George Orwell was a poor writer (said Isaac Asimov), a right wing snitch (he made a list of leftists and their associations which was declassified in 2003), and he spent WWII writing anti-Soviet diatribes (Animal Farm and 1984) at the very moment the Red Army was defeating the Nazis at great cost. In those books he made it clear the ultimate enemies were bureaucratic Stalinists and not Nazis. He became a hit because postwar Western governments considered him patriotic amidst a constructed left-to-right anti-communist alignment that didn't include the truly progressive antiwar voices like Henry Wallace (who was denounced by Orwell).
Orwell was perhaps the first and best example of a left-like Trot whose Neocon ultimately shines through. And he was an imperial officer too, so it's quite likely the Neocon was there all along.
Many, growing up in actual left and communist families like Alex Cockburn, long saw through Orwell.
I'd have to agree with Asimov, I could never get past the second chapter of these books. I had always assumed in was just my laziness. Second hand dramatizations always made more sense right off (like my favorite, the movie Brazil, vaguely inspired by 1984).
Orwell was perhaps the first and best example of a left-like Trot whose Neocon ultimately shines through. And he was an imperial officer too, so it's quite likely the Neocon was there all along.
Many, growing up in actual left and communist families like Alex Cockburn, long saw through Orwell.
I'd have to agree with Asimov, I could never get past the second chapter of these books. I had always assumed in was just my laziness. Second hand dramatizations always made more sense right off (like my favorite, the movie Brazil, vaguely inspired by 1984).
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