[HN Gopher] Orwell's Escape
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Orwell's Escape
Author : lermontov
Score : 37 points
Date : 2024-04-10 04:13 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theatlantic.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theatlantic.com)
| RyanShook wrote:
| https://archive.is/4K04p
| neonate wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20240410042102/https://www.theat...
| FrankWilhoit wrote:
| The unexplored implication is that Orwell's tuberculosis
| infection may have affected his brain and thereby conditioned his
| civilizational beliefs. We have a good bit of pinprick evidence
| that bacterial inventory alters consciousness, but nothing like
| an explanatory framework.
| surfingdino wrote:
| We may have enough evidence to prove there is a change, but not
| how the change manifests itself?
| mjklin wrote:
| I've heard a similar explanation for why Goya's imagery shifted
| so dramatically toward the end of his life: lead poisoning from
| his paints
| sublimefire wrote:
| I did not like the article, it was like the author was trying to
| connect the environment Orwell experienced to the book. IMO this
| is just guesswork, speculation and worst of all denying the
| author the intellectual prowess. Think about it, if you were to
| write a book you would not want the circumstances to affect the
| work and you'd be conscious about it. Saying that author somehow
| slipped in text because of the condition he was in paints him as
| a moron.
|
| These sort of biography inspired essays are just BS, dragging us
| with a promise of a bit of mystery and mysticism. The truth is
| that nobody knows and we try to satisfy our curiosity with the
| best sounding/fitting story.
|
| Animal farm and 1984 and others have something that resonates
| well with us. And we get the gist and we are a bit more careful
| and vigilant in our lives thanks to it.
| zvmaz wrote:
| I have fond memories of reading his essays, notably Shooting an
| Elephant [1]. They left a vivid impression on me when I was
| younger.
|
| [1] https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-
| foundation/orwel...
| sertsa wrote:
| Thanks! Also read this story decades ago as a young man and it
| left a strong impression. More then once brought it up as a
| metaphor in a conversation. For some reason my memory
| attributed it to Kipling and a few times tried to find it and
| never could, now I know why, it was Orwell!
| panarky wrote:
| The article argues that Orwell's greatest fear wasn't torture or
| totalitarianism, but the loss of solitude, and he fled to Jura
| Island to preserve his inner life.
|
| If he thought solitude was hard to obtain then, one can only
| imagine his reaction to today's constant connectivity.
|
| I'm sure many people do their best thinking collectively, but I'm
| with Orwell, and value long periods of solitude and nurturing my
| inner life.
|
| It seems to be a theme lately. One of the big ideas in Three Body
| Problem by Cixin Liu is that the only defense against the all-
| seeing-all-knowing superior being who intends to crush humanity
| like bugs is the inner thoughts of the Wallfacers.
|
| Individuals must preserve their inner lives against constant
| assault by not only the state, but by bosses, coworkers,
| advertisers, friends and family. Maybe most modern psychological,
| social and even political problems can be traced to the collapse
| of individual interiority into the collective hivemind of social
| media and political parties.
|
| The enemy isn't Big Brother, the enemy is everyone.
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