“In a time of universal deceit- telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” This is just one of George Orwell’s infinitely quotable quotes; and its resonance in today’s socio-political climate is as perfect as it is unwelcome.
The dictionary definition of “Genius” (depending on what dictionary you consult)- is roughly- a person who displays exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree associated with the achievement of new advances in a particular domain of knowledge.
George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, Bihar, British India in 1903. His father was a British official in the Indian civil service and his mother was the daughter of a teak merchant in Burma. After the Blairs’ arrival in England in 1911, Eric went to a boarding school on the Sussex coast and was quickly distinguished among other children by his abject poverty and budding intellect. The young Eric Blair was a melancholy, withdrawn, eccentric child, as he would later recall in his posthumously published autobiographical essay, Such, Such Were the Joys (1953).
He quickly won scholarships to a couple of England’s leading schools, Winchester and Eton, attending Eton from 1917 to 1921. One of his masters was Aldous Huxley and it was at Eton that Eric Blair published his first writings. Instead of furthering studies beyond Eton he left for Burma in 1922 to be an assistant district superintendent for the Indian Imperial Police. Initially he was a model imperial servant, but his love for writing would often take precedence over his duties. As soon as he realized the degree to which the British tyrannized the Burmese population, Blair was increasingly disillusioned with his role as a colonial authority figure. Later he would recount these experiences and reactions to imperialism in his novel Burmese Days (1934) and in two brilliant landmark autobiographical sketches, “Shooting an Elephant” and “A Hanging,” both classics of expository prose and supreme examples of inspired literary expression.
In 1927 Eric took the decisive step of resigning from the imperial police and leaving Burma to embark on a steady course that would shape his character and destiny forever. Having felt the barriers of race and social ranking impeded his knowledge of the Burmese, he thought he would expunge some of his ignorance and guilt by vanishing into the life of the downtrodden of Europe. Donning ragged clothes, Eric Blair plunged into the East End of London to live in lodging houses among beggars. He spent a significant period in the Paris slums working as a dishwasher in French hotels and restaurants. Blair tramped the roads of England with professional vagrants and lived among London’s poorest denizens. These experiences gave him material for his exquisite non-fiction novel, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933). This book’s publication earned him considerable literary recognition. It is a marvelous piece of writing riddled with class insight and societal observations (Henry Miller was a fan). It was around this time Eric Arthur Blair adopted the pen name, George Orwell.
Orwell’s first legitimate fiction novel (based on his own experiences), Burmese Days (1934), established his tendency to portray a sensitive, emotionally isolated protagonist at odds with an oppressive social environment. Orwell’s next book, A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935), regards an unhappy spinster who achieves a short-lived, somewhat accidental liberation among a gaggle of agricultural workers. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) concerns a bookseller’s assistant, Gordon Comstock, who loathes the shameless commercialism and materialism of middle-class life but ultimately accepts it in a forced marriage to the girl he likes. The book is a satirical indictment of capitalism and one of the best contemporary stories about humanity’s absurd, unending obsession with dirty green paper.
Orwell’s devoted revulsion for imperialism led to his rejection of a bourgeois lifestyle and an intense political re-evaluation. After leaving Burma he began (if not consistently- frequently) calling himself an anarchist. During the 1930’s he also considered himself a socialist, though he was far too libertarian in his views to take the somewhat logical next step of declaring himself communist.
His first largely socialist book, an unorthodox narrative titled The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), is about Orwell’s experiences living among the destitute, unemployed miners of northern England. Once again sharing and observing the lives of the less fortunate- Orwell combines magnificent reporting with some strong undercurrents of barely contained wrath that would characterize all of his future work. By the time Wigan Pier was public, Orwell was in Spain reporting on the Spanish Civil War; eventually staying there to fight with the Republican militia. While in Spain- he was severely wounded in combat causing permanent damage to his throat. This wound affected him significantly giving his speech a strange, seductive quietness for the rest of his life.
He left Spain in 1937. The traumatic experience of this war left him with a lifelong aversion to communism that would find expression in his brilliant account of the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia (1938); widely considered to be his finest book. Returning to England, Orwell wrote Coming Up For Air (1939). In what may be Orwell’s only obvious comedy, the nostalgia of a middle-aged, conservative man underlines the decency of a bygone England. The book’s protagonist, aptly named George Bowling, has a delirious fear of a future threatened by fascism and war.
Orwell would be rejected for military service when war did come to England. Instead- he headed the Indian service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Orwell had some success at the BBC and stayed active as a writer; but he eventually grew weary of the rules and regulations of the corporation (primarily- the editing practices). After leaving the BBC in 1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune (a left-wing socialist paper). It was during this period Orwell was an amazingly prolific journalist, writing news articles, reviews, criticism (including his classic essays on Charles Dickens and boys’ weekly magazines), and a number of critiques regarding books on England.
