Thoughts on CW 17

Just finished CW17 "I Belong To The Left" last week, and enjoyed it
immensely. Things I didn't remember from CEJL:

1) "No Exit" reviewed as something novel, rather than the obligatory
freshman-year short I experienced it as.


2) Old George's Almanac by Crystal-Glazer Orwell -- it's really
surprising to see what Orwell gets right and what he gets wrong. Ever
since "You and the Atom Bomb", he's seen how the Cold War is going to
go and includes that here, but his analysis of domestic politics is
something else altogether: fascism is on the rise everywhere in the
West!

The USA: .. "Gorwth of a formidible fascist movement, probably under
military leadership, adn, parallel with and hostile to this, growth
ofa Negro fascist movement, affiliated to kindred movements in
Asia...."

Britain: ..."Towards the end of the year [1946] the Opposition will
begin to gain ground in by-elections, but there will be no come-back
by the Conservatives. Instead there will appear a small by fairly
active fascist movement, manned largely by ex-officers, and there will
be symptoms of a serious split in the Labour Party."

Germany: ..."A powerful Resistance movement will grow up, led at first
by ex-Nazis but drawing into it former anti-Nazis of every colour. By
the end of the year the majority of Germans will look back on the Nazi
regime with regret. There will be renewed rumours that Hitler is
alive"

India: ..."Appearance all over Asia of fascist movement proclaiming
the racial superiority of the coloured peoples."

I wonder -- would an Anglo/American Cold Warrior have written
similarly of Communism in mid-1990? It doesn't seem unreasonable for
any observer to fail to recognize final triumph over a foe, but
Orwell's expectation that WWII was a mere set-back for fascism is
still surprising.


3) Lots of other delightful prose and occasional snark throughout the
reviews. "X is a waste of talent in an entirely different way",
etc.

-Ben

On 5 juil, 21:37, Ben Brumfield <oldb... RemoveThis @my-deja.com> wrote:
> Just finished CW17 "I Belong To The Left" last week, and enjoyed it
> immensely. Things I didn't remember from CEJL:
>
> 1) "No Exit" reviewed as something novel, rather than the obligatory
> freshman-year short I experienced it as.
>
> 2) Old George's Almanac by Crystal-Glazer Orwell -- it's really
> surprising to see what Orwell gets right and what he gets wrong. Ever
> since "You and the Atom Bomb", he's seen how the Cold War is going to
> go and includes that here, but his analysis of domestic politics is
> something else altogether: fascism is on the rise everywhere in the
> West!
>
> The USA: .. "Gorwth of a formidible fascist movement, probably under
> military leadership, adn, parallel with and hostile to this, growth
> ofa Negro fascist movement, affiliated to kindred movements in
> Asia...."
>
> Britain: ..."Towards the end of the year [1946] the Opposition will
> begin to gain ground in by-elections, but there will be no come-back
> by the Conservatives. Instead there will appear a small by fairly
> active fascist movement, manned largely by ex-officers, and there will
> be symptoms of a serious split in the Labour Party."
>
> Germany: ..."A powerful Resistance movement will grow up, led at first
> by ex-Nazis but drawing into it former anti-Nazis of every colour. By
> the end of the year the majority of Germans will look back on the Nazi
> regime with regret. There will be renewed rumours that Hitler is
> alive"
>
> India: ..."Appearance all over Asia of fascist movement proclaiming
> the racial superiority of the coloured peoples."
>
> I wonder -- would an Anglo/American Cold Warrior have written
> similarly of Communism in mid-1990? It doesn't seem unreasonable for
> any observer to fail to recognize final triumph over a foe, but
> Orwell's expectation that WWII was a mere set-back for fascism is
> still surprising.
>
> 3) Lots of other delightful prose and occasional snark throughout the
> reviews. "X is a waste of talent in an entirely different way",
> etc.
>
> -Ben

*I Belong to the Left*: he did indeed. This volume XVII is the one in
which Eileen dies (I've never been quite able to get over the shock of
that). There are about 10 letters from her, and of course the one with
her last words - yes it is moving, as the blurb** on the back says.

The reviews that I personally found interesting are on Dostoevsky and
Connolly, and also the broadcast talks on Butler.

The first item - a review of Der Führer by Conrad Heiden - is not in
the CEJL, although it's significant. The quote from Heiden at the end:
"The problem to-day is to give that larger significance and dignity to
a life that has been dwarfed by the world of material things. Until
that problem is solved, the annihilation of Nazism will be no more
than the removal of one symptom of the world's unrest."

B.

** "On 29 March 1945 Orwell's wife Eileen died, aged 39. Her last,
long, very moving letters to her husband are printed here. Less than
six months later the novel that she might be said to have nurtured and
which gave Orwell world-wide fame, Animal Farm, was published. For a
little over three months Orwell worked as a War Correspondent for The
Observer and the Manchester Evening News. As well as 74 books
specifically reviewed, many others were discussed briefly in essays
and in her column 'As I Please'. 'Politics and the English Language',
one of Orwell's most important essays, was immediately reprinted for
journalists of The Observer and News of the World as a guide to good
writing. His defence of P.G. Wodehouse, printed here, was written at a
time when Wodehouse was still under a cloud. Essays and articles he
wrote for The observer, Manchester Evening News and Evening Standard
are reprinted; correspondence shows he had written the first twelve
pages of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Eileen's will and Orwell's first notes
for his literary executor are also reproduced. Orwell kept a careful
account of what he earned to assist in making his income tax return.
Only one such record has survived (for 12 July 1943 to 31 December
1945) and it is reproduced here, fully annotated."