[A Vast RightWing Conspirator]

Orwell is one the few authors (Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn are some of the others) with whom I feel a true bond. It's hard to describe it but... he's like a spiritual father and brother and poor, suffering neighbor to me.

And we definitely live in an Orwellian world these days. And it's becoming more so with every passing hour.

[Prof Engineer]

ping

[TheWillardHotel]

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience."

Head Start, Prescription Drug Benefits, Ritalin, Prozac, Television...

[headsonpikes]

Orwell was authentic; that's why the left can't grasp him - he's real, unlike the dreamy utopian charlatans that they love.

This Bisport creature, for instance...trust him to get into the 'Brave New World' paradigm, it's farfetched, high-tech, and competently bureaucratic. Who on the Right has any belief in a 'competent' state?

Orwell, OTOH, is brutally realistic.

Realism has an effect on the Left similar to that of salt on a slug.

[twigs]

I really like Orwell too. He was honest. He saw through the lies spewed out by the socialist/communist machine during his lifetime and had to constantly fight it to get his books published. Yet, he remained a socialist to the end. Even then, he understood its dark side. I believe had he lived (and visited the US which his poor health forced him to cancel), he might well have seen things a bit differently. His loyalty and trust always remained with the people. His honesty is today praised by conservatives and condemned by the left.

[Old Professer]

Seems the author is confused as to who actually should be credited for this wit:

. He has been ill-served by his many biographers, most recently by Jeffrey Meyers in his Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation .

Where earlier in the piece, he wrote:

In retrospect, this seems a strange path -- essentially a repeat of his dreaded dad's career -- for someone who would later be called, by V.S. Pritchett, "the wintry conscience of his generation."

Little things like this distract me, as a reader.

[Snake65]

My favorite personal Orwell treasure is my copy of "Keep the Aspidistra Flying." I have respect for all his work, but this little paen to the middle class deserves more readers.

Oh, if he'd just lived to produce another six or seven novels.

[Pietro]

Nice essay in spite of the author's clear leftist leanings.

I've always felt that 1984 was far more powerful than BNW because it descibes the crushing de-humanization of modernity w/o any pleasant (ultimately irrelevant) side trips.

BTW I share your love for Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn, but I would recommend a dollop of Calvino and his Italian sunshine to break up those gloomy Russian skies.