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I believe the Atheist was semi-right in a respect. It seems that Orwell has a culmination of all the right ingredients, religion, war, fear, hatred, love, and presents them in a far more efficient way then modern day, and old time writings. Orwell has opened my world to less known writers in his time period, and I imagine I will be more impassioned to listen to their words, but without Orwell, and reading the stories of Donne, Twain, Joyce, etc, there was no one that had a profound effect on me, as George Orwell did.
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Orwell was anti-Bolshevik, anti-imperialist, and anti-fascist at a time when many Europeans (and many intellectuals) only fit into 1 or 2 of those descriptions, and his writings are based on those positions. His "Rules For Writers" are instructive and he was a relentless enemy of cliches.