Yesterday February 26th was an important event day because in the evening I saw Silver Linings Playbook, arguable the best of a number of good films this Oscar and Bafta season and which I had planned to write about next after another new series of weekly catch up summary reports. However the event of the day was the arrival of the brilliant Michael Sheldon’s 1991 authorised biography where I have I managed to acquire an original first edition in hardback.
My hope in purchasing was that this book will answer some of the questions and issues which have been raised while listening to the BBC The Real George 0rwell series of programmes together with re reading Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Down and Out in Paris and London, and reading The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia. There is Animal Farm and 1984 to reread. I had hoped to read some of his articles and essays which are available online but will not now do so unless the reading of two of the biographies indicates that I should.
I have so far published my notes in 2419 to 2422 and 2424 and 2245 and after reading the Introduction and the first chapter on family background and his childhood until going to preparatory school I need to continue noting this important book chapter by chapter because of its significance to my life to date and my life that remains, in addition to the original purpose of the completer finisher within me.
I was nearly tempted to omit the introductory chapter until after reading the rest, but grateful that I did not as Shelden sets the scene for his book in the context of other works completed beforehand and which immediately answered some questions.
The first is why Eric Blair did not write his story and that there is no book devoted to Eileen O’Shaughnessy and only in 2002 was a book written about his second wife and literary executor Sonia Brownell. The answer is not because Eric died comparatively young but according to Sheldon he understood that to be consistent with his ideals it would reveal what he wanted to keep private about his inner life, his inconsistencies and his relationships with others, which I suspect was out of respect and protection of their right to privacy. I plead guilty from extrapolating from my recognition of important similarities between myself and Eric to making assumptions that I claim to know more or as much of him than those who have read and studied all his works and communicated with many people who had direct knowledge of him as Shelden mentions in his introductory chapter
I also ought to repeat my crackpot warning that I continue to believe that despite the way human beings appear to differ in their physical make up and appearance and in their behaviour we are all inherently the same and that we all inherit the accumulated memories of our biological ancestors which is another argument supporting my lifelong contention that everyone has the right to know the who their biological parents were, and in fact that this is one of few rights I would declare inalienable.
According to Shelden Eric argued that the work an artist produces should stand or fall on the judgement of others over time and that experience unrelated to the creation of any individual work should be discounted, a distinction Shelden himself rejects as I do. Having said this the question remains what would Orwell have written and done with the rest of his life had he not died when he did and would this have included and autobiography or two? Would he and Eileen have remained married if she and he survived into their sixties and in any event would she have remained silent when after his death he became the focus of so much research, and writing by others?
According to Shelden it was Sonia, in response to an unauthorised biography where she had refused to allow any direct quotations from his writings, to invite the academic Bernard Crick (1982 revised 1992) to write up his life which Shelden explains is full of facts without getting beneath the skin of the man, although it appears Sonia was displeased with his work which she attempted to stop the publication. Crick was an important writer on politics with a left of centre slant and the reference has reminded me to buy a second hand copy of his book on Protest and Discontent which he published in 1970 along with the only book about the life of Sonia, a fascinating woman in her own right
Shelden comments that Eric was a man of contradictions, Are we not all? We are all made up of conflicting forces, as I believe are societies local, national and international. Unless there are counterbalancing forces a dominate force will gain such an ascendancy that others will find it increasingly difficult to survive, for a time at least. If the dominant is benign then most people will argue this is how it should be, but I believe any force even if for the good, constructive etc will become unstable and turn in on itself unless it is able to achieve balance, stability, equilibrium and this is only attained from the tension between forces.
The other aspect I feel the need to feature in my introduction is the belief there is usually more than one valid answer to a mystery, solution to a problem or response to a question. This aspect is covered by Shelden in the sense that he notes Eric liked to understand the position of those with whom he often had fundamental disagreement. This should not be misunderstood that understanding means one does not vigorously oppose or criticise.
