I finally got around to reading James Wood's wonderful essay in the April 13 New Yorker, "A Fine Rage: George Orwell's Revolutions." Since the article is locked up behind a paywall, I figured I should post the two quotes that I can't stop thinking about -- you know, for posterity's sake. The first one articultes how I respond to a lot of art. The second one needs no justification beyond its inherent awesomeness.
1: So Orwell was contradictory: contradictions are what make writers interesting; consistency is for cooking.
2: To level an Orwellian emphasis, what is remarkable about British society today is not how much bigger the middle class is but how little the upper classes have given up. The working classes got richer; but the rich got much richer. Next year, it seems likely, Britain will elect its nineteenth Old Etonian Prime Minister -- a Conservative, of course. The Orwell who wrote about the playing fields of Eton would be shocked to discover that, for all the transformations that Britain has undergone, the lofty old school is still there, much as it always was, educating the upper classes to govern the country, wreck the City, and have lovely house parties.
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