Orwell is one of those writers whose works absolutely deserve their classic status. It's been a long time since I've read Animal Farm, so I think I need to do a reread soon.

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

animal farm is great: short, funny and profound.

Can't Beleive your channel's so underrated. Really love your content, please don't stop making videos.

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

I appreciate that!

@xiaol6694

4 ай бұрын

Excuse me I am not sure I agree 1984 is not a great literature work , this is the way how Orwell express himself and it was absolutely shaking me to the core, I can't imagine how he can write it in another style.

Saying that Orwell's "1984" is "boring" would be like saying that a medical diagnosis is "boring", "because" "it lacks story telling" ... (I can't begin to understand what you could have possibly meant by that, you either didn't notice the reasons, depths and silences of the conversations between Winston and Julia or read their romance in your own ways!), and who said: "all art is propaganda"?, and that: * "all the papers that matter live off their advertisements, and the advertisers exercise an indirect censorship over news"; * "if you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself"; * "if you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever"; the same author who very clearly and repeatedly stated that he didn't write "1984" thinking of Stalinism? You have to first understand the genre and then what social aspects it is shedding some light onto and how. Orwell wrote his dystopian novel as some sort of futuristic moral journalism. If anything, as Snowden revelations clearly and undeniably showed, I find his idiocy off the mark. Compare his two-way telescreens with cell phones nowadays, minitrue with the U.S. Homeland Security's "Disinformation Board" (greenwald: substack; theintercept.com 2016 04 28 new-study-shows-mass-surveillance-breeds-meekness-fear-and-self-censorship), his hopefully described proles with "we the people" nowadays who can't take their heads off their cell phones' rear end, his "war is peace" with "war is good for business" (tm) (but until very recently they seemed to have had a hard time finding Russia and China on a map and/or employing doublethink when it comes to them), his ideas about how the three air strips would somehow coexist, when these days the U.S. government is "freedom loving" European countries like banana republics in what seems to be developing into a 3rd world war with a sure nuclear end ... Also, did Orwell have "a sort of aesthetic distaste for Gandhi" and later was more in agreement with British colonialism? Well, Gandhi had his views about Adolf Hitler and the holocaust (I personally don't agree with, but I do understand where he is coming from), Newton did alchemy as a full time job (he almost killed himself!) and Physics as a hobby, Leibniz made fun of Descarte's for not interpreting well very basic conservation problems, Voltaire mercilessly ridiculed Leibniz' "the best of all possible worlds" kind of optimism ... What I like most about Orwell is -how- he wrote, there is some sort of feral truthfulness to it (read, for example, his essay "how the poor die"). This is something I also find in Chaplin and John Passmore, something that my personal folklore calls "British truth" (absolutely nothing to do with "'Great' Britain") kind of like „innerlich deutsche Sachlichkeit”. You can't find that in "don't worry be happy" U.S. writers. They were like "this is why you should or shouldn't love our cr@ppy royalty", which makes you go like, "really?!?"

The story telling in 1984 is incredibly gripping and original, quite apart from the prescient warning it delivers, now unfolding in front of our very eyes. It is one of the mist powerful novels ever written, being accessible to ordinary people and intellectuals alike.

I listened to vets and the hardest obstacle is the climbing wall. Decending from the wall, or climbing a wall. People get stuck. So, it takes a tremendous amount of courage to overcome those obstacles.

Nicely done. Careful and thoughtful analysis. Your view of Dostoyevsky and Orwell was excellent. Nicely put together.

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

That's great to hear! Thank you!

I usually agree with you in many different topics, but not on Soviet Union having no understand of art. To me it's the contrary. You'll see in the most remote towns in Russia today - with very vital roots to the Soviet Union - an amazingly strong and thriving tradition of culture, which was encouraged during the era: visual arts, dance, cinematography. No film studies come in my opinion close to those of the Soviet Union. Even the smallest towns in Russia has it's Culture House, with art school, dance institute, and not to forget, extremely qualified musical schools. This was all begun in the Soviet Union, and this 'suplimation' is actually part of a Marxist/Socialist/Communist program. Artistic endeavours were always encouraged, and I would like to see any other country, where people exchanged their experiences with literature in the metro trains, or where a town can put up a concert of classical music, choir, folklore- and ballet dance. I find it sad that this is so unknown - on the other hand it's rather inevitable owing to the lack of knowledge (and interest) about Eastern Europe. Even when it comes to architecture there's a misconception. Yes, Soviet Union concrete buildings are not beautiful, but they are hardly worse than other concrete buildings. What they lack in inner charm they had in abundance when it comes to outdoor life: lots and lots of green, an enormous amount of trees and areas of grass. The many benches were actually used, and that's why a suburb of even Moscow, Minsk or Kiev resembles a village. Today modern buildings like those in the rest of the world mushroom everywhere in former Soviet Union countries, and they are uglier and deprived of any living atmosphere. I find the narrative of Soviet Union architecture to be a standard western 'we-are-better' thinking, which is not surprising, but sad to see continue, nonetheless.

