What has Orwell wrought? Jenny Bull Tuhus in Dagbladet joins the ranks of the Orwell-abusers:

It is one houndred years since George Orwell was born. That is a poor reason to read him again. September 11, 2001, however, is a good reason. I'm not an Orwell-knower, but like most others I have forced myself through the classics Animal Farm ("Comrade Napoleon") and 1984 in school. [..]

The centennial is marked by several new biographies of the writer who made a frontal attack on all the major ism's of the previous century, communism, facism and capitalism. 1984 is being republished with a foreword by the abovementioned [Thomas] Pyncheon. The book has too long been read in light of the cold war, he claims. Our own present sets a new context for reading 1984.

The government in Orwell's dystopia is a contradictory bunch: The minister of peace goes to war, the minister of truth tells lies, and the ministry of love houses the torture chamber. The parallel to real life is perhaps not so far-fetched? The provocateur Pyncheon brings up his own home country, the US, where a massive war machinery is housed by the "defense department", and president Bush proclaims that "Sharon is a man of peace". [..]

The Norwegian professor of literature Olav Lausund points out how 1984 became an ideological weapon in the cold war. J. Edgard Hoover in the FBI praised the book, and suddenly Orwell became part of the American propaganda. Ironically.

Oh no, she's figured it out - the "Department of Defense" is actually the "Department of Attack"! And politicians lie! And there are TV's in every home, (although they don't go both ways yet), and we use, like, credit cards and stuff all the time, so they know everything we do! It's like right out of 1984! And isn't it ironic how Orwell, who hated totalitarianism so much that he supported the imperialist, capitalist British Empire in its war with the Nazis, was abused after his death by the free, democratic United States in its war against the totalitarian Soviet Union? My God, that's appalling. What's next, quoting Churchill against fascism, Lincoln against slavery? When will this abuse end!

No, the verdict still stands - 1984 is always quoted foolishly. And for those of you who, like Tuhus, only know Orwell through what you were forced to read in school, allow me to again recycle this link to his essay Politics and the English Language - a powerful antidote to all forms of foggy thinking.

I don't need Orwell to know that communism is fascist and that fascism is fascist and that freedom and individual responsibility that freedom needs as a foundation and that free markets and that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is better than fascism left or right.

I also don't need Orwell to know that left-wing Norwegian greenies are not worth the air their vegetable diets create in them.

America doesn't need Orwell for a compass either, for that matter. We have an actual history of real freedom and and and actual history of defending freedom.

I've always thought Orwell was looking ahead to Jim Carrey as the Riddler in Batman Forever with that two-way TV thing.

Sounds to me that Jenny also needs to read Orwell's Homage to Catalonia before spouting off about Orwell.

Hi,

I found a great Orwell site (from Canada, I think?) that you should check out: http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/

Not just 1984 and Animal Farm but also Orwell essays, etc.

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