It took me a while to figure out the thread title, without incurring the possible occasional feeling of heaviness of George Orwell's writings. But Orwell is also an author with remarkable accurate understanding of what is actually going on, everything that could possibly be said about his better known novels is probably already said, so I don't go there. Instead, Orwell wrote quite a bit more too, which is not that well known at least here.
If you were unaware, all George Orwell's essays are stored
here. Some of these essays are downright amazing in a way that the describe the surroundings, Orwell tries to describe everything he sees as objectively as possible, and it is fascinating to read someone managing to do it as well. Not to mention, the selected descriptions are downright unbelievable in their own right. What I usually attach to George Orwell is sincerity in his writings - but occasionally I feel some of his texts somewhat dull, but the reason might be a language barrier also.
Without further ado, what specifically caught my attention are:
Down The Mine, quite a vivid description of working conditions of mines in the beginning of 1900s.
Shooting an elephant, Orwell describing having to shoot an enraged elephant during the colonial occupation time.
Politics and the English language. If you recall some of my post history, some time ago I mentioned that for me, writing in English feels more like putting a phrase after phrase and just constructing the sentences without much further thought. Writing in my native language feels considerably different, and I'm not sure if the English speaking people think the same when they need to write in some other language. Orwell has actually noted the increasing amount of phrases in English language, and criticizes the political parties from obfuscating the actual meanings of words. Comment away when you have time.
Lastly, one curious thing I notice in Orwell's essays is that he criticizes contemporary intelligentsia, that I take to be the highly educated academicals, of intellectual dishonesty, and of disregard of the general population. I have not found this notion emphasized in his books as much as it gets here. Shortly, Orwell's comment is that academical research in history, economics and world power shifts have some selected facts supporting them, but turn out to be usually wrong. However, the advice from common people most often gets it right towards the improvement, but it is their rationale that is usually wrong. This is a curious thought that I think is worth presenting here too for discussion.
