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Petra in Tokyo's Reviews > Animal Farm
Animal Farm
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Amazon's very Orwellian involvement with this book at the end. If Amazon ever partnered Facebook they'd own us.
This is not really a review, but one of those moments where everything that was clear to you suddenly becomes utterly muddied and you really can't say what lies beneath the murky waters although a moment before you were sure you could.
I'm reading Christopher Hitchen's astonishingly percipient and brilliant Arguably: Essays. I read Animal Farm too young to identify the individual animals with actual characters on the stage of communism (the old boar Major is Marx, Farmer Jones is the Tsar, the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, Stalin and Trotsky respectively) so this essay is giving me a lot to think about. So far, nothing more so than this quote (below).
(Background to the quote): A group of Ukrainian and Polish refugees in a displaced persons' camp had discovered sympathetic parallels with their own plight in Orwell's parable and had begged him for permission to translate his almost-totally unknown book. But...
The emotions of the American military authorities in Europe were not so easily touched. They rounded up all the copies of Animal Farm they could find and turned them over to the Red Army to be burned. The alliance between the farmers and the pigs so hauntingly described in the final pages of the novel were still in force.
The book is banned in Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Iran, Kenya and most Arab countries. It is banned in the UAE not because of it's content but because it has anthropomorphic talking pigs which are unIslamic (is this not Orwellian in itself?). It is still censored in Vietnam. These nations wouldn't want ordinary people reading the book and looking at their own ruling porcine elites and seeing any parallels now would they? Who knows what kind of thoughts and actions that might lead to?
Amazon and Animal Farm
On 17 July 2009, Amazon.com withdrew certain Amazon Kindle titles, including Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, from sale, refunded buyers, and remotely deleted items from purchasers' devices after discovering that the publisher lacked rights to publish the titles in question. Notes and annotations for the books made by users on their devices were also deleted. After the move prompted outcry and comparisons to Nineteen Eighty-Four itself, Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener stated that the company is "changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances." However, Amazon does not seem to a guarantee in its ToS that they won't don't this again and I understand that authors have the ability to edit (read 'change') parts of their books. This is because you can't buy a Kindle book, only rent one and Amazon can update (read 'change') them. Wikipedia and other sources
Next step: Fahrenheit 451. Get the firemen out to burn the books, only ebooks allowed where content can be controlled.
Original review 30 Oct 2011, updated several times.
This is not really a review, but one of those moments where everything that was clear to you suddenly becomes utterly muddied and you really can't say what lies beneath the murky waters although a moment before you were sure you could.
I'm reading Christopher Hitchen's astonishingly percipient and brilliant Arguably: Essays. I read Animal Farm too young to identify the individual animals with actual characters on the stage of communism (the old boar Major is Marx, Farmer Jones is the Tsar, the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, Stalin and Trotsky respectively) so this essay is giving me a lot to think about. So far, nothing more so than this quote (below).
(Background to the quote): A group of Ukrainian and Polish refugees in a displaced persons' camp had discovered sympathetic parallels with their own plight in Orwell's parable and had begged him for permission to translate his almost-totally unknown book. But...
The emotions of the American military authorities in Europe were not so easily touched. They rounded up all the copies of Animal Farm they could find and turned them over to the Red Army to be burned. The alliance between the farmers and the pigs so hauntingly described in the final pages of the novel were still in force.
The book is banned in Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Iran, Kenya and most Arab countries. It is banned in the UAE not because of it's content but because it has anthropomorphic talking pigs which are unIslamic (is this not Orwellian in itself?). It is still censored in Vietnam. These nations wouldn't want ordinary people reading the book and looking at their own ruling porcine elites and seeing any parallels now would they? Who knows what kind of thoughts and actions that might lead to?
Amazon and Animal Farm
On 17 July 2009, Amazon.com withdrew certain Amazon Kindle titles, including Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, from sale, refunded buyers, and remotely deleted items from purchasers' devices after discovering that the publisher lacked rights to publish the titles in question. Notes and annotations for the books made by users on their devices were also deleted. After the move prompted outcry and comparisons to Nineteen Eighty-Four itself, Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener stated that the company is "changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances." However, Amazon does not seem to a guarantee in its ToS that they won't don't this again and I understand that authors have the ability to edit (read 'change') parts of their books. This is because you can't buy a Kindle book, only rent one and Amazon can update (read 'change') them. Wikipedia and other sources
Next step: Fahrenheit 451. Get the firemen out to burn the books, only ebooks allowed where content can be controlled.
Original review 30 Oct 2011, updated several times.
