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Why Orwell Matters, released in the UK as Orwell's Victory, is a book-length biographical essay by Christopher Hitchens. In it, the author relates George Orwell's thoughts on and actions in relation to:


 * the British Empire; Orwell spoke for his radio magazine 'Voice' on the BBC of India where he spoke about ideas and literature. Orwell agreed to broadcast to India under his own name on one condition; that he could express his anti-imperialist opinions without diluting them. He criticized the British government's lack of principles regarding Indian self-government and never failed to argue for India's independence. Orwell's experience working with the BBC correlated with some of the concepts in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Such as his concept doublethink, in relation to the sometimes extreme daily changes in political propaganda that was being broadcast. Orwell's thoughts and writings on colonialism are a permanent part of his lifelong commitment to the subjects of power, cruelty, force, and the relationship between the dominator and the dominated. Orwell can be read as a teaching in Britain's transition from an imperial society to a multicultural and multi-ethnic one. Since this was a great development and his time and continues to be in ours, this is one reason Hitchens argues that Orwell matters.        .  was a police officer in Burma and left because he felt himself slowly becoming a sadist and feared it would only get worse if he stayed.
 * Racism;
 * Classism; Orwell spent a significant amount of time in his youth investigating the working class conditions in England. As well as spending time with the unemployed and impoverished, sometimes disguising the fact that he was raised in a conservative upper class environment.
 * The Left; Orwell contributed to the socialist press in England for many years. He considered himself to be on the left and advocated for democracy, decolonization, egalitarian ideals and heavily criticized totalitarianism . Orwell had lived under a Stalinist police regime in Spain when he fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. His time in Spain never left him; he continuously helped vindicate those who he had known that survived the Stalinist regime. He did this by publicizing their cases, helping their families, getting them out of prison and saving them from being condemned. He witnessed how the government could distort the truth and how political enemies could suddenly disappear. Orwell returned home after he was shot in the throat by a fascist bullet. This may have saved him in a way as he was guilty of Trotskyism and served with the POUM militia, which was more than enough to land him in prison. Orwell's friends, such as his brigade commander George Kopp, were imprisoned under horrendous conditions. Kopp was subject to torture of close confinement with rats; this, and some of Orwell's other experiences in Spain, were where some of subject matter for Nineteen Eight-Four came from.  His socialist peers had a great appreciation for the Soviet Union but Orwell did not. He argued that it was not socialism, but a viscous form of state-capitalism. Many of them never forgave him about his criticisms towards the Soviet Union and being right about Spain. Despite being a leftist himself, many of Orwell’s harshest critics were on the left and came about after his death. Hitchens presented their inconsistent attacks on Orwell. In the 1960s and 1970s the New Left despised Orwell partly because his writings were right about the issues in society and they were not. 'Orwell put it best: the sin of most leftists is that they wanted to be anti-totalitarian without being anti-communist.'


 * the right; Hitchens presents arguments against the right trying to denounce Orwell as a socialist. Orwell spent his entire adult life renouncing from his upbringing in the English Tory Party. It is true that he was one of the founders of anti-communism and held some beliefs that are associated with the right. Such as individualism, patriotism, his strong sense of right and wrong, and his dislike for bureaucracy and government. Liberty and equality were two of the things Orwell valued the most, as told in his writing, 'A society of free and equal human beings.' As such, they were generally not allies in Britain's colonial laissez-faire culture at the time. Orwell was aware of this paradox and symbolizes it in Nineteen Eighty-Four; his point being that there should be no utilitarian trade-off between freedom and security. Nineteen Eight-Four was accused of attacking the British Labour Government. Orwell responded that he supports the British Labour Party and his novel is not meant to attack it nor socialism. 'It exposes the corruptions that a centralized economy is prone to, as witnessed with communism and fascism. The book takes place in Britain to emphasize that English-speaking races are not innately better and that totalitarianism can triumph everywhere if not fought against.'  Orwell was invited by the Duchess of Artholl in November 1945 to speak on behalf of the right-wing and anti-communist group, League for European Freedom. Orwell thought that their arguing against communist brutality was inconsistent with them claiming to support democracy, yet not supporting the end for Britain's unwanted rule in India. Therefore, Orwell did not want to associate himself with them. In Orwell's words, 'I belong to the Left and must work inside it, as much as I hate totalitarianism and it's poisonous influence.'  It is true that Orwell held many conservative instincts, not prejudices. Such as his somewhat traditional moral and sexual values. Also his dislike of abortions and homosexuals, as well as sharing some anti-semantic comments in his writings. Hitchens argues that Orwell spent his life trying to reason himself out of them. Although there were times his upbringing and pessimism succeeded his efforts, oftentimes when he was ill or depressed. Hitchens writes, 'Orwell was conservative about many things, but not about politics.'
 * America; Hitchens 'America' is larger as an idea than the 50 states. Orwell never traveled to the United States as he had little interest in it. He was suspicious of the consumerist and materialistic culture. He was somewhat resentful of its imperial ambitions and overly critical about its size and vulgarity. Orwell did take American literature seriously, he recognized it's success with the incomplete struggle for liberty, and discussed it on BBC. Near the end of his life when his health was failing due to tuberculosis, he began to have a change of heart towards America. He wrote about Jack London's life and works and had a great appreciation for them. He began to realize the appeal for North America's vast land and fierce individualism. Orwell's admirers from the states urged him to visit them. There were many suitable climates for his health and the streptomycin that might have healed his lungs was only manufactured and easily distributed in America. Orwell contemplated spending some time in the South writing, but he was too weak to visit. Hitchens writes, 'the American subject was in every sense Orwell's missed opportunity.'
 * English conventions;
 * feminism and women; and
 * his controversial list for the British Foreign Office.

