If you are studying, or about to study, Orwell's books, Please Read This!

[The Atheist]

I'd like to get this message over to high schoolers & uni students who know they'll be studying Orwell, or who have already started on one of his books this current school year.

I just made a comment to a student in the 1984 thread that I'm a bit sick of teachers asking the same boring questions all the time.

Please invite your teachers & lecturers along here to discuss Orwell before they start asking questions.

I'd really like teachers to update their approach to Orwell and his books. He still clearly stands at the peak of English English, as he seems to still be in every curriculum, yet lots of teachers seem determined to bore kids into hating him.

So, go to it!

Drag them, bring them to LitNet during class, kidnap them and tie them to laptops set to LitNet as home page, but get them along here!

[bazarov]

Yeah, right...Do you think we should expand stickies?

[The Atheist]

Try it without first - I like to live in hope!

:D

[bazarov]

If I am right, one more sticky was planned to appear.

[Lixx]

I'm doing a second assignment on 1984... as pointless as i find it, it has to be done. which is why i hope i can find someone to clarify what my teacher can't. Was the Junior Anti Sex League, only for girls? or was their male members aswell..? and yes... i realise this is probably one of the single stupidest questions that could be asked.

[bazarov]

Yes, it was only for girls. Something similar existed in 3rd Reich.

[Lixx]

Thanks. i may not fail now.. but.. yayy.. now i get to create a whole new junior anti sex league for boys... yay.. go life and school and such.. (sorry, tired)
and as for the 3rd reich thing. thanks for that too, because i spent most of my day in a library looking for things like that to incorporate into my assignment.. Thanks again =]

[bazarov]

It's hard to find where you don't what even to look for. :D

[lukgem]

having read orwells novels(not essays yet)i find it hard to believe his work is being taught in schools.if students really grasp the essence of his work and realise its significance we will have a politically well informed highly suspicious and free society in the future maybe by,2084(ha!)
he spells out how government systems work,and highlights how the proleteriat(lots of me,and most of you)are viewed as a sub-species,and how populations are kept in constant terror through manufactured fear.personally its made me pledge to reduce my own ignorance by embarking on a literary mission and quest for knowledge,pick up some latin,and above all really break down what people in power have said,past governments have not loved us.

[Lixx]

this is true.. very true.. GAH stupid assignment.

[jocky]

Listen folks, Orwell is different class. Lecturers and University Professors are not keen in promoting his novels and social essays because they send out the wrong message. Jane Austen is more to their liking, meaninglessly intelligent and uncontroversial. Orwell was prepared to get down and get dirty, I cite the Road to Wigan Pier and his participation in the Spanish Civil war in support of my argument. His writing was crystalised by experience, he had been a drone for the British Empire and knew exactly what political will backed up by overpowering military might could result in. He questions authority in all its manifestations and any student worth their salt should approach his writing with an open mind. Challenge your lecturers and be critical of anything you are spoon fed.

[marvy]

Hi! My first post! Just read whar JOCKY wrote and now I know I'm in the right place! For too long Orwell has been merely a foot note in the educational process. His writings should, instead, be at the core of it!

[Dinkleberry2010]

Orwell's nonfiction is pretty good too. Read his Down And Out In Paris And London--it's a real eye-opener

[Alexander III]

I think as a social commentator and student of politics Orwell was indeed great, however in terms of literature I think he is extremely over-rated. His prose is utterly dreadful...

[kelby_lake]

I think as a social commentator and student of politics Orwell was indeed great, however in terms of literature I think he is extremely over-rated. His prose is utterly dreadful...

That's a little extreme. The prose is nothing to shout about but it's not completely dire.

[OrphanPip]

Orwell's essays are some of the best of the 20th century, and he gives good advice for writing prose when your goal is not art but clarity of argument and vision.

Edit: I agree the novels are nothing spectacular stylistically.