What’s the context on George Orwell snitching? I recently read 1984 not knowing much about it so I read a little about Orwell after but dont know much about him
Edit: Thank you for the answers, here’s some info for anyone else who didnt know anything about this :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwell’s_list?wprov=sfla1 sounds like he either revealed what a crap person he was at the end of his life, lost his marbles as he was dying of tuberculosis, or both. But it seems unlikely the bigotry and willingness to help the state would come out of nowhere. I think further reading would be needed for me to have a more informed perspective but I appreciate being filled in so I at least know what happened
He was asked about who to hire to write anticommunist propaganda and he came back with a set of weird reviews of various left wingers in british society.
He wrote a blatantly racist, homophobic, classist and just thoroughly disgusting list of every public socialist he could think of that he wasnt asked for for no fucking reason and handed it to the government.
Its up to you if that qualifies as snitching, but it certainly is vile.
I recently read Homage to Catalonia and found myself admiring his actions, but clearly he has some serious wrongs to account for when you look at a fuller picture. I remember in my Florida teenage years both Animal Farm and 1984 were explicitly taught to prove to us the dangers of Communism in what was supposedly an English class. (And on reflection, ‘English’ was a more accurate label than ‘Literature’.)
The life sandwich of Colonial stooge, brief interlude fighting the fascists, to anti-Communist state tool is hard to swallow. I’ll make a note and just reserve my historical admiration for the good fight and seek out some other authors less tainted by all the baggage.
What’s the context on George Orwell snitching? I recently read 1984 not knowing much about it so I read a little about Orwell after but dont know much about him
Edit: Thank you for the answers, here’s some info for anyone else who didnt know anything about this :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwell’s_list?wprov=sfla1 sounds like he either revealed what a crap person he was at the end of his life, lost his marbles as he was dying of tuberculosis, or both. But it seems unlikely the bigotry and willingness to help the state would come out of nowhere. I think further reading would be needed for me to have a more informed perspective but I appreciate being filled in so I at least know what happened
He was asked about who to hire to write anticommunist propaganda and he came back with a set of weird reviews of various left wingers in british society.
He wrote a blatantly racist, homophobic, classist and just thoroughly disgusting list of every public socialist he could think of that he wasnt asked for for no fucking reason and handed it to the government.
Its up to you if that qualifies as snitching, but it certainly is vile.
Thank you for the additional context! I was able to find the Wikipedia page on the subject which was a useful primer
he reported on socialists and co to the MI5
All things Orwell: https://redsails.org/on-orwell/
This was a good read, thanks for sharing.
I recently read Homage to Catalonia and found myself admiring his actions, but clearly he has some serious wrongs to account for when you look at a fuller picture. I remember in my Florida teenage years both Animal Farm and 1984 were explicitly taught to prove to us the dangers of Communism in what was supposedly an English class. (And on reflection, ‘English’ was a more accurate label than ‘Literature’.)
The life sandwich of Colonial stooge, brief interlude fighting the fascists, to anti-Communist state tool is hard to swallow. I’ll make a note and just reserve my historical admiration for the good fight and seek out some other authors less tainted by all the baggage.