@Fiction_Beast

Жыл бұрын

Your comment is one of the most thoughtful ones I have read here. I guess my generalization of Soviet art was based on the utilitarian philosophy that is underlined the Marxist approach that nothing valuable unless it has some utility (often only material use). But the beautiful Moscow metro is a piece of art created mostly by the soviets so I get your point. On the whole I think the underlying philosophy was how useful something was and less importance was given to aesthetics. Within any system there are various approaches and individuals who impose their artistic approach.

The information is quite intriguing and feeds our inquisitiveness about human, their behavior, society, government and incessant conflict in human society.... Pls keep making these videos. You deserves kudos.

I loved your Plato's cave mic drop. Well done

@Fiction_Beast

Жыл бұрын

Awesome.

Neither the book nor the movie held my attention from beginning to end, and I would agree with FB about the lackluster storytelling. So I got “1984,” the audiobook, and found it incredible. My favorite writer has always been Michael Crichton, scoring his work based on the number of books I had to finish in one sitting (all of them). Listening to “1984” as a story added a dimension that’s impossible to forget, and Orwell didn’t use the word “said” 100,000 times either.

As always really great video. A must watch for many people.

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@alexluthiger731

11 ай бұрын

The menu card is rich! Kings on a headsalad bed, 'Princesses from the Red Light Zone' - Tortillas, Princes roasted on the firy stone on a carrot ensemble, Judges roasted cross in an embalment of salt, chicken wings, potatoes and beans upgraded with garlic and peppa. 🍷🐋

The limited number of subscribers and likes for this excellent channel is a clear indication of the illiteracy of modern society. If truth be told before the advent of television and social media people were far better educated than they are today.

@Fiction_Beast

Жыл бұрын

Really appreciate your kind words. It's slow climb but I'm happy with the numbers on this channel.

@trevorbailey1486

Жыл бұрын

@@Fiction_Beast I have, this morning, added to your number of subscribers. At the age of 62 and looking back on my life as a jury court hack, horseman and poet here in Australia, I'm nonplussed to say I have more questions than answers about our species. Your potted treats teach me I'm on the right track if I'm quite at a loss to know where I am, let alone where the track leads. Expect a cup of coffee from Down Under.

@Fiction_Beast

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much Trevor! I saw your generous donation! That’s coffee for a whole month. We are all the same boat, a rocky planet.

I am in awe, well, nearly. Keep your novel aspects flying.

thank you sir

This is a great video. Thank you. You should have many more views.

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

Wow, thank you!

I don't necessarily think that people become religious as they are getting old and getting close to their deathbed, because the idea of eternal life gives comfort, I think some people have been always religious but they just wanted to participate in the world's ideologies without using their religious belief as a reason not to contribute to the world's literally work or other artistic ways of expressing intellectual endeavours. I love your videos overall, 🔥

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

I think getting old does make you appreciate spirituality more. I think death is the single biggest mystery humans face, so returning to your childhood religious education or stories is comforting for many. I also think you're correct in pointing out that early religious exposure may never leave you no matter how much an atheist you consider yourself. As I said in the video Carl Jung makes that connection quite clear that perhaps Orwell destoian vision was a retelling of the failure of humans in the garden of eden. So 1984 is how we humans again messed things up. Thank you for the great comment.

@boysonthm1462

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fiction_Beast yes, I definitely agree with you. Thank you for giving more clarity 👌

People really miss out by not reading his earlier novels, only focusing on 1984 and Animal Farm. His earlier books are by far my favorites.

Thank you

Well done.

George Orwell’s Hommage to Catalonia is one of his most moving and hopeful books. It says that there is an alternative to fascism and socialism and that human freedom and self governance is possible. That is perhaps the lesson #11 that you didn’t speak about.!

Do a comparison and analysis between 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

@Fiction_Beast

Жыл бұрын

Great suggestion. I actually started that but I got bored midway. I’ll see what I can do.

@youtuber5305

Жыл бұрын

@@Fiction_Beast The article "1984 pointed to a dark future - but Brave New World and Network were even more prescient" may be of interest.

The last question is just Plato’s Cave but perhaps with a Foucault style reinterpretation.

Hi, may I know which novel of Kazuo's that you referred to in the video? Great video as always.

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! The two novels which symbolizes his philosophy well are The Remains of the Day, and Never Let Me Go. In both of them his characters put up and accept their fate instead of rebelling.

