John Halle wrote:
> >
> > > "Socialism calls up a picture of vegetarians with wilting beards, of
> > > Bolshevik commissars (half gangster, half gramophone), of earnest
> > > ladies in sandals, shock-headed Marxists chewing polysyllables,
> > > escaped Quakers, birth control fanatics, and Labour party
> > > backstairs crawlers. If only the sandals and the pistachio-coloured
> > > shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian,
> > > teetotaller and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City
> > > to do his yoga exercises quietly!"
> >
> > Thanks for the quote, but where is it from? Is it in one of his essays?
> >
>
> It's from The Road to Wigan Pier-can't seem to find it right now so i
> can't get the exact reference-an account of Orwell tramping days inspired
> by Jack London's wonderful book People of the Abyss. (Ehrenreich's Nickle
> and Dimed seems to be the next entry in this lineage.)
>
> Incidentally, Null would have available to him a superficially
> powerful response to the above, namely that Orwell died at age 48 having
> subsisted on a diet of coffee, rare meat, Guinness and cigarettes.
>
> >
> > There is a similar passage in Engels, I believe in _Anti-Duhring_,
> > expressing disapproval just as strongly but with a less moralistic edge
> > than in Orwell.
> >
> > Carrol
> >
>
> I'm curious as to what exactly you feel Orwell is expressing disapproval
> of. Also, it is not clear to me what you find "moralistic" in the passage.
> Of course, it is certainly judgemental, vituperative, harsh and snooty.
>
> John Halle