'Animal Farm' by George Orwell

Howdy all, I've finally gotten around to reading Orwell's 'Animal Farm,' not as scary as '1984' but just as depressing. :-(

The Seven Commandments
1. Whatever goes upon two legs, is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

How interesting how much these commandments are rewritten as the book progresses. It feels like the same thing is happening to the Bill of Rights. :evilfrown:

BTW, if I were to cast 'Animal Farm' the movie, Scott McClellan so gets to play 'Squealer'. Karl Rove as 'Napolean' the pig. :mad:

Attention to those whom haven't read it yet, pick up a copy and check it out!!!!!

For three solid hours per host, every single day, on thousands of stations around the country. :cry:

"Four legs good, two legs bad."

:evilgrin:

DAMN! I thought my ideas were origianal... :( Oh, well....I guess my ideas only look smart because I live in Brainless Conservative Land.
Seven Commandments=changing Bill of Rights, and Four Legs Good etc. is dissent being drowned out with oversimplified images of good vs. evil. And Snowball=Trotske.
Ok, here's one that nobody's mentioned yet...
Napoleon wants them to bow to the skull of Major. That's....how the Communist leaders wanted the people to follow their ideas of Communism, even though they no longer followed the philosophy of Marx.

How about we lobby people in hollywood to produce a movie version of this classic novel. Maybe it would scare these bushbots straight?

They can make a new one, the animation could be better, scarier even. Hey, why not? :shrug:

got bad reviews because the film makers ignored the core of Orwell's story and went for a happy ending. Worth watching, but not if you want to know what the novelette says.

but isn't Animal Farm a criticism of communism/socialism/Marxism? If I'm correct, then the right wing would just use it against us lefties...

But I think Orwell wrote with enogh skill so that it applies to all totalitarian regimes, like the current one.

and I thought it was a kid book because it had those cute animals on the cover. I will never forget putting the word "totalitarian" in my book report and thinking how impressed my teacher would be.

against Communism was "feeble-minded"

I hope you don't mean to imply that I'm feeble-minded...

It's been a while since I read it, besides, I was mainly trying to point out that right wingers (many of whom ARE feeble-minded) would use it against left-wingers if it were to experience a revival in popular culture, like being made into a current movie.

And anyway, I would never describe it as "only" a critique...

;)

Good luck convincing a right-winger of that, though. If it is only a direct indictiment of the USSR, it wouldn't have a point now. It is clearly an allegory for totatlitarianism in all its forms.

I saw the book as showing what happens when people start off with great ideals but compromise and eventually give them up when they start putting their own special interests before the good of others. Yeah it's critical of the animals but only when they start acting like humans.

if anything, the book has peaked my interest in Leon Trotsky (snowball). I've always known who he was but never knew what his deal was. There must have been something about him to have a Stalin loyalist hunt him down in Mexico and bludgeon him with a pickax.

Other than the Stalinist angle which it was originally intended, I thought it took shots at totalitarian regimes of a stripes. The right wingers, whose traits closely mirror those of Napoleon, can shove up their asses if they even think of presenting such an argument.

Orwell fought in Spain on the side of the republicanos (comprised of liberals, communists, and anarchists) against the Royalists, and had seen the Stalinists assume power over the spanish left. Trotsky was adamantly opposed to Stalinism (and yes Stalinist thugs later killed him), and Orwell also shared that view--that Stalinism had completely destroyed whatever good the bolsheviks had accomplished. I haven't read the book or seen the cartoon in some time, but the Lenin animal-character himself was not exactly benevolent either.

It's called the Theory of Trotsky's Ear. When Lenin died, Trotsky was in far south Russia getting ear treatments as he was ill. By the time he heard of the death and was able to get in the game, Stalin had already taken over.

The point of the theory is that history happens because of random events.

