George Orwell - A Life in Pictures c

[castlekingside28]

Sometimes when reading some political news article or other, I think to myself, what would George Orwell say about this?

[MrSkate4weed]

the guy playing Orwell should get into the biz

[Yorkmackem]

@MrSkate4weed Its Chris Langham. He's currently out of work. Unless I'm being whooshed...

[Zimnyification]

And the bag was white.

[Zimnyification]

When they hanged the Burman, he actually fell underneath a stage kind of thing, and they all went round back to look at him hanging. One of them pulled the dead man's leg I believe then they all drank and laughed about it later to avoid the execution's disturbing and lingering effects.

[Clivepom]

Bloody hell this is good television!

[slickwillywize]

they got him in the end as they did the actor :(. Death is lovelywhen it comes

[rotreg]

Bad use of the "purple passages" quote. It missed out the bit where he said he used words partly just because of the way they sounded so missed the joke out.

[Bloodlovefreak]

He was smoking a pipe. I think the common view at the time was that since there was no action of inhaling, the risk to the body were considerably less.

[brandon9966]

@Bloodlovefreak ????????? I think you make no sense ?????????? what's the point of smoking it????? people weren't stupid. 

[Bloodlovefreak]

@brandon9966 Once again it has been proven that an abundance of question marks is no substitute for intellect.

[brandon9966]

@Bloodlovefreak Once again insulting someone over the internet. . . . I don't believe you smoke, people do not smoke to be cool. The act of inhaling the smoke is the purpose of smoking. Perhaps you thought my ????? I really don't care. It was trying to emphasize your misconception. Why the fuck would your think up such an ignorant remark and insult me. . . If you want to believe people don't inhale when they smoke go right ahead.

[Bloodlovefreak]

@brandon9966 You don't inhale when smoking a pipe you pleb.

[brandon9966]

@Bloodlovefreak Wtf is a pleb, I guess you don't inhale when smoking a cigar either. Hahaha.. You don't smoke. Sorry.

[Bloodlovefreak]

@brandon9966 Do you even know how to google stuff? You are not meant to inhale when smoking cigars or pipes. This is elementary stuff, kid.

[brandon9966]

@Bloodlovefreak You go on thinking that. (What would be the point of smoking it? The warm feeling in the mouth?) The full extent of the smoke from a cigar is not inhaled; not sure about a pipe. I would imagine it to be the same.

[Bloodlovefreak]

@brandon9966 GOOGLE IT YOU RETARD!.

[iraqihero1]

looool the doctor is smoking fucking hell

[XYZandTime]

Orwell's observation about the puddle is similar to one he made during the Spanish war. He was looking down his rifle at the Fascist trench and he saw a man who hadn't belted his trousers yet (it was early in the morning) running to an officer with a dispatch or something while trying to hold his trousers up- and he couldn't bring himself to shoot at him because he looked so ridiculous and, well, human.

[CheeezMaster]

Most excellent. I´m loving this.

[FIZZYYAM]

Scrimped on heating, what a laugh!

[madamewoselle]

The production value of this is astounding.

[Jaystinian]

I cant wait to read nineteen eaghty four.

[diceyLee]

@Jaystinian i just started it again, it is a great read. movies cant do it justice!

[BloggerMusicMan]

@Jaystinian

I'm guessing since this was two years ago, you probably read it.

How did you like it? For me it really enhanced my perception of the world, but I can't speak for everyone.

[ninawillams]

Im reading the book of all his early letters and book reviews,i love the man,i wanted to see how he became brillant,he always new it in his heart i feel any way

[davidoffon]

@ninawillams Briiliance will always tell you first, but not clearly. Some times the owner never really understands the problems it brings, carrying on as if they were the village idiot. This usually in response to almost every bodys annoyance of the child's odd behaviour, turning to dislike in the teen period and outright hostility to the adult vesion. All he ever did was his own thing, there by standing out, in what they see as a show off fashion.

[poliador]

Orwell is clearly against the death penalty. The state has no right over human life. The death penalty is the an evil shared by agroup of people as opposed to the crime of a murderer, therefore it is morally as wrong as the latter's action, except it hides behind a wall of people. The majority doesn't make it right.

[NyloStar]

I agree that it seems he has strong feelings about the death penalty, but he never says it is an evil. Remember, he was part of an imperialist system which he felt was oppressive and unjustified on the occupied population. Orwell seems saddened not by the death penalty, but by human nature's absolute assurance of righteousness when authority is backing it.

[SendInTheChickens]

You may be right about his problem with human arrogance, but you're not about his problem with the death penalty. He talks very clearly about how wrong it is for a man to be "cut down in his prime," so that one understands he is bothered as much by the idea of the inequity of the thing as he is by the imposition of it.

[lexo30]

He says he saw "the unspeakable wrongness of cutting a life short when it is in full tide". If that's not being against the death penalty, I don't know what is.

[NyloStar]

Orwell makes a prime example of someone who opposes the death penalty. We just differ on why we think he does. In my own view, Orwell was ready to kill Spanish fascists when he left for Barcelona; so I'm not entirely convinced he opposes the death penalty in that he thinks "it" is evil in the sense that a life is being taken. Orwell seems disturbed more by the way the death penalty is conducted via human nature to blindly follow authority; the act being absent of justice and fairness.

[lexo30]

I take NyloStar's point, but I think that being against the death penalty does not have to imply that one is also a pacifist. There is surely a difference between a.) taking arms in defence of a cause one believes in, and b.) judicial murder. For one thing, in an execution the condemned man is not able to fire back at you.

[XYZandTime]

Yes, there's a difference between killing in the heat of passion and killing with forethought. No killing is as premeditated as an execution. You can see why someone might shoot back when shot at, but where's the justice in an execution?

[lexo30]

Exactly.