All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
The essays in this collection were originally published over several years in several different contexts. Yet, they tend to circle around a couple themes - low brow British culture (boys' weeklies, raunchy postcards, 'good bad books') and the relationship between writing and politics. The pieces with the greatest staying power address the second, including his essay 'Politics and the English Language', which I recall from an undergraduate writing course in the late 1980s, and a wonderful 1946 essay on censorship, titled 'The Prevention of Literature', in which Orwell contrasts the obvious threat of repression under a totalitarian communist regime with the more subtle effect of economic concentration in capitalist countries: 'any writer or journalist who wants to retain his integrity finds himself thwarted by the general drift of society rather than by active persecution.'The essays on popular culture are perhaps of historical interest - I hadn't known about the boys' weeklies or many of the authors Orwell describes as writers of good bad books, and I'm not likely to have an occasion to use most of this information - and certainly not to seek out those mostly forgotten authors to read them, after hearing Orwell's critique. But Orwell himself writes so well that even these essays were a fast pleasure to read, and the exposure probably improved my own writing for at least week or two. It's worth noting that all the essays in this collection are critical essays; a number of his narrative essays are collected in a companion volume, Facing Unpleasant Facts. Really, the best essay is the one about Dickens, and where the book gets its title. Everything else is decent, but mainly dated, as it discusses certain passing fashions of the times (the pre-comics books kids read; the state of India; etc.). Still, Orwell is always incredible to read, as his insights seem way ahead of their time in terms of how people in society should relate to one another. If you like Orwell, go nuts!
What do You think about All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays (2008)?
Orwell is so smart that reading him makes me feel like I'm getting smarter.
—Cricketman
I liked these essays and virtually all essays I have read by Orwell.
—babyrere
Putting on hold until I read the books that Orwell is reviewing.
—cassie
