George Orwell explains the four main motives that drive writers: (1) egoism and desire for fame, (2) aesthetic enthusiasm for language and storytelling, (3) the historical impulse to uncover facts, and (4) political purpose to change society. As a child, Orwell engaged in extensive imaginary storytelling and worked on various unsuccessful poems and stories. He was drawn to descriptive writing styles and wanted to write large naturalistic novels. His experiences in Burma and later poverty influenced his political views and pushed him towards writing pamphlets.
It is a short PPT presentation about one period of American Literature. It also features a set of questions after each sub-topic to foster in-class discussion.
It is a short PPT presentation about one period of American Literature. It also features a set of questions after each sub-topic to foster in-class discussion.
I created these slides to teach a 9th grade lesson on Argument. I embedded comments on how these match the principles outlined by Richard Mayer for multimedia design.
I created these slides to teach a 9th grade lesson on Argument. I embedded comments on how these match the principles outlined by Richard Mayer for multimedia design.
The full name of James Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) is James Augustine Aloysius Joyce.
He is an early 20th century Irish novelist and poet.
Joyce is one of the pioneers of ‘stream of consciousness’ technique in novel and a new type of poetry called ‘Prose Poem’.
He is one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century also.
He used the style of ‘the examination of big events through small happenings in everyday lives’.
1George OrwellWhy I WriteFrom a very early age, perh.docxfelicidaddinwoodie
1
George Orwell
Why I Write
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books.
I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years on either side, and I barely saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely, and I soon developed disagreeable mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays. I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life. Nevertheless the volume of serious — i.e. seriously intended — writing which I produced all through my childhood and boyhood would not amount to half a dozen pages. I wrote my first poem at the age of four or five, my mother taking it down to dictation. I cannot remember anything about it except that it was about a tiger and the tiger had ‘chair-like teeth’ — a good enough phrase, but I fancy the poem was a plagiarism of Blake's ‘Tiger, Tiger’. At eleven, when the war or 1914-18 broke out, I wrote a patriotic poem which was printed in the local newspaper, as was another, two years later, on the death of Kitchener. From time to time, when I was a bit older, I wrote bad and usually unfinished ‘nature poems’ in the Georgian style. I also attempted a short story which was a ghastly failure. That was the total of the would-be serious work that I actually set down on paper during all those years.
However, throughout this time I did in a sense engage in literary activities. To begin with there was the made-to-order stuff which I produced quickly, easily and without much pleasure to myself. Apart from school work, I wrote vers d'occasion, semi-comic poems which I could turn out at what now seems to me astonishing speed — at fourteen I wrote a whole rhyming play, in imitation of Aristophanes, in about a week — and helped to edit a school magazines, both printed and in manuscript. These magazines were the most pitiful burlesque stuff that you could imagine, and I took far less trouble with them than I now would with the cheapest journalism. But side by side with all this, for fifteen years or more, I was carrying out a literary exercise of a quite different kind: this was the making up of a continuous ‘story’ about myself, a sort of diary existing only in the mind. I believe this is a common habit of children and adolescents. As a very small child I used to imagine that I was, say, Robin Hood, and picture myself as th ...
The poet Byron expressed the view that his writing derived from a painful intensification of self and the desire for relief from it. To withdraw himself from himself, to be relieved from what he saw as his "cursed selfishness," this was his sole, his entire, his "sincere motive in scribbling at all."
While I find there is some truth in this explanation for the origins of my writing, there is so much more to it; indeed, the raison d'etre is quite complex. It is a subject I have gone into from time to time throughout this memoir and I feel the need to expatiate on it to touch the motivational matrix, the explanatory framework, for why and what I am doing. Writing as I do here may be an escape from self, but it is also a royal road to selfhood. This work also negotiates the relationship between self and community in both the Bahá'í Faith and the nations I have lived in, Australia and Canada. This exercise in negotiation is also a source of the complexity I refer to above. There seem to have been many different impulses at work in these volumes.
My 'novel' Account of Human Possibility.pdfBS Murthy
Who would have thought that life held such literary possibilities in the English language for a rustic Telugu lad reared in the rural Andhra, even in the post-colonial India? So, the possibilities of life are indeed novel and seemingly my life has crystallized itself in my body of work before death could dissipate it.
CONTENTS
PARTI
CHAP.
