(Yesterday was the anniversary of his death and I meant to get to Orwell earlier but I am not tied to any strict rules that way).
I also feel there has to be more about the present situation of lack of privacy of citizens everywhere ( always with a pressing "reason of state" behind every new incursion) which is projected into the future so brilliantly and chillingly in "1984.:
( It is a shame how younger people have such little knowledge of Orwell and his works,-- I remember back in 1986 talking to the son of the owner of a security company whose logo was something like the CBS eye and joking to the young man about it might remind people of "1984."
Now, this was a bright, college educated young man who astonished me by not having a clue as to what I was talking about...a book everyone of my generation knew about even if they hadn't read it had already slipped off the cultural radar with the young.
Orwell was a truth teller who pulled no punches and could at times be pretty damn snarky about people who irked him and their fads and foibles --British " sandal wearing Socialists" and the uptight political correctness of the far left, who all he claimed were devoted to books such as "Marxism for Infants.."
But there is no doubt Orwell's sympathies lay with the common man and the relatively powerless ( just read "The Road to Wigan Pier" or "Down and Out in Paris and London" if you need any proof of that)--
I suspect Orwell's mind would be blown by the prevalence of Ayn Rand inspired ideas in American society and its umbridled worship of greed such as institutionalized now in banking and on Wall Street ( which isn't to say everyone who works in those areas is a dishonorable person, but we have reached the point of wretched financial wrong doing with the culprits walking away with fines that hardly affect them at all, often even managing to stay relatively anonymous and to just move from one scandal to a new enterprise..)
Anyway, here is the story
George Orwell biography
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Quick Facts
- NAME: George Orwell
- OCCUPATION: Journalist, Author
- BIRTH DATE: June 25, 1903
- DEATH DATE: January 21, 1950
- EDUCATION: Eton
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Motihari, India
- PLACE OF DEATH: London, United Kingdom
Best Known For
George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, and critic most famous for his novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949).Quiz
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Synopsis
Born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, Bengal, India, in 1903,
George Orwell, novelist, essayist and critic, went on to become best
known for his novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Early Life
Born Eric Arthur Blair, George Orwell created some of the sharpest satirical fiction of the 20th century with such works as Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. He was a man of strong opinions who addressed some of the major political movements of his times, including imperialism, fascism and communism.The son of a British civil servant, George Orwell spent his first days in India, where his father was stationed. His mother brought him and his older sister, Marjorie, to England about a year after his birth and settled in Henley-on-Thames. His father stayed behind in India and rarely visited. (His younger sister, Avril, was born in 1908.) Orwell didn't really know his father until he retired from the service in 1912. And even after that, the pair never formed a strong bond. He found his father to be dull and conservative.
According to one biography, Orwell's first word was "beastly." He was a sick child, often battling bronchitis and the flu. Orwell was bit by the writing bug at an early age, reportedly composing his first poem around the age of four. He later wrote, "I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued." One of his first literary successes came at the age of 11 when he had a poem published in the local newspaper.
Like many other boys in England, Orwell was sent to boarding school. In 1911 he went to St. Cyprian's in the coastal town of Eastbourne, where he got his first taste of England's class system. On a partial scholarship, Orwell noticed that the school treated the richer students better than the poorer ones. He wasn't popular with his peers, and in books he found comfort from his difficult situation. He read works by Rudyard Kipling and H. G. Wells, among others. What he lacked in personality, he made up for in smarts. Orwell won scholarships to Wellington College and Eton College to continue his studies.
After completing his schooling at Eton, Orwell found himself at a dead end. His family did not have the money to pay for a university education. Instead he joined the India Imperial Police Force in 1922. After five years in Burma, Orwell resigned his post and returned to England. He was intent on making it as a writer.
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