History Lessons

[rebness]

Last night, I stayed up to watch a pretty innovative documentary on BBC2 about George Orwell. They used fake footage with an actor speaking his words, giving already powerful or amusing thoughts on everything from the death penalty to the Spanish civil war to patriotism to making a cup of tea.

One part of the documentary focused on his days spent with the British police in India when it was controlled by the Empire. He mused at one point that it struck him how inherently wrong, and how hypocritical it is, for a power to force itself on another country and then presume to police it with force and expect the inhabitants to be grateful.

I wish we had a writer as powerful as Orwell around to record the events of today.

Comments

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

I wanted to say that we did have a writer as powerful as Orwell around, but... I can't think of any names.

How about Rebecca [your last name], hmm?

[rebness.livejournal.com]

LOL! I swear to god... if I ever managed to write anything half as decent as that man ever did, then I would feel myself a success.

I honestly can't think of a writer who can grab at the establishment so well. You have people like Will Self, et al, who take very good pops at certain things, but I don't think anyone can match Orwell yet.

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

Well, we also don't have the distance to know what works will last. Orwell's work has turned out to be prophetic and, fifty years and more later, people still read it. There is a sheer volume of texts being cranked out in the last few decades that it's impossible to separate wheat from chaff and know what will last.

Also, well, yes, there don't seem to be writers capable of keeping people's attention. The good political writers are all writing non-fiction. So you ought to get to that novel and write something with a spark in this dreary world. :p

[rebness.livejournal.com]

There is a sheer volume of texts being cranked out in the last few decades that it's impossible to separate wheat from chaff and know what will last.

True, true. But then, remember that in his day, he was regarded as Shouty Man in the media... do that these days and the tabloids brand you a fruitcake.

I agree with you on fiction writers, too-- often, I've found something that really stands out to me, something that helps me understand life a little more, in a novel rather than some political commentator going on and on and on...