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Comments Showing 1-50 of 88 (88 new)
message 1:
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Natalie
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Oct 31, 2011 02:30AM
The Arab Spring?
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Sounds fascinating. On my "to-read" now.
Gayle wrote: "Sounds fascinating. On my "to-read" now."Animal Farm is a very enjoyable book without knowing anything about contemporary politics anyway.
Petra X wrote: "Natalie wrote: "The Arab Spring?"That's just like replacing a Middle White with a Vietnamese Potbelly, same old. I have an Egyptian friend who was educated at Harvard, a modern woman from a mode..."
Totally agreed. The metronome in any revolution always swings from one extreme to another. As seen in the changes from Persia to Iran, or now in Tunisia with the Islamist's winning the first democratic elections etc, etc...
Petra X wrote: "Gayle wrote: "Sounds fascinating. On my "to-read" now."Animal Farm is a very enjoyable book without knowing anything about contemporary politics anyway."
Oh, I was talking about Arguably. Yes, Animal Farm has always been a favorite of mine.
Sorry! Arguably is amazing. Not every essay is brilliant and I don't agree with everything Hitchens says but its definitely one of the best books I've read this year.
I'm finding that we tend to have the same taste in books. (-:
:-) You wanna buy my bookshop?
LOL! Even if I actually had any money to buy a business, I don't do hot weather, which to me is pretty much anything above 20C! I am not a sun person, so the Caribbean does not sound appealing to me. I spent the first half of my life trying to get away from the unbearable heat in the southern U.S., and I spend almost every summer and spring day that I can inside with an air conditioner. Strange, I know. Thanks anyway. (:
I don't like really hot weather either. I can't bear Miami or NY in the summer. But I can't stand cold weather either. I like it nice and warm and breezy (fussy, eh?) I live on the edge of a rainforest and most of the year the temp is around 74 with trade winds blowing most of the day, just lovely. Where do you live?
Excuse me. Book Shop for sale in the Caribbean? How much? Where do I sign?"Ya got to lively up yourself, an don't be no drag."
I live in Philadelphia, PA. Really hot in the summer but it's a rather short season compared to where I grew up on the south coast of TX. I love cold, snow, ice! Crazy I know. Forests are nice, but much more beautiful to me when they have snow in the trees. I guess we're both fussy!
I like snow. I love the cold blue-sky winter days when everything is crisp and makes you feel full of energy. But the reality of the UK, at least, was that those days in winter were rare. Mostly it was grey and cold, often with a bitter wind and endless drizzle, fog, wet sleet and the horizon never lifting to an endless sky, muddy puddles, damp clothes and chilled fingers and toes. I hated that.
"I love the cold blue-sky winter days when everything is crisp and makes you feel full of energy."Ah, yes!
"Mostly it was grey and cold, often with a bitter wind and endless drizzle, fog, wet sleet and the horizon never lifting to an endless sky, muddy puddles, damp clothes and chilled fingers and toes."
Oh, sorry. I'm sure that is difficult if it lasts day after day!
There are quite a few books people read in their teenage years that make way more sense in middle age. Mark Twain's travel writings, novels by Hesse, the list is long, lol.
I don't like Hesse now as much as I did as a teenager though.
This is an interesting review, thank you. I wonder if you had thought of the possibility that this book is less about Communism and Soviet Russia in general and more about the Spanish Civil War?
No I didn't. I presumed that Christopher Hitchens knew for certain that it was about communism. It wouldn't have been like him to just guess especially about a subject as dear to his heart as communism. If it was about the Spanish Civil War, who would the individual pigs be identified as?
Well, that's tricky. I'm not as sure about Animal Farm as I am 1984.The back story is that Arthur Blair, who we know as George Orwell, was one of the "Democratic Socialists" who rushed to Spain to fight. Stalin came in and turned against the Democratic Socialists and eventually, most of them were villainized or run out of Spain.
After the war, Stalin re-wrote the history books to make the Soviets the heroes and the Proles (like Blair) villains in some cases. The Democratic Socialists screamed about what Stalin had done but, this was about the same time as World War II, so, there wasn't a lot of people in the Western The Governments who wanted to raise a stink about it. They needed Stalin and the Soviets to fight Hitler.
Anyway, if it did, the players would remain about the same, though, it might change the focus of the analogical themes. Like I said, I'm more certain that the Spanish Civil war is a factor in 1984 than Animal Farm, yet, I Blair and the rest of the Democratic Socialists took it hard, and there has been some unrest about it well into the 1990s among socialist groups that were involved.
Now, after Spain changed governments back to a more capitalist government, they've released documents that had been classified for 50 years that show the Stalinist revisions actually had re-written history.
