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Reply 20

fishpaste

Oxbridge rivalry is fun :frown:

there should be more stuff like www.harvardsucks.org between Oxbridge!

lol, brilliant!

musicboy

Hmmm, will have to disagree with you there. The politics is not well thought out and Orwell lacks a consistent economic analysis (we must remember the from 1945 onwards he was giving names of British communists to MI5. Having read a bit of his stuff I think that the essays are far greater than the novels especially "politics and the English language"

MB

You are so grumpy and pedantic since you went to Cambridge :frown:

Reply 23

Camford

Adhsur

You are so grumpy and pedantic since you went to Cambridge :frown:

He can't help it. Muscians are natural critics.

Reply 24

Camford

fishpaste

Oxbridge rivalry is fun :frown:

there should be more stuff like www.harvardsucks.org between Oxbridge!

We should do one of these and get the boat race supporters to do this when we beat Oxford next time.

Reply 25

musicbloke

Adhsur

You are so grumpy and pedantic since you went to Cambridge :frown:

I've always been grumpy and pedantic. Cambridge has done something horrid to me - I might turn into one of those awful people who tells others not to swear too much.

MB

Reply 26

Reema

musicboy

I never said "economic analysis" or "political manifesto" :wink:

, I said novel! I suppose in that sense, I'm justified in holding to my subjective view that "1984" is one of the best novels ever - you might disagree, fair enough, but just because it's off in terms of politics and economics doesn't diminish its quality as a novel.

I admit that it has its flaws, but then you could hardly expect Orwell to write in political vacuum given everything he had experienced belonging to that time. Besides, I don't think it's so much the politics or the economics he was concerned about in "1984" - that, as you point out, is addressed more fully in his essays; I get the distinct impression that he's much more worried about the attack on human individuality that he had witnessed in the 30s and 40s (because of totalitarianism). And of course, considering that he was seriously ill, and dying, he was much more concerned with the philosophical discussions about what it meant to be human and to exist than any particular political or economic ideology at the time (see that chapter in Room 101 between Winston and O'Brien)

That's merely my interpretation of the novel, and I admit it may well be a little swayed by the fact that I'm a philosopher first, and an everything-else second :wink:

Reply 27

Johnny 5

Reema

"1984" is one of the best novels ever - you might disagree, fair enough, but just because it's off in terms of politics and economics doesn't diminish its quality as a novel.