Table Of ContentOrwell
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F R E R S
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David Smith
Michael Mosher
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ABOUT
BOOKS
THE
Writers and Readers Documentar/ Comic Books are
Introductions to some of the major thinl<ers and ideas
of our time. Their form pioneers an attempt to brins
words and imases tosether and to translate the most
complicated information into a simple, readable and
amusins stor/. They challense accepted educational
notions, presentins simplifications that are intellisent
and not patronizins.
Orisinally intended for the uninitiated, experts from
all over the world have come to admire and use the
series.
We
besan the series with books on Marx, Einstein
and Freud. These provided the steppins stones for
future books in histor/, current events, philosophy,
psycholosy and the biolosical and physical sciences.
New
lines of development are continuins.
While the Besinners Series was orisinally published
in Ensland, it istodayavailable in sixteen lansuasesand
in manyoftheworld's majorcities, from Tokyoto New
York.
In the back of this book you will find a complete
listins of books in the series and forthcomins titles.
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©
Textcopyright 1984DavidSmith
©
Illustration copyright 1984Michael Mosher
Set in 14/16pt. TimesRomanbyArchetype. Special typefaces setbyTurnaround.
Paste-upby RedToadProductions.
Editorial production byDavidSmith.
All rightsreserved underinternational andPan-AmericanCopyrightConvention.
Publishedby WritersandReadersPublishingCooperativeLtd. London.
,
Simultaneously published in the United StatesofAmericaandCanada
by WritersandReadersPublishing Inc.
ISBN 86316 066 2
A Writersand ReadersDocumentaryComic Book© 1984
Manufactured inthe United StatesofAmerica.
First Edition
1234567890
About theAuthor: DavidSmith istheauthorofMarx'sKapitalforBeginners, RonaldReaganfor
Beginners, and WhoRulesThe Universities?AnEssayinClassAnalysis.
AbouttheIllustrator: Bestknown in SanFranciscoasacommunity muralistandpainter, Mike
Mosher's beendrawingcartoons like thisforyears.
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CONTENTS
Politics 4 JoiningthePOUMMilitia 118
TheParadox 22 The PersecutionofRadicals 127
LearningtoConform 30 Coming UpForAir 135
PolicingtheEmpire 48 WarandRevolution 148
BurmeseDays 58 AnimalFarm 155
Writing, Eileen, Socialism 70 Power-Worship 160
Books andThemes 79 FaithandFatalism 168
Joiningthe People 95 Utopia? 171
Wigan Pier 106 NineteenEighty-Four 173
TheSpanishWar 108 References 191
Few
w—riters have been as influential—or as inadequately under
stood as George Orwell.
Orwell's influence is unmistakable. Several key terms from his
works—
1984, doublethink. Big Brother—belong
to the public
domam, and his very name is ajournalistic commonplace. The
phrase "Orwellian"—
applied to an idea or a regime—has the
same emotional impactforthisgeneration thattheterm ''Machia-
vellian" had for previous generations.
Picture a vast, icy, impersonal police-state with a hateful ideol-
—
ogy: this is the so-called Orwellian vision a vision, it now
seems, ofmythic dimensions and lasting currency.
—
Above all, George Orwell's influence is political. Th—e two great novels upon
which his reputation rests AnimalFarm and 1984 are both entirely
political.
Slender, deftly-etchedAnimal Farm is a barbed parable ofthe 1917 Russian
Revolution and its aftermath, with a cautionary moral: that the new regime,
Stalin's, is just as tyrannical as its Tsarist precursor; that the Bolshevik
revolution, like the French revolution of 1789, fell victim to a Napoleonic
dictator.
1984 is even more sweeping: a ferocious satire on all forms of "totalitarian"
powerandculture, with aclearreference, again, tothe Stalinistoligarchy in the
Soviet Union. But Stalinism is hardly the only target ofOrwell's withering
critique in 1984. Fascism and capitalism are also indicted. This is a point on
which Orwell is widely misunderstood.
The popular impression is that, more than anything else, George
Orwell sounded a warning against Communism; that Soviet Russia
is the unique object ofOrwell's scorn for tyrants; in brief, that
Orwell perfected an equation linking socialism and dictatorship.
The
reality is quite different. George Orwell did unmask Soviet
Russia—
not as socialist, however, but as a dictatorial parody of
socialism.
Personally, Orwell waspassionatelypro-socialist. In 1937he fought
in the Spanish civil war in a revolutionary contingent organized by
the non-Stalinist POUM(the Workers' Party forMarxist Unifi-
cation).
From
January until June 1937—until shot in thethroat
Orwell joined anarchist and socialist workers resisting
,
Fascist armies sponsoredbyHitlerandMussolini. Fascism
did, ultimately, win, but the indelible impression Orwell
received was not ofdefeat, but offuture revolutionary
possibilities
. . .
—
George Orwell felt that he had seen the future and that it
worked. A panorama ofworker creativity, solidarity, and de-
cency had unfolded before Orwell's eyes, giving him hope, for
the first time, that radically democratic socialism is possible.
The circumstances which had permitted Fascism to defeat the
revolutionary Spanish syndicalists would not recur inevitably in
the future. Next time, or the time after, the workers might win.
fomaj^e to Catalonia, Coming UpforAir,Ani-
mal Farm, and 1984 are the principal books
written between 1937 and Orwell's early death
in 1950. Together with a stream of wonderful
essays, these books are Orwell's testament.
8