@lennovp7742

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fiction_Beast oh thank you! I have read both. I thought you referred to his other novels.

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

@@lennovp7742 those two are my favourites.

6:40 I as an Indian, I agree. Nothing changed in Life of poor people. The freedom of nation doesn't provide food in plate of poors. Indian life remain same. Revolution doesn't change anything.

Systems can have both merits & flaws, to express this is not contradictory. Many writers have promoted the message that life is cruel. Writers like Camus, Orwell & Huxley deliberately removed the propaganda of sentimentality; it is emotional manipulation that obscures objectivity toward a subject & see it as it is. Orwell realised that to write objectively you must experience the subject eg homelessness, working class deprivation & totalitarianism in Spain otherwise it becomes empty speculation & has no real informative basis. Huxley's Brave New World came from his familiarity with science & how psychology & genetics could be used by the state to control the population. Look up Huxley & Orwell on Loving Your servitude. "If you are going to control a nation for any length of time there must be an element of consent" - Aldous Huxley. "There will always be the thrill of victory over the helpless...if you want a picture of the future imagine a boot stamping on a face" - Orwell. There is a definite scale of coercive behaviours, from the brutal & oppressive (beating protestors, imprisonment) to the more insidious "soft" coercion of blatant or disguised influence from the nationalism of history, politics & class through the many types of media. Like the Nazis, Lenin, Stalin & Putin (who has made it an artform) used power as identity with the state through lies & propaganda as reality, this is the basis of doublethink (the concept two opposite meanings can be the same eg war is peace) & newspeak; truth is what you are told & may change daily without question. This is the crux of totalitarianism, to have your own thoughts is treason. It was Lenin who first justified the gulags which continued & have been adopted by other tyrants. This is not caprice, it is the deliberate denial of individual thought. The wonderful thing about Huxley is that his writing can be applied to any authority or ideology, be it religious or political that is unaccountable. We have recently witnessed one form, the Coronation of Charles

I really enjoyed your summary although I have watched many discussions of this book. Here is one: kzread.info/dash/bejne/hZaIs6yAqM6fZdI.html Also, you made me laugh when you said that the UK has the most CCTV cameras and yet the number of burglaries and thefts are astronomical with the police remaining helpless and hopeless. Many thanks and stay well and safe.

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

Modern states are always on the look out to find more effective technology to control its citizens from crimes, political disruptions as well as creativity, and free-spiritedness. But they're not always successful because the tighter you push people, some will break the barriers and spill out.

@sharontheodore8216

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fiction_Beast I agree. We need simplicity in our lives to enjoy the essential needs.

I can see the good or bad in any nation, person, because there is always good and bad. We choose our point of view.

I consider Orwell a great writer. a realist visionary and I hope Truth is only One and we humans cannot spot it.

6:27 So I have a slight nitpick there. The invention of the guillotine is actually a good thing. Without it the revolutionaries would still have executed the same peoples, they would just have used axes or gallows, which is a far less human way to kill someone. I'm not defending death penalty but I just say that if death penalty is in place, it should be done the most human way possible (in this case, the most painless). For those reasons, I think that the guillotine is a bad example in that context.

My conflict is to find peace.

@Fiction_Beast

11 ай бұрын

You have to fight for peace

Self contradiction may seem lacking direction but it means that there are no only One precise direction, concept or perception that is perfect. As when the direction of the world against Israel that was adhering to the very laws that the world created. That's what makes a philosopher genuine, where both sides of a meaning are debated to get the best definition.

Another question : About Winston Churchill. You made a mistake on purpose, why ? I am curious.

I think Orwell's socialism developed much like Albert Camus's. I think he remained socialist but his scepticism was aimed at communist socialism because he could see that violent revolution turns into totalitarianism regardless of politics (Orwell saw it in Spain, Camus during and after WWII - hence arguments with Sartre), i.e. it's a natural end-state. Socialism should not be confused with communism. All communists are socialists, but not all socialists are communists. Communism is an interpretation of socialism. Bakunin saw this in Marxism before communism existed and predicted the same consequences when the means of production are violently seized, i.e. a dictator will arise and the people will remain repressed. For Bakunin, anarchism was the answer because it negates the need for a ruling class (who have a monopoly on state violence). I think Orwell was a socialist but also a realist regarding human nature and what he might be able to achieve within his own society. He wanted his son to go to Eton, even though he didn't like it himself (as upper middle class but not super-rich he didn't quite fit in). But perhaps he understood that the way society was, right there and then, it offered his son the best chance of success and a status that might allow him a voice too. You can shun chances like that on principle, but sometimes you have to be a part of the game to get a platform and a chance to change the rules. On things like Gandhi, he was right (about some things but not everything). We tend to put people on pedestals and even Gandhi had faults. It was ironic really as both Orwell and Gandhi were a product of the British imperial project, both going to "good" English schools, Gandhi later reading law at University College London. Although neither would want to admit to being indoctrinated, I wonder if the worst characteristics of both men came from the same source and that they really had a common enemy: the "British Establishment". They are still a pernicious influence today - see "Brexit".