At the end of the book, Hitchens critiques Orwell's novels and legacy. An essay sequel to the book, "Why Orwell Still Matters," appears in John Rodden's 2007 compilation The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell (ISBN 978-0-521-85842-7).

Contents

 * 1 Orwell's life as a Writer
 * 2 Reception
 * 3 References
 * 4 External links

Orwell's life as a Writer
Orwell had an admiration for objective truths and he feared that it was being driven out of society. He wanted to defend the English language from constant propaganda and euphemism. Orwell was brought up in a conservative upper class environment where people felt fear and loathing towards the poor. Orwell wanted to find out what living in poor environments were really like and to familiarize himself with the harsh facts of reality. The unpleasant facts he faced were usually the ones that put his own principles to the test. He stayed true to his experiences regardless of their harshness and regardless if they changed some of his thoughts and opinions. Despite his best efforts, he could condemn others for their dishonest and immoral stances, such as anti-Americanism, yet struggled to completely rid himself of such. If you were to compare Orwell’s works with other journalists during his time many were likely to be tempted by those in power while Orwell was not. When Orwell was alive his works were not popular nor were they lucrative. He was not confident in his works and he would not dilute his opinions in order to gain wealth. Despite being raised in an upper class environment Orwell lived relatively poor. It wasn’t until after his death that his works became legendary.

Orwell's father was involved in the Opium trade, which had his family built upon a guilty colonial secret. Orwell volunteered to be apart of that by becoming a police officer in Burma, living under a dictatorship. Orwell's first novel, Burmese Days was about a policeman, clearly based upon himself and his time serving there. The policeman has a live-in mistress and servant that he has bought from her family. Hitchens speculates that Orwell resigned from his job as a police officer in the Burma because he feared he would become part of the dirty secret himself; that he would become a racist and a sadist. Hitchens points out that this is especially important because he was facing this policeman in himself and choosing to defeat it. Orwell was ahead of his time and Hitchens believes that in some ways post-colonial studies are founded by Orwell. He figured out early on, before he went to University, that some people were in power because they enjoy punishing others. Then he went 'native', as if he was in a colony, in his own country before the 30s. When the great political decade of the century had hit the world, he was ready for it. Orwell thought communism was a delusion and a negation of reality and it will end up being evil itself. Orwell hardly writes about fascism because

Orwell had an admiration for objective truths and he feared that it was being driven out of society. He wanted to defend the English language from constant propaganda and euphemism.

Orwell thought communism was a delusion and a negation of reality and it will end up being evil itself.

Reception
Christopher Hitchens in 2008

Publishers Weekly wrote, "Hitchens brilliantly marshals his deep knowledge of Orwell's work. Fans of Orwell will enjoy Hitchens's learned and convincing defense, while those unfamiliar with Orwell may perhaps be induced to return to the source." George Packer of The Independent gave the book a mixed review, however, remarking, "Why Orwell Matters is presented by its publisher as a case of posthumous affinity between writers across generations, but critic and subject turn out to be mismatched, and it's the critic who suffers as a result."

Despite praising many of Hitchens's analyses of Orwell, Packer added, "For a slender book, Why Orwell Matters is oddly unfocused and hard to get through. What Hitchens has to say is what a sympathetic reader of Orwell would want said. But he never sustains a line of thought long enough or searchingly enough to reach a truly provocative insight. There's no sense of a deepening engagement with the subject; one is never allowed to forget the gesticulating presence of the critic. The valuable reflections on Orwell keep getting interrupted by a series of asides, ripostes and thrusts into tangled little backwaters."