A Pig Returns to the Farm, Thumbing His Snout at Orwell

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 7:15 AM -0500 11/27/02, Todd Archer wrote:
>>You can't expect a precise one-on-one correspondence between 
>>reality and fiction in a fable.
>
>It doesn't have to be precise, just indicative.  I grew up learning 
>that Animal Farm was a thinly-veiled story about the origin of the 
>Soviet Union.  I'll grant you that other interpretations are 
>possible, and I've yet to look into what Orwell had to say about the 
>story, but a close correspondence between Trotsky (and probably 
>those who shared his political sentiments) and Snowball is what I've 
>learned.

Surely an author is free to change characters' symbolic significances 
(among other things) when he parodies another's work.

At 7:15 AM -0500 11/27/02, Todd Archer wrote:
>>Most of the heads of Middle East states are now subordinate members 
>>of the supporters of the Empire.  The growth of Islamism, both 
>>moderate and suicidal, is rooted in this phenomenon.
>
>How much of the growth of Islamism is also rooted in 
>not-necessarily-pro-American secularism and capitalism?

For that, you might look at the roots of the Muslim Brotherhood in 
Egypt.  The prison memoir of Zaynab al-Ghazali -- the founder of the 
Muslim Women's Association who was imprisoned from 1965 to 1971 under 
Nasser for charges of collaboration with the Muslim Brotherhood -- 
may be an interesting read in this context.
-- 
Yoshie

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