Here's a link of you want to know more.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Thank you for the links. Interesting review. I hadn't thought of 1984 as a novel of the Spanish Civil War, but always, looking back that it was forward-looking, on just how prescient it was.
I think the real revelations, came in 1996 and 1998 when Russia and Spain de-classified documents backing up the Proles arguments with factual information. Arthur Blair, Orwell's real name, was a "Prole." The article details how long and hard, the powers that be in the more soviet oriented comunist groups held onto the Stalin lie,and how most governments, the USA and UK for instance, responded by taking action against the Proles (Socialist Democratic Movment members). I find it all facinating, and, I had never heard of any of it until I did a group read of 1984. Reading up on Orwell, leads me to believe that we might want to adjust our thinking of 1984 and, that likely means Animal Farm too. We need a new "Who's who in the zoo." If you'll pardon the expresion.
Since there is a basic simalarity to the rise of most comunist regiemes (Not that Spain would call themselves Comunist under Francisco Franco) leads me to suspect that, rather than bolshevics and menshivics (Communists and Czarists, or those who took over for Czar Nicholas II) we could as easily be talking about the Elected Social Democratic Government in Spain and the Franco Lead, Stalin backed facist movement that eventually took power. Then, turned on the Proles (the Europenan and American Comunist fighters) that had at one time been seen as heroes in the conflict. There is likely the a better likness in Allegory between Franco and Trotsky than Lenin, and Stalin. ... Just a thought.
Blair himself took a bullet wound to the throat and his love of the erra Eileen and he fell out of love.
Just a thought. I'm not sure anyone knows for sure anymore.
Anyway, thank you for not kicking my overblown HWAGs off your thread. (Historical, or maybe Hysterical, depending, Wild Assed Guess).
Informed commentary, whether it agrees or disagrees with my review is very welcome. I'm always up to learn more or see another perspective to a book.Anyway, I only kick trolls off! Everyone else is welcome.
We had to read this for school (no doubt like everyone else) and my English teacher gave us a history lesson so we would know what it meant. But thank you for which each of the pigs were, I couldn't figure out who Napoleon was. That will probably help with the questions!
Good! I hope you do well. (I didn't know myself until I read the Christopher Hitchens book).
I guess I missed this when you first posted it, Petra. Animal Farm was a book thwarted at every turn - hard to get published, copies destroyed by the U.S. to avoid offending the Russians, then later banned in different parts of the U.S. for a variety of reasons, my favorite of which, to add another layer of irony, was that . To "I. Curmudgeon" above, sorry to resurrect this months after your post, but I don't think there is much question that Animal Farm was an allegory for Stalinism in Russia. Orwell was pretty clear about it. The Spanish Civil War, though, was a large influence on his thinking about Stalinism/Communism.
Petra love your reviews, just wanted to correct you on the book not been legally published in Zimbabwe, I'm from there and it was compulsory reading for my English lit class when I was 14..
Taf wrote: "Petra love your reviews, just wanted to correct you on the book not been legally published in Zimbabwe, I'm from there and it was compulsory reading for my English lit class when I was 14.."Thank you.
Thank you :-)
Dear Petra: please consider slight modifications for your last paragraph: I'm living in mainland China and Animal Farm, 1984 and pretty much everything else Orwell is in open circulation in both translated Chinese versions and the original English. Your info there might be a bit old. Also, I think Hitch mentioned in God Is Not Great that the main reason for Islamic countries to ban Animal Farm is actually because the main characters are pigs, which are unclean in their religion. Which is crazy because most of the pigs are the despicable villians, it's not like they're Piglet in Winnie The Pooh; but still, they're banning it because pigs.
I have friends in China who cannot get the book. Can't get many books. I suppose it depends on where you live.When reading non-fiction (like Hitchens) like most people, I might agree with some things and not with others, I don't take what is written in its entirety as the only truth and discount my own opinions and everything else I've read.
A further point, does it matter that the Arabs ban the book because it's about pigs rather than politics? And how do you know for sure anyway? Because 'Hitch' says so? You could be right, but it's not my view. And in any case, the argument is moot because one way or another, the book is banned.
Re: PigsI was merely pointing out another possible reason, I might have worded it in a rather final and arrogant manner, if that's true to you then I'm sorry.
Both reasons of banning are stupid, though. And it proves that the censors never read the thing.
