Sunday, October 15, 2006

Orwellian sweet tooth

Don't look now (or, actually, please do), but someone's gorging himself on sugary sweet George Orwell essays.

As the next volume of an older edition of Orwell's collected journalism which I ordered has just recently arrived (one which includes quite a number of the 'As I Please' essays), I'm soon going to get back to working my way through his writing. It is addictive. And will probably result in my quoting him extensively...again.

But till then, one of the excerpts cited at Some Men Are Brothers is worth reprinting:
Now, it seems to me that you do less harm by dropping bombs on people than by calling them 'Huns'. Obviously one does not want to inflict death and wounds if it can be avoided, but I cannot feel that mere killing is all-important. We shall all be dead in less than a hundred years, and most of us by the sordid horror known as 'natural death'. The truly evil thing is to act in such a way that peaceful life becomes impossible.
I'm looking forward to getting my own Orwell addiction back on track. I promise, though not to spoil my appetite.

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