A few days ago some students came into the library looking for their next day's assignment for Freshman Composition, an essay by George Orwell, which we were able to find easily on the Internet. Hmm, I thought, Shooting an Elephant? that's something I haven't read. I know Animal Farm (1944) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), great works, but not this essay which he wrote in 1936 recounting an incident that occurred some ten years earlier in Burma. So I printed out a copy for myself and this morning I sat in the garden and read it.
I was astounded by the power of this personal essay, its careful and vivid use of language, the issues it raises, and the piercing self-knowledge of the narrator. He knows he must not do the thing, yet he does it. How much freedom do we ever really have? Implications for the U.S. experience in Iraq?
I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for the discussion in that summer school English class.
http://orwell.ru/library/articles/elephant/english/e_eleph
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9 comments:
Hi P, I bought a book up in NY this week and I am almost done with the 285 pages, might not sound like much to you but I have not sat down to read a book since Highschool. Anyhow it's called, Lullaby for Moron's. A true story of a murder in Poland NY in 1914, 48 miles from our house in Speculator.
Good for you, Kristen! I'm proud of you.
That must be exciting, a true event in an area of upstate NY that you know. Dark deeds can occur in small towns.
About that same time there was a sensational murder in New Jersey. A book was written about it, The Minister and the Choir Singer, or something like that. Riveting.
I can see why you draw a connection with this story & our involvement in Iraq. I wonder how much of our continued presence at this point is based upon the Bush administration not wanting to look foolish...
I wonder how many far reaching actions & events can be traced back to a mere salvaging of human pride, conceit & ego. Not for the altruistic reasons they are dressed up in.
I found your link to the elephant story a couple of days ago and went out to read it - it has been flitting in-n-out of my mind ever since. I'm just getting around to commenting about it.
How many tragedies have occured thruout history because of social pressure?
I have the same opinion about Bush and the military mind-set: they can't back down because they can't admit it was a terrible decision to begin with .... When will they learn that the "go to war" attitude that shaped human activity for eons just doesn't make it any more? I wish that the horrible, unthinking, unnecessary aggressive streak in our makeup could be eliminated ....
Kristen - that book sounds interesting - who knows what lurks in the heart of a person?
Amen, Biddie. I echo your sentiments exactly.
Cheryl, you're not the first to note the almost criminal stubbornness of the Bush Gang to admit mistakes made. The fear of looking foolish can cost lives and treasure--Can? good lord it HAS for the past 5 years!. The US is a colonial power in Iraq but with none of the benefits a colonizer used to realize. In this case we LOSE--lives and billions of dollars. When will the madness end?
I don't know. Late last night on the edge of sleep I caught a news brief on CNN regarding the collapse of a major bank primarily located in California. Sent tendrils of fear around my heart...but as I thought about it more, I started thinking how this fearful environment encourages a mentality that is more conducive to political mayhem. As people get increasingly pressured financially it becomes easier to be dispassionate about your fellow man...the people across the world mean less when you are struggling to feed your children. How much of this is engineered to still enable Bush's war...well that is just hyperbole on my part...but as I see it, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and I think I need to take up knitting.
Well put, Cheryl, about the tendency toward indifference when feeling threatened financially.
But that bank failure is nothing to worry about. The FDIC insures deposits up to 100,000 dollars. Very few people will be affected by that. Perhaps we get too much news. It makes us worry all the time.
Knitting...yes, it's fun. I just finished a narrow scarf made of baby alpaca wool, ruby red. Scarves are about all I know how to make.
Re: knitting...I was thinking along the lines of Madame Defarge, being in on of those ornery moods I am prone to, but in retrospect perhaps I really do need to take up knitting.
Knit one, pearl two...now there's a soothing mantra.
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