George Orwell

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Dr Jekyll

Original Poster:

23,820 posts

268 months

Friday 15th February 2013
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If Orwell had live into old age, what might have happened to his politics?

He was a sort of sceptical socialist during the 30s, but that was when almost everyone seemed to have a soft spot for socialism. Plenty of people to the left of Orwell moved right during the 1950s.


marcosgt

11,094 posts

183 months

Friday 15th February 2013
quotequote all
Dr Jekyll said:
If Orwell had live into old age, what might have happened to his politics?

He was a sort of sceptical socialist during the 30s, but that was when almost everyone seemed to have a soft spot for socialism. Plenty of people to the left of Orwell moved right during the 1950s.
He'd be complaining about Romanians stealing his rubbish by now, like most old British people...

To be fair to Orwell, he was basically anti-authoritarianism, so he'd have plenty to rail against in the world of naked-scanners, CCTV, et al...

M.

12v3pot

5,135 posts

142 months

Saturday 23rd February 2013
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Agreed, and I think he would be amazed at how we're sleepwalking into a surveillance society so willingly, with reward cards, targeted ads,etc.

marcosgt

11,094 posts

183 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
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Not to mention wars fought in far flung parts of the world for 'our protection'...

Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes...

M.

Mrs Pitstop

4,289 posts

209 months

Thursday 7th March 2013
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It amazes me that 1984 is probably more relevant now than it was when he wrote it. The increased surveillance, the press (or party) determining the "news", newspeak & the deteroration of language... I think he would have fought for civil liberties but ultimately driven himself mad with his vision of the future.

BevR

731 posts

150 months

Thursday 7th March 2013
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Dr Jekyll said:
If Orwell had live into old age, what might have happened to his politics?

He was a sort of sceptical socialist during the 30s, but that was when almost everyone seemed to have a soft spot for socialism. Plenty of people to the left of Orwell moved right during the 1950s.
Did you listen to the recent BBC series on Orwell? It was about how the right tried to use 1984 as an anti-socialist book however it was only ever meant to be anti-authoritarianism.
There was a series of good programmes on Radio 4 however I don’t think they are still available (I had a quick look around the podcasts and iplayer).

I think it was this series:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pyz0z/features/...

marcosgt

11,094 posts

183 months

Friday 8th March 2013
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BevR said:
Did you listen to the recent BBC series on Orwell? It was about how the right tried to use 1984 as an anti-socialist book however it was only ever meant to be anti-authoritarianism.
There was a series of good programmes on Radio 4 however I don’t think they are still available (I had a quick look around the podcasts and iplayer).

I think it was this series:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pyz0z/features/...
Typical Bolshevik BBC propaganda! biggrin

M

Goaty Bill 2

3,492 posts

126 months

Thursday 2nd February 2017
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A not too distant thread revival.

For the real fans of Orwell, and other voracious readers of political commentary, this may well be old news, and indeed it is 'old' and not really 'news'.

I have stumbled across a few titbits of Orwell that others may find of interest.

For those interested in Political newspeak (though not as Orwell portrays it in 1984), an essay by George Orwell: Politics and the English Language.
Some may consider this good advice on writing in general.

For the more visually inclined, the documentary George Orwell: A Life in Pictures (1 hour 28 minutes).
It's not actually Orwell in the film I'm afraid, the actor is Chris Langham.

And this from University College London, Ian Hislop: The Orwell Lecture 2016.


There are also as a matter of interest, interviews with Aldus Huxley available on Youtube.


I find it quite interesting to hear Huxley speaking for himself.

ETA
I had mistakenly understood the Orwell documentary to include interviews with Orwell himself.
This is clearly not the case (and I have corrected this above), however my understanding is that his actual words are used, and I do in fact recognise some of the statements from such of his writings that I have read.


Corrections on the Orwell 'interview'


Edited by Goaty Bill 2 on Thursday 2nd February 14:41