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1GeorgeBowling
No-body has posted anything yet, so I thought I might try some thing controversial.
Orwell, I have recently learned, threatened lagal action against those who claimed he had written that the working classes smelled. I was amazed at this, because I remembered reading the passage where he said so. Of course I went and looked it up. The relevant bit being:-
When I was not much past twenty I was attached for a short time to a British regiment. Of course I admired and liked the private soldiers as any youth of twenty would admire and like hefty, cheery youths five years older than himself with the medals of the Great War on their chests. And yet, after all, they faintly repelled me; they were ‘common people’ and I did not care to be too close to them. In the hot mornings when the company marched down the road, myself in the rear with one of the junior subalterns, the steam of those hundred sweating bodies in front made my stomach turn. And this, you observe, was pure prejudice. For a soldier is probably as inoffensive, physically, as it is possible for a male white person to be. He is generally young, he is nearly always healthy from fresh air and exercise, and a rigorous discipline compels him to be clean. But I could not see it like that. All I knew was that it was lower-class sweat that I was smelling, and the thought of it made me sick.
Well, yes; if you read it very carefully, it maybe does not exactly say what I remembered it as saying. In court he could have pointed to the two words "pure prejudice". But it was the "lower class sweat" that stuck in my mind.
I find the passage deeply offensive. Simply discussing whether workers smell, regardless of a decision in the negative, is unbelievably crass. Imagine a discussion as to whether, say, black people smell!
I admire Orwell. He was a great man and a great writer. The fact that he had flaws differentiates him from precisely non-one else in the human race. But his 'de haut en bas' attitude to the working class is an odd flaw for a Socialist.
Orwell, I have recently learned, threatened lagal action against those who claimed he had written that the working classes smelled. I was amazed at this, because I remembered reading the passage where he said so. Of course I went and looked it up. The relevant bit being:-
When I was not much past twenty I was attached for a short time to a British regiment. Of course I admired and liked the private soldiers as any youth of twenty would admire and like hefty, cheery youths five years older than himself with the medals of the Great War on their chests. And yet, after all, they faintly repelled me; they were ‘common people’ and I did not care to be too close to them. In the hot mornings when the company marched down the road, myself in the rear with one of the junior subalterns, the steam of those hundred sweating bodies in front made my stomach turn. And this, you observe, was pure prejudice. For a soldier is probably as inoffensive, physically, as it is possible for a male white person to be. He is generally young, he is nearly always healthy from fresh air and exercise, and a rigorous discipline compels him to be clean. But I could not see it like that. All I knew was that it was lower-class sweat that I was smelling, and the thought of it made me sick.
Well, yes; if you read it very carefully, it maybe does not exactly say what I remembered it as saying. In court he could have pointed to the two words "pure prejudice". But it was the "lower class sweat" that stuck in my mind.
I find the passage deeply offensive. Simply discussing whether workers smell, regardless of a decision in the negative, is unbelievably crass. Imagine a discussion as to whether, say, black people smell!
I admire Orwell. He was a great man and a great writer. The fact that he had flaws differentiates him from precisely non-one else in the human race. But his 'de haut en bas' attitude to the working class is an odd flaw for a Socialist.
2bsquared46
Hello George.
I seem to recall that he 'aquired' his prejudice while he was at Eton. This, he said, was instilled into him, his being aware of the soldiers was an observation more than a critisism (which is what he was good at). I think he admired and respected the working classes. I don't think he could have lived alongside them, as he did in Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier, if he felt strongly about it.
ps. I must talk to you about Dickens some time.
I seem to recall that he 'aquired' his prejudice while he was at Eton. This, he said, was instilled into him, his being aware of the soldiers was an observation more than a critisism (which is what he was good at). I think he admired and respected the working classes. I don't think he could have lived alongside them, as he did in Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier, if he felt strongly about it.
ps. I must talk to you about Dickens some time.
3krolik
I don't find this passage offensive; I find it frank about his experience and how he was conditioned. Orwell is demonstrating what it means to lead an examined life.
4bsquared46
mmmmm. what is it 'to lead an examined life'?
5krolik
Well, in this case it refers to taking a distance from oneself in an attempt to face one's personal prejudice. It's easy to give lip service to this idea, but it's hard to do. I think the passage by Orwell cited above fits this description.
He is not being encumbered by an ego-driven desire to appear right all the time.
He is not being encumbered by an ego-driven desire to appear right all the time.
6misselainey
The principle premise of British society was KNOW YOUR PLACE.
The IDEA of being around commoners didn't bug him, but when he actually got close enough to smell 'em, something happened that was so unexpected that he had to think about it, write about it, understand it, own it, face it down. See, you can have a viceral response to something that you didn't even have on your radar and it can totally take you by surprise.
Unexamined, this leads you around, and you say, oh yuk I hate those smelly soandsos. Stick with and examine your reactions to things, and you can change not only yourself, but the world.
The IDEA of being around commoners didn't bug him, but when he actually got close enough to smell 'em, something happened that was so unexpected that he had to think about it, write about it, understand it, own it, face it down. See, you can have a viceral response to something that you didn't even have on your radar and it can totally take you by surprise.
Unexamined, this leads you around, and you say, oh yuk I hate those smelly soandsos. Stick with and examine your reactions to things, and you can change not only yourself, but the world.