Woe unto all who say good is evil and evil is good and call good evil and evil good. After 2nd death comes eternal damnation! Keep the fire burning for honey, wine and cream. 🍷✌️

Donkey is Lenin, Snowball is Leon Trotsky sir

Seems to me that Orwell was surely a genius ... but his conclusions were often contradictory and lacked important facts. History often jived with his observations and conclusions, but just as often they did NOT - (That is ... IF this video is actually true and accurate.)

"Orwell was smart enough to see which way the wind was blowing and leaned that way?" Anyone who says that about Orwell has no idea of who and what Orwell was.

@Fiction_Beast

Жыл бұрын

Wisdom comes with age.

@numbersix8919

Жыл бұрын

@@Fiction_Beast Then there's hope for you as well. But there's truth to the saying that there's no fool like an old fool.

Poor research and some opinions wide of the mark, for example Animal Farm was not written at the beginning of the cold war( a phrase Orwell coined) It was written at the height of the actual war when the USSR was a vital alie and that made publishing the novel very hard as publishers didn't want to upset the very people who were about to win the European theatre . So rather than being an opportunist Orwell was going against the flow of nearly all political doctrine at the time.

Storytelling lacking in 1984. Really?

@Fiction_Beast

Жыл бұрын

Yes.

@numbersix8919

Жыл бұрын

@@Fiction_Beast Well perhaps you should read it again, and compare it to whatever work you believe exemplifies good story-telling.

@addisonepstein1829

Жыл бұрын

1984 is boring and interesting. Boring in the sense the storytelling is lacking (in my opinion this was necessary) interesting in the sense of an ideology.

@numbersix8919

Жыл бұрын

@@addisonepstein1829 OK. I tend to associate boring with uninteresting. A character one can't relate to might be boring. Events that are commonplace and of no significance might be boring. A lack of suspense or anticipation might be boring. But I don't find the book lacking in these areas. To say that a book is boring, or is told in an uninteresting way, without any explanation or example isn't a very enlightening critique. As far as ideology goes, Winston only wants to think for himself, Julia believes in nothing except herself, and the Party has no ideology at all. Only Winston's acquaintance Symes has any ideology (following the Party line) and he's a tool.

Did it ever occur to us to just *STOP*?

Julian Assange

Didn't watch yet. Just helping out your algo

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Please give it a watch when you get time. :)

There is one truth and Jesus Christ is the one truth. He is the only way to the father.

whats a palestinian>????????

@Fiction_Beast

Жыл бұрын

It’s a people

Animal farm is a literal fantasy novel, it’s the worst description of a revolution, told by someone who never met Stalin or been to the ussr. Thinking this is stupid, anyone agreeing with this is stupid, it’s non-existent class analysis by some racist Brit who sold out black radicals and actual principled communist (or socialist, Orwell was not a socialist) to the British state. It’s defeatism for the cia to maintain global hegemony, people who agree with animal farm are racist and fully support colonialism and genocide, that’s the lesson of Orwell

@Fiction_Beast

2 жыл бұрын

calm down, it's a work of fiction.

@Void-or4cs

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fiction_Beast yes, though the issue is that it is still use to discredit communism and the ussr to this day. The notion that tsarist Russia was recreated by Stalin is completely stupid, and any Russian during the 20’s-50’s would probably beat the shit out of you for saying that. It’s a work of fiction that was specifically made for the sake of building anti-communist rhetoric, maybe, if it wasn’t one of the main go to “story” like the gulag archipelago (another work of fiction) to discredit the ussr, then I wouldn’t have made the comment.

@keneokafor8327

Жыл бұрын

shut up commie

@davidcopson5800

4 ай бұрын

@@Void-or4cs You think communism ultimately work out in Russia then do you? That it's alive and well, and all people are equal.

@Void-or4cs

4 ай бұрын

@@davidcopson5800 it’s a revolutionary process which will inevitably have its ups and downs as it struggles with internal and external contradictions. It took centuries for capitalism to stabilize politically and economically out of feudalism, socialism has been more consistent on taking a shorter period than that

Timeless quality & implications imbued with DIVINE OVERTONES! All as Divinely Ordained 🔥🌺🙏☸️☯️♋️⛎🛐🕉✡️☪️🕎✝️🙏🌺🔥

oh sure when a famous novelist writing about kids having sex "its brilliant", but when I do it everyone loses their minds!