Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Read this in class today when we learned imperialism. Made me think long and hard about where I'm at and where I would be without imperialism in a broader concept.
Orwell when he was a police officer in Burma made me liken the scenario to ordinary Germans being forced into genocide, though to a lesser degree in cruelty (? maybe? maybe not). I'm not really going to comment who I sympathize with - the Burmese or Orwell. But there is one thing I can say for sure, I felt quite sad about the poor elephant.
Orwell when he was a police officer in Burma made me liken the scenario to ordinary Germans being forced into genocide, though to a lesser degree in cruelty (? maybe? maybe not). I'm not really going to comment who I sympathize with - the Burmese or Orwell. But there is one thing I can say for sure, I felt quite sad about the poor elephant.
Spoiler
I really hope it lived, it had potential
A few months ago I was quite impressed by George Orwell's Down And Out In Paris And London, in which he recounts his experiences on the fringes of society with a healthy measure of social commentary and sparkling wit. I was keen to read some more of Orwell's non-fiction, and this collection of essays seemed to fit the bill quite nicely.
The essays span a period from the early thirties to the late forties, shortly before Orwell's premature death in January 1950. They cover a number of topics, some personal and some political, ranging from his experiences as a policeman in Burma, lofty dissections of the works of Charles Dickens and Jonathan Swift, all the way down to simple observations about the coming of spring.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as Down And Out, because a lot of the political essays were largely theoretical - I preferred those in which Orwell discusses his own experiences, such as Shooting An Elephant, How The Poor Die, and Such, Such Were The Joys. Unfortunately these were a minority in the book, and it was somtimes hard going reading about politics sixty-five years out of date, or a 60-page analysis on Dickens when I've never read a lick of the man's writing.
Nonetheless, Orwell was one of the most gifted writers of the 20th century (and easily its greatest journalist), and even when discussing unfamiliar subjects his prose is easy and enjoyable to read. He is exceptionally articulate, and his similes are quite imaginative:
[Dickens'] imagination overwhelms everything, like a kind of weed.
When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
At eight years old you were suddenly taken out of this warm nest and thrown into a world of force and fraud and secrecy, like a goldfish into a tank full of pike.
He also expresses some thoughts I've had myself while travelling through Asia:
With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet through a Buddhist priest's guts.
While I didn't enjoy this as much as Down And Out, I still believe that all of Orwell's non-fiction is worth reading. Orwell was above all an honest writer, a man who could admit his errors and confront what he truly believed and write in plain English what he thought. That's a rare thing. He was not just one of the greatest writers of our age, but also one of the noblest.
He also totally shot an elephant in the face. What a man!
The essays span a period from the early thirties to the late forties, shortly before Orwell's premature death in January 1950. They cover a number of topics, some personal and some political, ranging from his experiences as a policeman in Burma, lofty dissections of the works of Charles Dickens and Jonathan Swift, all the way down to simple observations about the coming of spring.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as Down And Out, because a lot of the political essays were largely theoretical - I preferred those in which Orwell discusses his own experiences, such as Shooting An Elephant, How The Poor Die, and Such, Such Were The Joys. Unfortunately these were a minority in the book, and it was somtimes hard going reading about politics sixty-five years out of date, or a 60-page analysis on Dickens when I've never read a lick of the man's writing.
Nonetheless, Orwell was one of the most gifted writers of the 20th century (and easily its greatest journalist), and even when discussing unfamiliar subjects his prose is easy and enjoyable to read. He is exceptionally articulate, and his similes are quite imaginative:
[Dickens'] imagination overwhelms everything, like a kind of weed.
When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
At eight years old you were suddenly taken out of this warm nest and thrown into a world of force and fraud and secrecy, like a goldfish into a tank full of pike.
He also expresses some thoughts I've had myself while travelling through Asia:
With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet through a Buddhist priest's guts.
While I didn't enjoy this as much as Down And Out, I still believe that all of Orwell's non-fiction is worth reading. Orwell was above all an honest writer, a man who could admit his errors and confront what he truly believed and write in plain English what he thought. That's a rare thing. He was not just one of the greatest writers of our age, but also one of the noblest.
He also totally shot an elephant in the face. What a man!
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
this was part of the reading list for one of my uni courses. i wrote two essays on the white saviour trope + white supremacy using quotes from this text lol. i don't think i can really rate this since i have a lot of messy opinions about this text. but hey! i read it so i shall add it to my shelf.
reflective
sad
fast-paced
"Shooting an Elephant", is a collection of Orwell's essays. There's no real unifying subject, but the usual Orwellian themes are often present: totalitarian governments, the importance of clarity in language, the inhumane treatment of the poor at the hands of institutions, etc. I know that doesn't sound like fun, but they are written so sharply and so cleverly, that you will have difficulty limiting yourself to one or two per sitting.
Orwell experienced a lot in his brief life: He had been to uppity boarding schools, a member of the Burmese police force, a soldier in the Spanish Civil War, a second-hand bookshop clerk, and even a tramp. He covers all this and more in a handful of searing autobiographical essays. Orwell didn't fuck around, not with language and not with life. Many of these stories will make you cringe, for they are filled with hard truths.
He also writes of less personal matters. In a couple essays, he dissects how the dishonesty of politics (especially in dictatorships) leads to a decay in meaningful language. Straightforward events are described with technical jargon, cliches, and dead metaphors. Couched in meaningless drivel, the listener can't pin down the true meaning of these awful statements. Orwell goes on to outline several key principles of direct communication, so that our society might combat this "slovenliness" of language. Everyone should be made to read this essay, before they're allowed to graduate high school, it's that good!
There are also a few really clever pieces about spring, nonsense poetry, boys weekly magazines, and the tribulations of a book reviewer. So if you're not really in the mood for confronting the horrors of war, you can skip to an essay that praises the common toad ("a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet rings, and which I think is called a chrysoberyl").
This is essential reading for anyone who is serious about understanding the world we live in. I will definitely be revisiting this regularly, for the rest of my life.
Orwell experienced a lot in his brief life: He had been to uppity boarding schools, a member of the Burmese police force, a soldier in the Spanish Civil War, a second-hand bookshop clerk, and even a tramp. He covers all this and more in a handful of searing autobiographical essays. Orwell didn't fuck around, not with language and not with life. Many of these stories will make you cringe, for they are filled with hard truths.
He also writes of less personal matters. In a couple essays, he dissects how the dishonesty of politics (especially in dictatorships) leads to a decay in meaningful language. Straightforward events are described with technical jargon, cliches, and dead metaphors. Couched in meaningless drivel, the listener can't pin down the true meaning of these awful statements. Orwell goes on to outline several key principles of direct communication, so that our society might combat this "slovenliness" of language. Everyone should be made to read this essay, before they're allowed to graduate high school, it's that good!
There are also a few really clever pieces about spring, nonsense poetry, boys weekly magazines, and the tribulations of a book reviewer. So if you're not really in the mood for confronting the horrors of war, you can skip to an essay that praises the common toad ("a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet rings, and which I think is called a chrysoberyl").
This is essential reading for anyone who is serious about understanding the world we live in. I will definitely be revisiting this regularly, for the rest of my life.
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
reflective
sad
fast-paced
if i were george orwell i simply would not have shot an elephant