Orwell Writing

"I write because there is some lie that I want to expose,
some fact to which I want to draw attention,
and my initial concern is to get a hearing....
Of late years I have tried to write less picturesquely and more exactly.
'Animal Farm' was the first book in which I tried,
with full consciousness of what I was doing,
to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole.
I hope to write another fairly soon.
It is bound to be a failure, every book is a failure,
but I do know with some clarity
what kind of book I want to write."
~ George Orwell

WINSTON'S DIARY IS ORWELL'S BOOK

The thing that Winston was about to do was open a diary.
This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws),
but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death,
or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labour camp....
He dipped the pen into the ink and then faltered for just a second.
A tremor had gone through his bowels.
To mark the paper was the decisive act.
In small clumsy letters he wrote:
"April 4th, 1984".

To Orwell Today,

Hello :)

I am from Argentina and I found your website while I was looking for information about the symbolic meaning of Winston's diary. I read the article CHESTNUT CAFE & DIARY SYMBOLISM where you say:

     "...The symbolism of Winston's diary is that really it is Orwell's book - "1984" - that is being written because Winston is really Orwell.
     Just as Winston knew that the penalty for writing his diary would be death, so too did Orwell know that the price he'd pay for writing "1984" would be death.
     In Winston's case it was death from the "thought police" whereas in Orwell's case it was death by illness through pushing his body beyond human endurance
     by living in cold, damp, northern Scotland to get the isolation he needed in order to write the book that would tell the world everything he'd learned
     about the secret organization that was planning to rule the world in exactly the way Winston described it in his diary.
     Remember, Winston was writing his diary  to people "in the future or in the past, to a time when thought is free" as a warning and to help them avoid it happening to them.
     So too was Orwell writing his book  to people in the present and in the future (knowing he'd be dead) so that they would read it and be warned...."

I would like to know what are the sources you used to say that Winston's diary refers to Orwell's 1984?

I would appreciate your help because I am writing about the necessity of keeping a journal that people have in extreme situations (like wars) as a way to free them from the pressures they are living. In order to show it I made a comparison between Winston's diary and Rutka's diary (a Jewish girl living in Poland during Hitler's era) pointing to the reasons why they write their diaries and for whom.

Thank you very much. I am looking forward your response.

Warm greetings from Argentina :)
Cecilia Carabajal

Greetings Cecilia,

I am my own source for saying that Winston's diary is symbolic of Orwell's book "1984". In other words, what Winston is writing in his diary is what Orwell is writing in his book.

I came to that conclusion -- ie that Winston's diary is Orwell's book, and that Winston is Orwell in disguise -- after reading several biographies and all of Orwell's other novels and recognizing that the scenarios in his books parallel his own life and that the main character in all his books is Orwell himself during that time period.

For example, in BURMESE DAYS he's Flory, in A CLERGYMAN'S DAUGHTER he's Dorothy, in KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING he's Comstock, in COMING UP FOR AIR he's Bowling and in ANIMAL FARM he's Major. In other words, these books aren't really fiction -- they are in large part Orwell writing about himself and sharing with us his thoughts on a vast variety of subjects.

This idea that Orwell is in all his books is re-inforced by a description of him from the biography WINTRY CONSCIENCE OF A GENERATION by Jeffrey Myers, from which I compiled the article ORWELL'S PERSONA.

An Orwell literary friend and fellow-author, Arthur Koestler, whose book "Darkness at Noon" Orwell had critically reviewed, and who was married to the twin sister of Orwell's good friend Celia Paget, said: "Orwell was exactly like his books".

Your concept as to the therapeutic effects of writing a journal (or diary, blog or website) during stressful times is very interesting and I believe it has strong merit. It's a form of keeping one's sanity, or as Orwell said about himself (and Winston): "He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage."

It's a pleasure to hear from Argentina -- and great to have you as a reader.

All the best,
Jackie Jura, 2012

ORWELL'S CRYPTO-COMMIE LIST (...Celia Paget, whom Orwell loved and trusted, made an important visit [to Orwell in hospital] in April 1949. They sat outside in the horribly damp little wooden hut and ate ghastly tinned peas, and Orwell seemed awfully ill. Celia was then working for the Information Research Department, which had been established by the Labour government's Foreign Office in 1948. Its purpose was 'to devise means to combat Communist propaganda, then engaged in a global and damaging campaign to undermine Western power and influence.'...)

1.Winston's Diary (...The thing that he was about to do was open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labour camp.... He dipped the pen into the ink and then faltered for just a second. A tremor had gone through his bowels. To mark the paper was the decisive act. In small clumsy letters he wrote: "April 4th, 1984"... He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage....)

WHY ORWELL WROTE "1984" ("...I write because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. ...Of late years I have tried to write less picturesquely and more exactly. ANIMAL FARM was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. I hope to write another fairly soon. It is bound to be a failure, every book is a failure, but I do know with some clarity what kind of book I want to write. ..."

ORWELL'S OTHER BOOKS

To Orwell Today,

THANK YOU!!!

:) Cecilia

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

email: orwelltoday@gmail.com
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