Geo Dragon Bk

HAPPY SAINT GEORGE ORWELL DAY

I consider George Orwell England's 20th-century dragon slayer.
He too should have a national holiday named after him.
It would be "Saint George Orwell Day"
celebrated every June 8th,
the day "1984" was published in 1949.
~ Jackie Jura

This past weekend [June 2010] I went to a yard sale and came upon a treasure-trove of used books - one of which has a painting of St George Slaying the Dragon on its cover (scanned above).

Just now I brought the book into my ORWELL TODAY office to scan and add it to the ST GEORGE ORWELL IN TREES article on the website and - godcidently - notice that the date today is ST GEORGE ORWELL DAY (so proclaimed by me five years ago as June 8th to honour the day "1984" was published back in 1949).

This inspired me to search to see if there were any news stories mentioning that today - June 8th, 2010 - is the 61st anniversary of the publication of "1984". There'd been a story last year:

60 years after Orwell wrote 1984, almost reality, BSPCN, Jun 8, 2009 (...Within 12 months, it had sold around 50,000 hardbacks in the UK; in the U.S. sales were more than one-third of a million. It became a phenomenon. Sixty years later, no one can say how many millions of copies are in print, both in legitimate editions and samizdat versions. It has been adapted for radio, stage, television and cinema, has been studied, copied and parodied and, above all, ransacked for its ideas and images.... Nineteen Eighty-Four may not be the greatest novel ever written, but it is certainly the most influential. Even at the time, people knew that something remarkable had occurred...)

Finding nothing in current news reporting ST GEORGE ORWELL DAY I broadened the search and - godcidently again - came upon a YouTube video of the BBC 1954 TV VERSION OF 1984

Just the other day I'd been lamenting to a reader that I wish I could see this very BBC TV production. See ORWELL COPYWRIGHT COURT CASES

I dropped everything I was doing and started watching "1984" on the computer screen.

watch BBC NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR on YouTube

But after watching only a few minutes (and enjoying it very much so far) I've put it on pause while I link it to the website right now - before ST GEORGE ORWELL DAY is over - so that ORWELL TODAY readers can watch it too. Later, I'll write a review.

In closing, I notice that in the painting on the book cover scanned above, it's a white horse that St George is riding - which is another reason for believing George Orwell is Saint George (as symbolized in the links below).

All the best,
Jackie Jura


SouvenirShop BibleHolder BibleHolderBook After leaving the museum we drove all over Addis, shopping in the markets and absorbing the atmosphere of this ancient city. I bought a book on the history of Ethiopia published when Haille Selassie was Emperor -- and also a beautiful Bible Stand which is perfect for holding any book. It has a depiction of St George slaying the dragon... See OUT OF AFRICA

60 years after Orwell wrote 1984, almost reality, BSPCN, Jun 8, 2009

White Horse Again JOURNEY TO ORWELL'S JURA (...Before we knew it we saw the white horse in the distance again which meant that we were almost at the starting point where we'd parked the car. This time he didn't look away when we took his picture....)

White Horse Dorset ORWELL'S WHITE HORSE (...While looking at the chalked White Horse I was reminded of the real White Horse we had seen in the field on the road to Barnhill. It was symbolic to me of Orwell's ancestral connections to Dorset. When I got home and developed the film of both pictures it struck me that they are very similiar in size and setting. I also learned, from doing some research, that there are several chalk-etchings of White Horses in England but that the Osmington one is the only one with a rider on its back and is the only one facing that direction. So that provided more significance for it being connected to Orwell. Maybe Orwell was back in Dorset afterall!...)

ORWELL'S PERSONA (..."He was the first saint of our Age")

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

email: orwelltoday@gmail.com
HOME PAGE
website: www.orwelltoday.com