A comment on our October Interim Reads

[Everyman]

For this Interim Read, I am offering two essays by George Orwell.

Why two? Because the primary essay I propose discussing is the semi-biographical essay “Shooting an Elephant.”

Given the title, it isn’t a spoiler to say that indeed an elephant is shot, and its death described with some vividness. Reading it is disturbing to me, and may be even more disturbing to others; indeed, that it is disturbing is an important part of the value of the essay.

If “Shooting an Elephant” is so disturbing, why do I propose it? Because the point of the essay is not the elephant, but what it and in particular the decision to shoot it say about political power, inter-cultural relations, the impotence of empire, and other points which I think are not only historically important but also have a great deal to say about what is going on right now in the world.

And I also keep in mind that while the essay does graphically portray the death of an elephant, over the past year we have read about far more graphic, far more disturbing things in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid. We have seen, among many other horrors, men disemboweled before our eyes and warriors killed in a variety of different and gruesomely detailed ways, have seen a young boy thrown to his death from the walls of a city, have seen men picked up, dashed to the ground, and eaten, have seen a prophetess raped on the altar of a goddess, and have seen vividly described the killing and sacrifice of hundreds, if not thousands, of cattle.

After all this, I think we can handle the killing of an elephant, though I do also recognize the vast difference between the description of partly mythic events thousands of years ago and an incident of the recent past.

But since I do recognize the difference, and recognize that some people may be unwilling or unable to read "Shooting and Elephant," I am putting forward an alternate essay, Orwell’s “Reflections on Gandhi,” so that everyone will have at least one essay they can read and discuss with the group. (Of course, you are free to read and discuss both, and I hope many will.)

I would suggest that you at least read the first half or so of “Shooting and Elephant,” starting with its wonderful opening sentence “In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people — the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.” If there comes a time when you feel you have read enough, then do stop. But I hope you will at least give it a try.

But if you choose not to, then I hope you will find “Reflections on Gandhi” worth reading and discussing (it, too, has a wonderful opening sentence: “Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but the tests that have to be applied to them are not, of course, the same in all cases.”

I have provided the links to each essay in their discussion threads.

[[deleted user]]

Excellent choices Everyman. However, given the current political season here is USA, I am surprised you passed over Politics and the English Language. Maybe some other time.

For anyone who hasn't read it, I highly recommend it. And much that will interest the discerning readers who make up this group.

[Ben]

I am currently reading (well, listening to) 1984, so this is good timing for me.

[Everyman]

Zeke wrote: "Excellent choices Everyman. However, given the current political season here is USA, I am surprised you passed over Politics and the English Language. Maybe some other time."

I taught that essay many years ago when I was teaching high school literature and writing, but I thought it was probably fairly well known in this group, and I generally try to pick things that most people here won't be acquainted with or won't have read (such as the Declaration of Independence, which everybody knows about but very few people have actually read and thought about!)

But I agree with you, it's an excellent essay and well worth reading. It can be found here
http://georgeorwellnovels.com/essays/...
and lots of other places on the Internet.

Speaking of politics, I was tempted to put out a very political essay (not by Orwell) for this time, but decided to wait until after the election so we wouldn't get into party politics. But when I do put it up, I think it'll be a humdinger of a discussion!

And many of Orwell's other essays are very much worth reading. The wonderful observation in "My Country, Right or Left," writing in 1940 and referring back to WWI: "If I honestly sort out my memories and disregard what I have learned since, I must admit that nothing in the whole war moved me so deeply as the loss of the Titanic had done a few years earlier." Given how often we think about the horrible slaughter of WWI, vs. the ongoing and continuing anguish of the Titanic, isn't his memory pretty much that of many (perhaps most) of us? (Indeed, this may have some resonance to our attitude toward Shooting an Elephant, that the death of one elephant seems more horrid than the terrible treatment that hundreds of thousands of natives received at the hands of the British.)

Or, his "Such, Such Were the Joys," a bitter condemnation of British boarding school education.

Indeed, it's hard to find an essay on this site that doesn't make you think.
http://georgeorwellnovels.com/essays/

But back to your point, yes, people should, if they haven't, go read Politics and the English Language. Unless you're already depressed enough about both.

[[deleted user]]

Everyman: I taught that essay many years ago when I was teaching high school literature and writing, but I thought it was probably fairly well known in this group, and I generally try to pick things that most people here won't be acquainted with or won't have read (such as the Declaration of Independence, which everybody knows about but very few people have actually read and thought about!)

I certainly wasn't criticizing the choices you made in any way. As for the Declaration of Independence, my father taught college economics in the 1940's. He used to give students excerpts from the D of I and ask them what it was. He told me most responded, Karl Marx.

(Indeed, this may have some resonance to our attitude toward Shooting an Elephant, that the death of one elephant seems more horrid than the terrible treatment that hundreds of thousands of natives received at the hands of the British.)


This may be jumping the gun on the conversation, but your comment reminded me of something attributed to Stalin (I paraphrase): "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."

Looking forward to the discussion.

[Gayle]

Zeke wrote: "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic.""

I was going to post this same quote, glad I read through before I started typing.

[Barbara]

Ben wrote: "I am currently reading (well, listening to) 1984, so this is good timing for me."

How are you enjoying 1984??? It's the only work of Orwell that I have read, and I think it's brilliant.

I plan to read both of the Orwell essay this week. As I've written in previous comments, I can only read in the evenings (it's a "weird psychological thing" for me) -- Up until at least 9pm or 10pm, I feel as though all my time should go toward work, and any "free time" should go toward doing errands or working out, and of course getting together with friends.

BUT, I have trouble sleeping, so even if I don't start reading until 11pm, I can easily read for four hours, until 3:00 in the morning.

SO, I'm looking forward to reading both of these essays this week (in the evenings.)

I loved Orwell's writing in 1984, and I'm looking forward to reading his essays.