I. A SLICE OF INFINITY 11. READY-MADE CLOTHES 111. THE HIDDEN GOLD IV. 'SUCH A LOVELY
BITE!' V. LANDLORD AND TENANT VI. THE CORNER CUPBOARD VII. WITH THE WOLVES IN
THE WILD Vm. DICK SUNSHINE IX. FORTY! X. A WOMAN'S REASON
PART II
I. THE HANDICAP II. GOG AND MAGOG HI. MY WARDROBE IV. PITY MY SIMPLICITY!' V.
TUNING FROM THE BASS VI. A FRUITLESS DEPUTATION VH. TRAMP! TRAMP! TRAMP! VIE.
THE FIRST MATE
PARTHI
CHAP.
I. WHEN THE COWS COME HOME II. MUSHROOMS ON THE MOOR m. ONIONS IV. ON GETTING
OVER THINGS V. NAMING THE BABY VI. THE MISTRESS OF THE MARGIN VH. LILY
Cheryl Strayed's advice to an aspiring writer on faith and humility....Ashok Kumar
“Writing is hard for every last one of us… Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig.”
On becoming a writer
Born in Virginia in 1925, Russell Baker began his professional writing career with the Baltimore Sun in 1947, after attending Johns Hopkins University. In 1973 he won a Pulitzer for commentary for his nationally syndicated column, “Observer,” which he wrote for the New York Times from 1962 to 1998. Baker is the author of a Pulitzer Prize–winning memoir Growing Up (1982) and Looking Back: Heroes, Rascals, and Other Icons of the American Imagination (2002) and has edited numerous books. Baker’s writing regularly appears in the New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and McCalls. The following selection is excerpted from Growing Up. Russell Baker’s literacy narrative focuses on his dream of becoming a writer. As you read his piece, think about your own dreams. How can college help you achieve those dreams?
The only thing that truly interested me was
writing, and I knew that sixteen-year-olds did
not come out of high school and become writers.
I thought of writing as something to be done only
by the rich. It was so obviously not real work, not
a job at which you could earn a living. Still, I had
begun to think of myself as a writer. It was the
only thing for which I seemed to have the smallest
talent, and, silly though it sounded when I
told people I’d like to be a writer, it gave me a way
of thinking about myself which satisfi ed my need
to have an identity.
The notion of becoming a writer had fl ickered
off and on in my head since the Belleville days,
but it wasn’t until my third year in high school
that the possibility took hold. Until then I’d been
bored by everything associated with English
courses. I found English grammar dull and baffl
ing. I hated the assignments to turn out “compositions,”
and went at them like heavy labor,
turning out leaden, lackluster paragraphs that
were agonies for teachers to read and for me to
write. The classics thrust on me to read seemed
as deadening as chloroform.
When our class was assigned to Mr. Fleagle
for third-year English I anticipated another grim
year in that dreariest of subjects. Mr. Fleagle was
notorious among City students for dullness and
inability to inspire. He was said to be stuffy, dull,
and hopelessly out of date. To me he looked to be
sixty or seventy and prim to a fault. He wore primly severe eyeglasses,
his wavy hair was primly cut and primly combed. He wore prim vested
suits with neckties blocked primly against the collar buttons of his primly
starched white shirts. He had a primly pointed jaw, a primly straight nose,
and a prim manner of speaking that was so correct, so gentlemanly, that
he seemed a comic antique.
I anticipated a listless, unfruitful year with Mr. Fleagle and for a long
time was not disappointed. We read Macbeth. Mr. Fleagle loved Macbeth and wanted us to love it too, but he lacked the gift of infecting others with his
own passion. He tried to convey the murderous ferocity of Lady Macbeth
one day by reading aloud the passage that concludes
. ...
Sample thesis statements on While the Women Are Sleeping”1. M.docxtodd331
Sample thesis statements on “While the Women Are Sleeping”
1. Marias’s story “While the Women Are Sleeping” meditates on the disturbing role of technology in modern life. GOOD
2. “While the Women Are Sleeping” explores the old dichotomy between men as active agents and women as passive objects. GOOD
3. The narrator of “While the Women Are Sleeping” hints at the extent of voyeurism in contemporary culture. GOOD
4. In “While the Women Are Sleeping”, Marias questions assumptions about romantic love. GOOD
5. “While the Women Are Sleeping” shows similarities and differences between men and women. BAD
6. I will look at the story “While the Women Are Sleeping” and show its most important aspects. BAD
7. This essay will look at the main themes of the story “While the Women Are Sleeping”. BAD
COMPARATIVE THESIS STATEMENT
1. From a psychoanalytic point of view, both “While the Women are Sleeping” and “The Night Doctor” show how repression can serve as a mechanism for moral apathy, first through narrative ambiguity and second through symbols.