Also important to me from Sheldon’s introduction is the information whatever his success, and Eric worked to be successful and for his work to be appreciated, he always expected failure and recognised his shortcomings well as those of others. He also appears to have been a driven creative individual.
My hope in purchasing was that this book will answer some of the questions and issues which have been raised while listening to the BBC The Real George 0rwell series of programmes together with re reading Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Down and Out in Paris and London, and reading The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia. There is Animal Farm and 1984 to reread. I had hoped to read some of his articles and essays which are available online but will not now do so unless the reading of two of the biographies indicates that I should.
I have so far published my notes in 2419 to 2422 and 2424 and 2245 and after reading the Introduction and the first chapter on family background and his childhood until going to preparatory school I need to continue noting this important book chapter by chapter because of its significance to my life to date and my life that remains, in addition to the original purpose of the completer finisher within me.
I was nearly tempted to omit the introductory chapter until after reading the rest, but grateful that I did not as Shelden sets the scene for his book in the context of other works completed beforehand and which immediately answered some questions.
The first is why Eric Blair did not write his story and that there is no book devoted to Eileen O’Shaughnessy and only in 2002 was a book written about his second wife and literary executor Sonia Brownell. The answer is not because Eric died comparatively young but according to Sheldon he understood that to be consistent with his ideals it would reveal what he wanted to keep private about his inner life, his inconsistencies and his relationships with others, which I suspect was out of respect and protection of their right to privacy. I plead guilty from extrapolating from my recognition of important similarities between myself and Eric to making assumptions that I claim to know more or as much of him than those who have read and studied all his works and communicated with many people who had direct knowledge of him as Shelden mentions in his introductory chapter
I also ought to repeat my crackpot warning that I continue to believe that despite the way human beings appear to differ in their physical make up and appearance and in their behaviour we are all inherently the same and that we all inherit the accumulated memories of our biological ancestors which is another argument supporting my lifelong contention that everyone has the right to know the who their biological parents were, and in fact that this is one of few rights I would declare inalienable.
According to Shelden Eric argued that the work an artist produces should stand or fall on the judgement of others over time and that experience unrelated to the creation of any individual work should be discounted, a distinction Shelden himself rejects as I do. Having said this the question remains what would Orwell have written and done with the rest of his life had he not died when he did and would this have included and autobiography or two? Would he and Eileen have remained married if she and he survived into their sixties and in any event would she have remained silent when after his death he became the focus of so much research, and writing by others?
According to Shelden it was Sonia, in response to an unauthorised biography where she had refused to allow any direct quotations from his writings, to invite the academic Bernard Crick (1982 revised 1992) to write up his life which Shelden explains is full of facts without getting beneath the skin of the man, although it appears Sonia was displeased with his work which she attempted to stop the publication. Crick was an important writer on politics with a left of centre slant and the reference has reminded me to buy a second hand copy of his book on Protest and Discontent which he published in 1970 along with the only book about the life of Sonia, a fascinating woman in her own right
Shelden comments that Eric was a man of contradictions, Are we not all? We are all made up of conflicting forces, as I believe are societies local, national and international. Unless there are counterbalancing forces a dominate force will gain such an ascendancy that others will find it increasingly difficult to survive, for a time at least. If the dominant is benign then most people will argue this is how it should be, but I believe any force even if for the good, constructive etc will become unstable and turn in on itself unless it is able to achieve balance, stability, equilibrium and this is only attained from the tension between forces.
The other aspect I feel the need to feature in my introduction is the belief there is usually more than one valid answer to a mystery, solution to a problem or response to a question. This aspect is covered by Shelden in the sense that he notes Eric liked to understand the position of those with whom he often had fundamental disagreement. This should not be misunderstood that understanding means one does not vigorously oppose or criticise.
Also important to me from Sheldon’s introduction is the information whatever his success, and Eric worked to be successful and for his work to be appreciated, he always expected failure and recognised his shortcomings well as those of others. He also appears to have been a driven creative individual.
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