Orwellian

Such fun to finally find exactly why I admire a writer I've long admired without knowing exactly why!

George Orwell.

Clarity is the first pleasure.

Orwell's clarity is completely original.

Preternaturally aware of the propaganda/promotion machine that now systematizes almost all human activity Orwell looks right through it, exposing the all-consuming monster.

The second pleasure is as pleasurable as the first.

Orwell's modesty.

Orwell is a writer who never gives any hint that he might feel undervalued or overvalued, as so many writers do. Writers know what I mean by this: that the marketplace is god whether it pays you a dollar a line, a $100,000 advance, or in review copies you send to your Aunt Lois to prove you are a writer.

The USA, floundering domestically & internationally, with oligarchic leadership posing as patriotic. Europe re-visiting old Nazi, fascist haunts. The mid-East, simultaneously in thrall to both Israel and Saudi Arabia. Central America, reaping the dubious rewards of American de-stablization that was also visited upon Latin America. Latin America now reaping the same rewards, with the fringe benefits of totalitarian dictatorships dressed up as Marxist liberators or free-market capitalists. China larger and more powerful now than even the National Basketball Association.

We need Orwell.

In honor of George Orwell, the writer of this Orwell appreciation adopts an Orwellian pose. From the archives, February, 2015.