Tahir Wood wrote:
> Orwell's utter disillusionment with official communism in
> 1936/37 meant that he wandered off into the political
> wilderness so to speak. His later books like 1984 and Animal
> Farm really reflect his bitterness born in Spain and no doubt
> a lack of alternative politics in his time. I think he would
> have been a more hopeful man today than he was then. One
> should not underestimate the degree of hatred that was bred
> within the Republican ranks during the civil war.
That seems to be the crucial point. It was profoundly demoralizing. He and his wife had to flee Spain due to the threat of imprisonment and possible execution by Communists. At home, he found too many of his fellow "anti-fascists" keen to deny or justify all this.
The tiresome irony is that while Orwell has been a long favored source for "anti-Communist" tracts, 1984 and Animal Farm are pushed to the near exclusion of Homage to Catalonia.
-- Shane
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