Why I Write (1946)
orwellfoundation.com96 points by RyanShook 3 hours ago
96 points by RyanShook 3 hours ago
> Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. I have not written a novel for seven years, but I hope to write another fairly soon. It is bound to be a failure, every book is a failure, but I do know with some clarity what kind of book I want to write.
This essay was written in 1946. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell_bibliography#Nov... consecutive books he published were:
* Coming Up for Air (1939)
* Animal Farm (1945)
Given the "seven years", it appears considered "Coming Up for Air" his previous novel, and "Animal Farm" not a novel. I wonder why?
In any case, the novel that he next wrote “fairly soon”, and which he predicted would be a failure, was:
* Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
Animal Farm is considered a novella, which is shorter than a novel.
for perspective, a novel is around 100k words, and animal farm is under 30k.
I think I haven't been exposed to such a good writing in years. (Which probably says as much about average modern writing as it does about my reading habits)
> Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist or understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention.
Story of my life is how to align that demon to force me into things I actually want to do.
"I haven't been exposed to such a good writing in years." yes, this Orwell chap might have something about him!
It's something that's really been worrying me these days. With AI creating literally floods of information, it's getting noisier and noisier.
Posted 9 times before but only a couple threads with comments, and not many of those:
George Orwell: Why I Write (1946) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7901401 - June 2014 (9 comments)
George Orwell: Why I write - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3122646 - Oct 2011 (1 comment)
Related: Econtalk podcast episode on George Orwell with guest Christopher Hitchens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Dg9T14c4k
This resonates so strongly with me. Everything he wrote about how he wrote in his youth and the analysis of motivations to write is so spot on. It's also really interesting to know that he was actutely aware of the tendency to let the political propaganda weaken the storytelling, because that was something which surprised me when reading Nineteen Eighty-four. It was great, but there were moments when it felt like he dropped the pretense of telling a story and momentarily slipped into overt lecturing.
Writing it thinking. We developed our brain together with our hands. It feels slow but is actually faster for the end goal.
He wrote for aesthetics and he wrote for politics. In the end, he saw the aesthetic writing as meaningless.
> I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts
A power to face unpleasant facts is a super power. The world would be a much better place if everyone had it.
This is critical to consider in this age of slop. It’s important first to consider the purpose of writing anything at all. Slop almost always fails this test.
People that don't understand this is best to explain to with AI music.
AI music appears to be reasonable music, but it carries no human emotion, it has no intent to exist and stand up on its own.
That's key to explain when it comes to writing or anything. AI assisted anything, sure, maybe, but AI for creative purposes is bland and ultimately poisons the well.
No one really wants to go see an AI movie at the cinema, except maybe to say that I tried an AI movie as a novelty item, like scented movie screening.
On the other hand, it can't be denied that AI political music has given the population a bigger voice.
People who only see art as its surface content without all that other subtext are exposing themselves.
homely and relatable, but why promoted on HN?
How many here have read Burmese Days, had the bookworm's childhood, and are imbued with that sense of political worldliness?
HN is for anything that gratifies intellectual curiosity: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Historical and/or unexpected materials are welcome here! Having them on the site is a long tradition. (As is the "why is this on HN" comment, of course.)
It sounds like you know your Orwell - want to share something about that?
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