage to CataloniaThat, and To whom the bell tolls are comfy reads.
>>23924796It is the best you retarded contrarian.I have read far more than you faggot.
>>23925107doesn't seem like it man
>>23925107>Doesn't deny being in high schoolWoof, buddy. Just accept the loss and move on to better writers.
"the scarred buttocks of the men who had been Bogged with bamboos"
>>23924796Are you going to tell us what you think the best dystopian novel is or are you just vaguely gesturing at having read more?
>>239232321984 deserved a better adaptation than what it got. a great portion of the movie should have been spent in the ministry of love
>>23926384I said explicitly that I don't have interest in dystopian literature. 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and The Road are all examples of writing like this. They might have their quirks, and I've read a few, but I have no interest. Its a shallow attempt at societal analysis
>>23923232Burmese days is probably his best book, read that
>>23926421All of those are specificaly and distinctly different, the road isnt even 'distopian'Go read Homage to Catalonia, thats nice and non-distopian
>>23923232Orwell exists as an ideal for the thinking working class. He’s never been a great thinker or writer, he himself is propaganda. >>23926421How exactly are brave new world, brave new world revisited, and Island ‘shallow’?
>>23926459He never tryed to be a 'great writer' he just wrote what he saw and lived, thats why 1984 and animal farm are classics, its a distilation of all the shit he actualy knew, dude was a colonial police force at some point he actualy was there when people were beaten and executed, he probably did it himself, he got so sick of that he joined the anarchists in catalonia, learned a great deal about how that shit goes down the drain and totalitarianism allways wins, he lived with the workers when they couldnt afford milk or butter and understood that these people will never start a 'revolution', he understood what he was writing about, i dont think he ever believed there is a way out, i think when he wrote that part when the guy torturing the other guy tells him what the future of mankind will be like he simply meant it, people that knew him even implied he was a sadist himself and it was his natural understanding of things, and the fucked up thing is he hit most nails on the head
>>23926486>>23926441Same Anon
This was the rainy season and the ground was soft
(Never tell me, by the way, that the dead look peaceful. Most of the corpses I have seen looked devilish.)