2. Both Marias’s “While the Women Are Sleeping” and Mansfield’s “The Doll’s House” focus on themes of love, hate, and exclusion.
From a combined Marxist and psychological point of view, both Marias’s “While the Women Are Sleeping” and Mansfield’s “The Doll’s House” explore the social alienation of the elite by foregrounding their material possessions and their inaccessibility to other people.
In both stories,
In both Marias and Mansfield,
For both writers,
For both authors,
While Marias’s story dwells on the ….., Mansfield’s story prioritises….
In contrast to Marias, Mansfield develops….
AUTHOR:
PAUL INGENDAAY
TITLE:
JAVIER MARíAS
SOURCE:
Bomb no73 80-5 Fall 2000
The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited.
A Heart So White, originally published in 1992, converted an author branded "difficult" into the most notable European literary phenome non of recent years. Since then, novels like Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me and Dark Back of Time have confirmed Mr Marias's status as Spain's leading writer of fiction. His is the rare case of a skillful mix between stylistic elegance and a breathtaking narrative pace, between the uncanny and the detached, between criminal plots and complex literary devices.
There's a certain justice in the author's tremendous success abroad, for you couldn't point to anything specifically "Spanish" in his writing or subject matter. What is more, Mr. Marias, born in 1951 in Madrid, has published a number of acclaimed translations, including Tristram Shandy, which won the National Award for Translation in Spain in 1979; prose by Joseph Conrad and Robert Louis Stevenson, and poems by Nabokov, Faulkner, and Wallace Stevens, among others. He has taught at Wellesley College, Oxford University (whence he derived the material for his nove.
The purpose of my ethnographic research is neither to diagnose one particular
socio-cultural experience among all second generation immigrants nor to decry the
concepts “transnationalism” and “transnationality” in favor of a new terminology that can
be universally applied to immigrants of both generations . My purpose is not, in other
words, to collapse real multiplicity into a single theory of second generation
transnationalism. Rather, I employ the ethnographic method as an exploratory tool, in
hopes of better understanding to what extent transnationalism and transnationality –
insofar as these terms indicate particular forms of trans-border social engagement and
subjectivity – are subject to generational transformation that may produce a vast array of
identities and modes of identification some (but not all) of which may be “transnational.”
ENG 30 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE PROF. GENE MCQUILLANSPRTanaMaeskm
ENG 30: INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE
PROF. GENE MCQUILLAN
SPRING 2021 FINAL EXAM
ALL OF THE QUESTIONS REQUIRE THAT YOU REFER TO
THESE FOUR TEXTS:
=Sherman Alexie, “Superman and Me”
=Isabel Allende, “Reading the History of the World”
=the “Transcript” of the interview between Michiko Kakutani and President Barack Obama
=Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
I expect a QUOTE from each text. Make sure to use the formats we have reviewed! Please write an essay—not a list. As always, please do more than just list examples and then stop—I expect a patient and challenging conclusion to the essay.
Please do NOT refer to any outside sources or to our other readings, such as The Great Gatsby.
There are THREE questions. Choose ONE. Please do not copy the question—just indicate the letter of your choice.
QUESTIONS:
A) In all of these texts, these writers speak of how reading allowed them to claim their identity, to raise their voice, to see their world more clearly, to find the words they had been unable to say. Refer to a specific example of this process from each of the texts. Which readings (or types of readings) are mentioned? What sort of effects did these readings have on the people reading them? What might be significant about the choices they made or the reactions they had?
B) In all of these texts, these writers speak of reading and writing as a social process, one that deeply involves their families. Refer to a specific example of this process from each of the texts. Which readings are chosen and shared? Who shares them with whom? Why and how might these exchanges of texts and ideas matter?
C) In all of these readings, the writers recall that they were very curious about a range of different texts. In what ways were they influenced by “classic literature” and in what ways did they also search for inspiration in texts that might not be considered “literature?” Refer to a specific example of this process from each of the texts. Which readings (or types of readings) are mentioned? What sort of readings seem to have the most profound effects on each author? What might be significant about the types of readings that they chose and considered most influential?
