Orwell: Blogger
So are you following the Orwell diary? Me, I was in a state of near-sexual excitement when I heard they were posting George Orwell’s 1938-1942 diaries online, seventy years after he wrote them. But that’s a whole other story; back to Orwell. Imagine! A peek at the intimate thoughts of one of the 20th Century’s literary giants: a man whose searing intelligence produced works of majestic satire, whose vision seems to only grow more relevant.
What crackling intellectual thunderstorms, I wondered, raged inside this man’s head? In 1938, with a world war a mere twelve months away, what socio-political clouds did he see brewing? I signed up to the live feed right away. Orwell blogging: was there anything the man didn’t anticipate?
First entry, August 9: Orwell relates how he caught a snake. I wondered briefly whether this was a reference to the Munich Agreement—the snake could be Chamberlain or Hitler, maybe, even Daladier. But no. He was talking about an actual snake. Well, okay: I guess if I caught a snake, that would be exciting. I’m not sure I’d blog about it. But still. I could see, I suppose, that even one of the world’s great thinkers might, upon encountering a snake, temporarily cease pondering the human condition to remark, “Ooh, snake.”
Next entry, then:
August 10
Drizzly. Dense mist in evening. Yellow moon.
That’s the whole thing. All right, so maybe my expectations were a little high. He wasn’t writing essays. He was writing for himself. And the important thing wasn’t the prose; it was the train of thought.
August 26
Hot. Dense ground-mist early this morning. Many blackberries now ripe, very large & fairly sweet. Also fair number of dew-berries. Walnuts now nearly full sized. Plenty of English apples in the shops.
Lots of apples, really? Well, that’s… good, I guess. You need apples. The more the better. Especially in shops.
August 28
Night before last an hour’s rain. Yesterday hot & overcast. Today ditto, with a few drops of rain in the afternoon. The hop-picking due to start in about a week.
Hops-picking. You can’t begin looking forward to that too soon. Got to love the delicious anticipation of looming hops-picking.
August 29
Overcast & chilly. Heavy rain last night. Dahlias now in full bloom.
This was when I decided to claw out my eyes to relieve the boredom. At least then something would be happening.
They say you should never meet your idols, because you’ll only be disappointed. Maybe you shouldn’t read their diaries, either.
(Or their web sites, ha ha, yes, very clever.)
Comments
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Bushra (#36)
Location: Fremont, California
Quote: "www.caffeinatedmuslim.com"
Posted: 5710 days ago
And then I read your whole post with the excerpts from the blog. And then I clicked on the link to the blog.
Turns out I really don't care what he wrote about on a day to day basis.
I'll try not to think about rainfall and fruit next time I read 1984.
Super (#600)
Location: The Netherlands
Quote: "I'm not deaf I'm just ignoring you!"
Posted: 5710 days ago
Kit (#850)
Location: UK
Posted: 5710 days ago
towr (#1914)
Location: Netherlands
Posted: 5710 days ago
Hobbie (#1359)
Location: Cornwall, England
Quote: "There was a little man in his hair!"
Posted: 5710 days ago
Nate Spears (#1454)
Location: Dallas, TX
Quote: ""Vengeance. Justice. Fire and blood." -Doran Martell"
Posted: 5709 days ago
"Orwells domestic diaries begin on 9th August 1938/2008; his political diaries (which are further categorised as Morocco, Pre-war and Wartime) begin on 7th September 1938/2008."
If you had only waited a little longer to put foot in mouth . . .
Simon (#3192)
Location: Melbourne
Quote: "I'd rather be arrogant than wrong"
Posted: 5709 days ago
Trespassers Will (#2174)
Location: Puyallup, WA
Quote: ""...and if I laugh at any mortal thing, 'tis that I may not weep" - Lord Byron"
Posted: 5709 days ago
I've met Max, too. He's not my idol, but then, he wasn't disappointing to meet, either. Keep writing, Max; "Jennifer Government" already rates as high with me as "Nineteen-Eighty-Four."
Linnea1928 (#2654)
Location: Rosemount, MN
Posted: 5709 days ago
Melvin Smiley (#3200)
Location: Germany
Quote: ""Life is nasty and it seemed pointless to say so!""
Posted: 5709 days ago
But the medium blog can be a very good way to portait or show historical events. Not only is there the excitment (when Orwell will catch his new snake) when the next entry will appear, but also a direkt link between the pas and the present.
I first encountered such a blog here: http://wwar1.blogspot.com/ where the grandson of William Henry Bonser Lamin publishes his granddads letters from WW I 90 years after their formulation. It's quite entertaining and in my opion a form to show history to the younger generation without big markers saying 'BORING' being kept up by them.
The Internet and Blogs can help to blow the dust from history and show it to the young generation of tomorrow.
(This became little bit to much like a sermon in the end. Sorry, but stay hear and maybe I'll speak about me catching a snake next time ;)
Sophie (#891)
Location: Devon
Posted: 5709 days ago
Or, he was just really obsessed with the weather. And fruit.
Amber (#3671)
Location: Oregon, U.S.A
Posted: 5708 days ago
What I think would be very interesting would be to maybe be able to see what parts of his writing works came into being, or began to, on these lovely days, how the air and seasons influenced his mood and creativity.
And, I think hops are wonderful. Definitly worth taking notice of.
Shola (#3468)
Location: Gypsy by Nature.
Quote: "We are all God's middle children."
Posted: 5708 days ago
Chris Hale (#3030)
Location: Adelaide
Quote: "As 'tis optional, I choose not to participate!"
Posted: 5685 days ago
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