In 1944 Orwell finished Animal Farm, a fable based on the story of the Russian Revolution. The novella was about a group of barnyard animals that overthrow their exploitative human masters setting up an egalitarian society of their own. The animals’ intelligent and power hungry leaders (pigs, of course) subvert the revolt and form a dictatorship even more oppressive and terrifying than that of their former human masters. Orwell initially had difficulty finding a publisher, but when it finally appeared (1945) Animal Farm made him world famous and (for the first time in his life) prosperous.
Orwell’s last novel, 1984 (1949), was written as a stark warning after years of brooding on the complimenting menaces of Nazism and Stalinism. Set in the imaginary future where the world is dominated by three perpetually battling totalitarian police states, the book’s hero, Englishman Winston Smith, is a minor party functionary in one of these states. His yearning for truth drives him to secretly rebel against the government, which maintains its rule by systematically perverting and rewriting history to suit its own agenda (sound familiar?). Smith has an affair w/a like-minded woman, but they are both arrested by the “Thought Police.” The ensuing imprisonment, torture, and re-education of Smith is intended to break him physically rooting out his independent mental existence and his spiritual dignity so he can only love the figure previously abhorred: the merciless leader of the party, Big Brother (sound even more familiar?)
Smith’s inevitable surrender to the incessant brainwashing techniques (propaganda) of his maniacal oppressors is tragic, but the novel gains its momentum from the genius with which it extends the precepts of totalitarianism to their logical conclusion. Orwell suggests the delirious love of domination always ends in the same place. A lust for power over other beings finds perfect expression in the relentless surveillance (telescreens are used by the party to eliminate the threat of conspiracy) and omnipresent dishonesty of an unquestionable, unaccountable police state under whose iron rule every human virtue is systematically extinguished. The similarities between Orwell’s dystopian nightmare and today’s world are, at this point, far beyond striking. Orwell’s prophecy of the potential dangers of totalitarianism made an indelible impression on his peers and subsequent generations. The book’s title; many of its phrases and ideas- “Big Brother Is Watching You”, “Newspeak”, “Doublethink”, “Thought Police”, have become bywords for modern political abuses. The novel is simply one of the most prophetic pieces of literature ever realized.
Orwell wrote the last pages of 1984 in a remote house on the Hebridean island of Jura, which he bought with the proceeds of Animal Farm. He spent much of his life living hand to fist until Animal Farm and 1984. Unfortunately- fame and fortune appeared as his mortality was beckoning. Orwell struggled with his health most of his life (an avid tobacco connoisseur- a jaunty eater) and was hospitalized frequently due to negligence and lack of common sense (peers and family were shocked at his unsophisticated sense of self-preservation). He would go days without sleep and sustenance due to overwork. In his final year, he wrote sporadically between bouts of hospitalization for tuberculosis, of which he finally died in a London hospital on January 21, 1950 (an artery burst in one of his lungs at age 46).
His legacy is that of a singular essayist, critic, novelist, journalist, and one of the century’s great writers who cut to the bone of language paving the way for some of our most respected political writers and journalists (Christopher Hitchens, Margaret Atwood, William Golding, Richard Dawkins, etc.). His work has inspired countless forms of media since his death. In his influential essay, Politics and the English Language (1946), Orwell wrote about the importance of precise, clear language- arguing that vague writing is (and would be) used as a powerful tool of political manipulation (again- propaganda) to shape the way populations think. The reverb of this essay is so prevalent upon analyses of current print media; one could sit down with Orwell’s essay and pinpoint examples in any surviving newspaper (they won’t be around much longer- another prediction by Orwell).
I’d argue his demands for clarity of thought and the written expression of such is his legacy. Orwell’s ethical technique (laid bare in his writings) provides a springboard for oncoming generations of mavericks and independent thinkers. In recent years, with the onslaught of technological advancements and the widespread acceptance of surveillance (National Security Agency), sales of 1984 have skyrocketed. As recently as January and February of 2017 1984 was reaching best-seller status with a few book-selling organizations (Amazon).
Many of Orwell’s conclusions are hitting too close to home in our modern world. His insistence on contrary thought and merciless questioning of authority serves to inform future generations. Anyone who dares to challenge suspect social climates- anyone wishing to counter institutions that may conspire to oppress human rights- any human being with the courage to stand up to irredeemable bullying and blind tyranny- you can almost feel Orwell’s hands on your shoulders encouraging you to be unceasing in your integrity, remorseless in your intellectual stamina, and dogged in your pursuit of human decency.