It is worth 8 points (all-or-nothing). It needs to be emailed in a Word file (or just “pasted” into an email), by NOON on Thursday, June 10th.
To get 8 points, you need to:
—Write at least 600 words.
—Refer to ALL four texts.
—Refer to specific and relevant statements. Please include a quote from EACH of the texts, and when you “quote,” follow the formats we’ve reviewed.
—Do more than write a “list” of references. What MATTERS about the statements and texts you chose?
One more key thing>>
Unlike all of our previous assignments, this one will NOT feature the option of sending me a “draft”—you have two weeks to do this, SO GET IT RIGHT!
Reflecting on the fire investigation process in your community, do you believe that it is thorough enough when it comes to determining the causes and ...
George Orwell's style prescriptions from 'Politics and the English Language' - a call to arms against the widespread use of vague phrasing and diction.
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
We all have good and bad thoughts from time to time and situation to situation. We are bombarded daily with spiraling thoughts(both negative and positive) creating all-consuming feel , making us difficult to manage with associated suffering. Good thoughts are like our Mob Signal (Positive thought) amidst noise(negative thought) in the atmosphere. Negative thoughts like noise outweigh positive thoughts. These thoughts often create unwanted confusion, trouble, stress and frustration in our mind as well as chaos in our physical world. Negative thoughts are also known as “distorted thinking”.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
The Roman Empire A Historical Colossus.pdfkaushalkr1407
The Roman Empire, a vast and enduring power, stands as one of history's most remarkable civilizations, leaving an indelible imprint on the world. It emerged from the Roman Republic, transitioning into an imperial powerhouse under the leadership of Augustus Caesar in 27 BCE. This transformation marked the beginning of an era defined by unprecedented territorial expansion, architectural marvels, and profound cultural influence.
The empire's roots lie in the city of Rome, founded, according to legend, by Romulus in 753 BCE. Over centuries, Rome evolved from a small settlement to a formidable republic, characterized by a complex political system with elected officials and checks on power. However, internal strife, class conflicts, and military ambitions paved the way for the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar’s dictatorship and subsequent assassination in 44 BCE created a power vacuum, leading to a civil war. Octavian, later Augustus, emerged victorious, heralding the Roman Empire’s birth.
Under Augustus, the empire experienced the Pax Romana, a 200-year period of relative peace and stability. Augustus reformed the military, established efficient administrative systems, and initiated grand construction projects. The empire's borders expanded, encompassing territories from Britain to Egypt and from Spain to the Euphrates. Roman legions, renowned for their discipline and engineering prowess, secured and maintained these vast territories, building roads, fortifications, and cities that facilitated control and integration.
The Roman Empire’s society was hierarchical, with a rigid class system. At the top were the patricians, wealthy elites who held significant political power. Below them were the plebeians, free citizens with limited political influence, and the vast numbers of slaves who formed the backbone of the economy. The family unit was central, governed by the paterfamilias, the male head who held absolute authority.
Culturally, the Romans were eclectic, absorbing and adapting elements from the civilizations they encountered, particularly the Greeks. Roman art, literature, and philosophy reflected this synthesis, creating a rich cultural tapestry. Latin, the Roman language, became the lingua franca of the Western world, influencing numerous modern languages.
Roman architecture and engineering achievements were monumental. They perfected the arch, vault, and dome, constructing enduring structures like the Colosseum, Pantheon, and aqueducts. These engineering marvels not only showcased Roman ingenuity but also served practical purposes, from public entertainment to water supply.
How to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERPCeline George
The map views are useful for providing a geographical representation of data. They allow users to visualize and analyze the data in a more intuitive manner.
The Indian economy is classified into different sectors to simplify the analysis and understanding of economic activities. For Class 10, it's essential to grasp the sectors of the Indian economy, understand their characteristics, and recognize their importance. This guide will provide detailed notes on the Sectors of the Indian Economy Class 10, using specific long-tail keywords to enhance comprehension.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptxPavel ( NSTU)
Synthetic fiber production is a fascinating and complex field that blends chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. By understanding these aspects, students can gain a comprehensive view of synthetic fiber production, its impact on society and the environment, and the potential for future innovations. Synthetic fibers play a crucial role in modern society, impacting various aspects of daily life, industry, and the environment. ynthetic fibers are integral to modern life, offering a range of benefits from cost-effectiveness and versatility to innovative applications and performance characteristics. While they pose environmental challenges, ongoing research and development aim to create more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. Understanding the importance of synthetic fibers helps in appreciating their role in the economy, industry, and daily life, while also emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and innovation.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
1. George Orwell – Why I Write
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a
writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I
did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I
should have to settle down and write books.