It's opposed by other theories such as the Great Man Theory saying that history is molded by a few important men, or

communist theory which teaches that history is like a river moving in a certain direction which can be slowed, or even reversed for periods, but in the end will go in the direction it's meant to go in.

all of the animals as to who they represented in Russian Communism. As I read it, I thought this was a very narrow view of what the author was trying to say.

and the subversion of principle and ideals for greed and power.

The most applicable example is the regime of Joseph Stalin, upon which he based the book, but it applies more or less to every totalitarian regime that has engaged in propaganda campaigns.

so it does not matter. IT was the same as with Russia, started out as a great idea, turned into a fascist government. Ended up the same as Nazi Germany, different means. It applies to all totalitarian governments

absolute communism and fascism are two ends of the spectrum. totalitarianism/authoritarianism are NOT COMMUNISM! no one person or group of people are 'in charge' in a truly communist society; the people of the society are the state, i.e. everyone and no one is 'in charge'. the problems of communism are in its application relative to human nature...people are inherently selfish. greed and power-hunger are anathema to true communism, which is why, alas, it will never work.

the ussr wasn't fascist, it was a totalitarian regime. on the road from capitalism to communism, there is a point at which there must be some kind of governmental body to redistribute the wealth/resources. most 'communist' regimes have never actually REACHED communism, but got stuck in that stage by their greed and hunger for power.

"Fascism is better described as Corporatism."

As you said, communism and fascism are very different. America is currently a fascist state and not even close to ever becoming a communist state.

has withered and died.

No one has ever gotten to that point yet.

in Democratic socialism.

George Orwell himself was a socialist, he was however strongly opposed to the Stalin regime and rightfully so. Orwell was a lefty, any attempt for the right-wingers to use him against us would fail. It is so obvious that if Orwell were alive today he would have a lot to say about Bush, and none of it would be good.

TNT did a live action version, which I prefer over the cartoon.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0204824/ I even taped it at the time, so if you cannot find it anywhere, PM me and I can make a copy for you. Edited to add, it does have commercials, but I like it better.

There's a new release ironically starring "Frasier Crane"!

Here's an online copy of it (and a lot of other great books).

http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/animalfarm/

:toast:
KJ

Libraries: Enjoy them while we still have them!

Good one, devilgrrl.

All the similarities do indeed stand - but only because extremism from the left or right, dictatorships are alike. Only the rhetoric varies slightly (there's no rapture on the Animal farm0

The crow really seems to symbolize religion and how it is used to keep the masses happy (opiate of the masses and all, you know).

(and why that version has a different ending)

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,908925,00.html

Illustrated by Ralph Steadman. Oh man, he really captures the raw emotional power of the narrative.

Highly appropriate to our times.

because it's so short. I just finished it, and it is WELL worth reading! Many, many parallels with what's happening today.

"1984" is next for me. A few months ago, I read Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World". I wonder if there are any other works that have the same theme.

Just enter "Essays, George Orwell" in Google or Yahoo and you'll get a number of sites that have the complete texts. "Shooting an Elephant" and "A Hanging" are as effective a damnation of colonialism as have ever been written; on a lighter note, "A Nice Cup of Tea" is a good (if a bit pedantic) how-to on doing tea the English way.....

I know I should read that novel, but haven't been able to work myself up to it. 1984 was bad enough.

it is really short too.

I had to read this one in the 8th grade...wait, i lie, I didn't have to read it but my middle school had a book war thing called Battle of the Books, where they have a list of about 30 books, and you are teams of three or four, and you answer questions and what not, its a lot like current event tourneys....during my 8th grade year Animal Farm was one of the books on the list, and I had the pleasure of reading it, along with the other books on the list...the people on my team were lazy asses!

That is the basic unwritten premise that our current administration seems to work from, and it is very frightening. (Of course you have to substitute "humans" for "animals")

I made him a t-shirt that said "Four Eyes Good, Two Eyes Bad"

Pretty scary book. I have yet to read 1984, but that's required reading for this upcoming year. Great.

:scared: