People just aren't consistent, on the whole, unless they're role-playing. I
twigged this at about ten years old, and have seen nothing since to make me
change my mind.
best joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 3:05 AM
Subject: Re: orwell
> No, I think it's another passage in another essay. Maybe the one on
> nationalism.
>
> On 24/1/05 12:56 PM, "Rebecca Seiferle" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > But what do we call this? what do we call it now?
>
> A dilemma?
>
> I think it's odd to expect people to be pure or without contradiction, or
to
> expect writers to behave with perfect moral probity, or not to be, at
times,
> grossly mistaken or even criminal. They are not, surely, exemplars like
> saints, but human beings who think and live in their times, like all of
us,
> and who in one way or another dramatise or think through what that might
> mean, through their work. As a reader, one ought to read what they wrote
> and go from there, rather than judging their lives, which are not our
> business. That's for those who knew them well, or who suffered by their
> actions. If Orwell had lived longer, it might have been interesting to see
> whether he revised some of his views. I somehow think he would have; but
we
> will never know.
>
> In any case Orwell, in many ways so admirable, is a case study of the
> dangers of uncritical reading (his hijacking by the Right seems to me a
case
> of bad reading - he never eschewed socialism or social justice). I can't
> accept some of the things he says, although I find myself deeply engaged
in
> others. But that's true of most writers I really like.
>
> Hypocrisy is when one professes one thing and secretly does another.
Orwell
> is not, I think (it's debateable, of course) a hypocrite.
>
> Best
>
> A
>
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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