I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years on either side, and I barely saw
my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely, and I soon
developed disagreeable mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays. I had
the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons,
and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being
isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing
unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own
back for my failure in everyday life. Nevertheless the volume of serious — i.e. seriously intended
— writing which I produced all through my childhood and boyhood would not amount to half a
dozen pages. I wrote my first poem at the age of four or five, my mother taking it down to
dictation. I cannot remember anything about it except that it was about a tiger and the tiger had
‘chair-like teeth’ — a good enough phrase, but I fancy the poem was a plagiarism of Blake's
‘Tiger, Tiger’. At eleven, when the war or 1914-18 broke out, I wrote a patriotic poem which
was printed in the local newspaper, as was another, two years later, on the death of Kitchener.
From time to time, when I was a bit older, I wrote bad and usually unfinished ‘nature poems’ in
the Georgian style. I also attempted a short story which was a ghastly failure. That was the total
of the would-be serious work that I actually set down on paper during all those years.
However, throughout this time I did in a sense engage in literary activities. To begin with there
was the made-to-order stuff which I produced quickly, easily and without much pleasure to
myself. Apart from school work, I wrote vers d'occasion, semi-comic poems which I could turn
out at what now seems to me astonishing speed — at fourteen I wrote a whole rhyming play, in
imitation of Aristophanes, in about a week — and helped to edit a school magazines, both
printed and in manuscript. These magazines were the most pitiful burlesque stuff that you could
imagine, and I took far less trouble with them than I now would with the cheapest journalism.
But side by side with all this, for fifteen years or more, I was carrying out a literary exercise of a
quite different kind: this was the making up of a continuous ‘story’ about myself, a sort of diary
existing only in the mind. I believe this is a common habit of children and adolescents. As a very
small child I used to imagine that I was, say, Robin Hood, and picture myself as the hero of
thrilling adventures, but quite soon my ‘story’ ceased to be narcissistic in a crude way and
became more and more a mere description of what I was doing and the things I saw. For
minutes at a time this kind of thing would be running through my head: ‘He pushed the door
open and entered the room. A yellow beam of sunlight, filtering through the muslin curtains,
slanted on to the table, where a match-box, half-open, lay beside the inkpot. With his right hand
in his pocket he moved across to the window. Down in the street a tortoiseshell cat was
chasing a dead leaf’, etc. etc. This habit continued until I was about twenty-five, right through my
non-literary years. Although I had to search, and did search, for the right words, I seemed to be
making this descriptive effort almost against my will, under a kind of compulsion from outside.
2. The ‘story’ must, I suppose, have reflected the styles of the various writers I admired at different
ages, but so far as I remember it always had the same meticulous descriptive quality.
When I was about sixteen I suddenly discovered the joy of mere words, i.e. the sounds and
associations of words. The lines from Paradise Lost —
So hee with difficulty and labour hard
Moved on: with difficulty and labour hee.
which do not now seem to me so very wonderful, sent shivers down my backbone; and the
spelling ‘hee’ for ‘he’ was an added pleasure. As for the need to describe things, I knew all about
it already. So it is clear what kind of books I wanted to write, in so far as I could be said to want
to write books at that time. I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy
endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in
which words were used partly for the sake of their own sound. And in fact my first completed
novel, Burmese Days, which I wrote when I was thirty but projected much earlier, is rather that
kind of book.
I give all this background information because I do not think one can assess a writer's motives
without knowing something of his early development. His subject matter will be determined by
the age he lives in — at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own — but
before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will
never completely escape. It is his job, no doubt, to discipline his temperament and avoid getting
stuck at some immature stage, in some perverse mood; but if he escapes from his early
influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write. Putting aside the need to earn a
living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in
different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to
time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:
(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get
your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc.It is humbug to
pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists,
artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top
crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about
thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or
are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who
are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious
writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less
interested in money.
(ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in
words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the
firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one
feels is valuable and ought not to be missed. The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of
writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words and phrases which
appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typography, width of
3. margins, etc. Above the level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic
considerations.
(iii) Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up
for the use of posterity.
(iv) Political purpose. — Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the
world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should
strive after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should
have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.
