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A review by jeremychiasson
Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
5.0
"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.