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roberto_balogna's review against another edition
3.0
The actual content of this nonfiction book is fantastical and gives one a great appreciation for who Orwell was as a man outside of being an author. However, Orwell suffers from a strange complex where his ability to describe a scene lies directly inverse from how fantastical that scene is. One will be treated to pages of lurid detail over what Orwell consumed in the trenches for lunch followed by a sequence of battle described in similar detail to "I shot him. Or I think I did. It was hard to tell.".
A definite hint at the genius to come but a far cry from his nonfiction work.
A definite hint at the genius to come but a far cry from his nonfiction work.
hadeanstars's review against another edition
3.0
I like Orwell, and I've read most of his stuff now, so I can claim a fairly balanced perspective. My sense is that I prefer his fiction to his more journalistic work. The story of the Spanish Civil War, falling into the latter category, is interesting no doubt, but Orwell's account is not at all what I was expecting.
I think, to be fair, it was not what he was expecting either. He went to Spain, in his own words, 'to fight Fascism', and who can argue with that. He thought that would be a kind of blanket apologia for all perspectives and counter-arguments. But no, things became complicated, because, it soon transpired that wanting to fight fascism was not really enough to remain above reproach.
It seeemed that the anti-fascism movement was very diverse, reactionary, and complicated. Matters quickly devolved into various ideological factions and splinter groups, each claiming the moral high ground in debates about how Spain should operate, and gradually these factions hardened into intolerant idealogues who would brook no other view. Some were socialist, some were communist, some were simply revolutionary, some were anarchist. They all had very clear ideas about why their objectives were pure and everyone else's were flawed, and eventually, why opposing views were 'dangerous'.
So, what starts out simply as a story of trench warfare, the hardships of men with very meagre resources fighting other ideologically distant men with very meagre resources, soon becomes a shambles, where everyone is at everyone else's throats. There are seemingly innumerable acronymic factions that soon become indistinuishable from one another, all instigating pogroms and crackdowns, each lobbying to have rival groups outlawed or exterminated. Never mind that they are all anti-fascists. They are anti-each-other too.
It is a tale as old as time. The left pull themselves apart while the right pull together. The left always devolves into a massive virtue signalling competition where they are all condemning each other for not being left enough, tolerant enough (no irony though!), or pragmatic enough. It soon becomes a shambles, and then the witch-hunts begin.
Orwell got out just in time, after many of his fellow ideologues had been imprisoned or worse. I think, understandably, he was rather jaded and disillusioned about the experience, especially considering how much genuine hardship he underwent to be there at all. For the cause of fighting fascism he endured deplorable conditions, terrible food, lice, cold, astonishingly unsafe ordnance, mud, rats the size of cats, and all of that before there was even an engagement with the enemy. He showed remarkable dedication to a cause, that showed him nothing of the sort in return.
Overall a very interesting read, but more so in the first half, before the 'politics' becomes ridiculously convoluted and it becomes a tale of infighting and intolerance and petty-minded fools oppressing other petty-minded fools. How sad people are, especially when they get political.
I think, to be fair, it was not what he was expecting either. He went to Spain, in his own words, 'to fight Fascism', and who can argue with that. He thought that would be a kind of blanket apologia for all perspectives and counter-arguments. But no, things became complicated, because, it soon transpired that wanting to fight fascism was not really enough to remain above reproach.
It seeemed that the anti-fascism movement was very diverse, reactionary, and complicated. Matters quickly devolved into various ideological factions and splinter groups, each claiming the moral high ground in debates about how Spain should operate, and gradually these factions hardened into intolerant idealogues who would brook no other view. Some were socialist, some were communist, some were simply revolutionary, some were anarchist. They all had very clear ideas about why their objectives were pure and everyone else's were flawed, and eventually, why opposing views were 'dangerous'.
So, what starts out simply as a story of trench warfare, the hardships of men with very meagre resources fighting other ideologically distant men with very meagre resources, soon becomes a shambles, where everyone is at everyone else's throats. There are seemingly innumerable acronymic factions that soon become indistinuishable from one another, all instigating pogroms and crackdowns, each lobbying to have rival groups outlawed or exterminated. Never mind that they are all anti-fascists. They are anti-each-other too.
It is a tale as old as time. The left pull themselves apart while the right pull together. The left always devolves into a massive virtue signalling competition where they are all condemning each other for not being left enough, tolerant enough (no irony though!), or pragmatic enough. It soon becomes a shambles, and then the witch-hunts begin.
Orwell got out just in time, after many of his fellow ideologues had been imprisoned or worse. I think, understandably, he was rather jaded and disillusioned about the experience, especially considering how much genuine hardship he underwent to be there at all. For the cause of fighting fascism he endured deplorable conditions, terrible food, lice, cold, astonishingly unsafe ordnance, mud, rats the size of cats, and all of that before there was even an engagement with the enemy. He showed remarkable dedication to a cause, that showed him nothing of the sort in return.
Overall a very interesting read, but more so in the first half, before the 'politics' becomes ridiculously convoluted and it becomes a tale of infighting and intolerance and petty-minded fools oppressing other petty-minded fools. How sad people are, especially when they get political.
sbn42's review against another edition
5.0
I was intrigued by the idea of a book by Orwell about the Spanish Civil War, especially with the recent attempts to reinforce self-government for Catalunya. As he states several times throughout, this is HIS version of what he saw and is based upon his experience of fighting with a Marxist group.
The writing reflects a journalistic style. The details about sitting on the frontline of a war provide a feeling of the despair involved in trench warfare. Being a few hundred yards from your enemy and taunting them could be as demoralizing as lobbing ineffective armaments across the gap.
While he did manage to escape and return to England, his peril was much greater than what he implied in the book, according to papers released after Franco's death. It is well that he survived to provide his novels of social commentary.
The writing reflects a journalistic style. The details about sitting on the frontline of a war provide a feeling of the despair involved in trench warfare. Being a few hundred yards from your enemy and taunting them could be as demoralizing as lobbing ineffective armaments across the gap.
While he did manage to escape and return to England, his peril was much greater than what he implied in the book, according to papers released after Franco's death. It is well that he survived to provide his novels of social commentary.
zalopunk's review against another edition
5.0
Este libro yo creo que por ahí es bien clave para cualquiera que quiera militar en cualquier forma de socialismo, en particular quienes piensan en lo que fue el golpe de estado en Chile. Creo que aquí está la clara contraparte de que podría haber pasado si Allende no hacía su sacrificio. Una guerra civil improvisada, llena de inconsistencias, sin financiamiento, sin preparación militar, sin plan de acción, sin armas, sin nada. Lo único que tenían era un genuino deseo de pensar en una sociedad más igualitaria, libre y socialista. Homenaje a Cataluña es una muestra de que esas características idealistas son una condición necesaria para una revolución, a la vez que no suficientes. Además de ser claramente la base ideológica que marcaría al autor para el futuro de sus obras críticas del estalinismo y a favor del socialismo democrático: 1984 y Rebelión en la Granja.