It can be seen how these various impulses must war against one another, and how they must
fluctuate from person to person and from time to time. By nature — taking your ‘nature’ to be
the state you have attained when you are first adult — I am a person in whom the first three
motives would outweigh the fourth. In a peaceful age I might have written ornate or merely
descriptive books, and might have remained almost unaware of my political loyalties. As it is I
have been forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer. First I spent five years in an unsuitable
profession (the Indian Imperial Police, in Burma), and then I underwent poverty and the sense of
failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the first time fully aware
of the existence of the working classes, and the job in Burma had given me some understanding
of the nature of imperialism: but these experiences were not enough to give me an accurate
political orientation. Then came Hitler, the Spanish Civil War, etc. By the end of 1935 I had still
failed to reach a firm decision. I remember a little poem that I wrote at that date, expressing my
dilemma:
A happy vicar I might have been
Two hundred years ago
To preach upon eternal doom
And watch my walnuts grow;
But born, alas, in an evil time,
I missed that pleasant haven,
For the hair has grown on my upper lip
And the clergy are all clean-shaven.
And later still the times were good,
We were so easy to please,
We rocked our troubled thoughts to sleep
On the bosoms of the trees.
All ignorant we dared to own
The joys we now dissemble;
The greenfinch on the apple bough
Could make my enemies tremble.
4. But girl's bellies and apricots,
Roach in a shaded stream,
Horses, ducks in flight at dawn,
All these are a dream.
It is forbidden to dream again;
We maim our joys or hide them:
Horses are made of chromium steel
And little fat men shall ride them.
I am the worm who never turned,
The eunuch without a harem;
Between the priest and the commissar
I walk like Eugene Aram;
And the commissar is telling my fortune
While the radio plays,
But the priest has promised an Austin Seven,
For Duggie always pays.
I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls,
And woke to find it true;
I wasn't born for an age like this;
Was Smith? Was Jones? Were you?
The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I
stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or
indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it. It seems to me
nonsense, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects.
Everyone writes of them in one guise or another. It is simply a question of which side one takes
and what approach one follows. And the more one is conscious of one's political bias, the more
chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one's aesthetic and intellectual integrity.
What I have most wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into
an art. My starting point is always a feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice. When I sit down
to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art’. I write it because
there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my
initial concern is to get a hearing. But I could not do the work of writing a book, or even a long
magazine article, if it were not also an aesthetic experience. Anyone who cares to examine my
work will see that even when it is downright propaganda it contains much that a full-time
politician would consider irrelevant. I am not able, and do not want, completely to abandon the
world view that I acquired in childhood. So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel
strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take a pleasure in solid
objects and scraps of useless information. It is no use trying to suppress that side of myself. The
job is to reconcile my ingrained likes and dislikes with the essentially public, non-individual
activities that this age forces on all of us.
5. It is not easy. It raises problems of construction and of language, and it raises in a new way the
problem of truthfulness. Let me give just one example of the cruder kind of difficulty that arises.
My book about the Spanish civil war, Homage to Catalonia, is of course a frankly political book,
but in the main it is written with a certain detachment and regard for form. I did try very hard in
it to tell the whole truth without violating my literary instincts. But among other things it
contains a long chapter, full of newspaper quotations and the like, defending the Trotskyists who
were accused of plotting with Franco. Clearly such a chapter, which after a year or two would
lose its interest for any ordinary reader, must ruin the book. A critic whom I respect read me a
lecture about it. ‘Why did you put in all that stuff?’ he said. ‘You've turned what might have been
a good book into journalism.’ What he said was true, but I could not have done otherwise. I
happened to know, what very few people in England had been allowed to know, that innocent
men were being falsely accused. If I had not been angry about that I should never have written
the book.
In one form or another this problem comes up again. The problem of language is subtler and
would take too long to discuss. I will only say that of late years I have tried to write less
picturesquely and more exactly. In any case I find that by the time you have perfected any style
of writing, you have always outgrown it. Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full
consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole.
I have not written a novel for seven years, but I hope to write another fairly soon. It is bound to
be a failure, every book is a failure, but I do know with some clarity what kind of book I want to
write.
Looking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it appear as though my
motives in writing were wholly public-spirited. I don't want to leave that as the final impression.
All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a
mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.
One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one
can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that
makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable
unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a
windowpane. I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know
which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is
invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into
purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.