~*~
Re: Availability of Books
It might help if you tell me which province and city your friends are living in. China isn't a country with an over-abundance of libraries and bookstores, I'm afraid, unlike nations like Israel, Germany or Hungary. I live in Qingdao, recently graduated from a university in Taiyuan and visited a very prominent bookstore in Wangfujing, Beijing back in 2010. I bought 1984, Penguin's Orwell Essays and Orwell & Politics in Taiyuan, which is an inland city that has serious air pollution and very few bookstores; there is an abundance of Orwell books in Qingdao bookstores, and at least an entire floor devoted to original foreign editions of books (including the very thick doorstopper that is Penguin Complete Novels of George Orwell) in that Beijing bookstore.
Believe me that when the authorities here want to ban a book they do it thoroughly. Like the stuff written by Li Hongzhi (founder of the F.L.G. cult) or the subversive novel "The Yellow Peril" (supposedly about how China was close to starting WWIII after what happened in June 1989). I saw a copy of the ladder once but it was printed in Traditional Hanzi and smuggled in from Hong Kong.
You sound very interesting. English is obviously your first language but you are living in and educated in China. What are you doing there?
I was born Chinese, but my family moved to Canada in 1993 when I was two, my brother was born in Ottawa in '96 and my mother took us back in late '98 (family upheaval, we'll leave it at that). Hard to say whether Chinese or English is my first language, though, since I was of the age of learning when the move happened. For Spring festival 1994 we visited my maternal grandparents back in Qingdao, one night I struggled to tell grandpa that dinner's ready, but I keep wanting to say it in English, until I blurted out the simple-worded yet impolite Chinese for "Time to eat!". It was a disaster. :)I never went out of the country again after my mother took us three back, although my brother's been going to high school back in Canada since last year because he has the citizenship. I never gave up on honing my English, though, be it reading, watching movies, listening to podcasts or striking up conversations with foreign visitors. About a week ago I helped two tourists hail a taxi after explaining to them that they were too late into the night for any buses to appear. :)
Well, it was an experience all right... :/
Here's a new one for you. The latest troll set up a sock puppet account just to write a long comment. I read the first line or two and then I skipped to the last line and it instructed me that if I didn't like the comment I should just leave it alone - not delete it, comment or anything else. Screw you, you're a troll. Do not tell me what I should do on my own review space. That's like screaming for attention "People, don't pay any attention to this stupid review, READ MY COMMENT, I KNOW BEST." Now you know very well that this would be an unpopular attitude so you don't want any comeback on your real account and set up a sock puppet. Oh dear poor lickle troll. LOL. You have to laugh...
What you said about Amazon and remote deleting, is exactly the reason I do not and will never own a Kindle. That, and the special format so you have to get your books from them.
Interesting and creepy for sure. All this that we purchase now and think we are saving and own is a fantasy. Digital rights managed content protections disallows it. Content owners: meaning the publishers and their unscrupulous lawyers protect and profit and through unethical and greedy deal making have swindled us all into buying a ticket to this house of mirrors. If their deals change or if they go out of business without warning you always loose.
There are ways around DRM. :-) But the day print books, print media dies, is the day truth dies. We will never know... it could even change day to day depending on who is disseminating it and who is in power, political or not. We might even think changing history is the same "improvement" as we think that Disney works on such classic material as Winnie the Pooh where the sarcastic loner Eeyore is turned into a sweet stuffed donkey. Or the Little Mermaid is offered a choice by Hans Christian Anderson either to commit murder or suicide. Disney has her marrying the prince...
Perhaps history and books will be written according to what people like or want to hear.
You gotta love artistic license. One could argue that every story ever was creatively tweaked from the one true first story. Say what?!
Artistic licence is one thing when you are talking about stories. It becomes something else deceptive, manipulative and even evil when it is applied to history.
Petra X wrote: "Petra X There are ways around DRM. :-) But the day print books, print media dies, is the day truth dies. We will never know... it could even change day to day depending on who is disseminating it and who is in power, political or not."And yet, paradoxically, what is put on the internet doesn't go away. With sites like archive.is and others, it's hard to really delete anything. The disseminated nature of the internet means that even if certain servers are taken out, "copies" are maintained in many locations.
There are plenty of pitfalls with all of that. For one thing, the sheer quantity of information can make it hard to see what's real. But it would be harder to put something down the memory hole and expect it to stay gone.
Sarah (Presto agitato) wrote: "There are plenty of pitfalls with all of that. For one thing, the sheer quantity of information can make it hard to see what's real...."That's it really. With multiple versions around it will be difficult to impossible for the average person to find out which is the true one, especially if some government or official body has decided on another version. With paper copies especially since each country has a library containing a first edition of each book published there, it is much easier to go back to the source.
Petra X wrote: "With multiple versions around it will be difficult to impossible for the average person to find out which is the true one"Very true, and because of the way things are linked, a single untrue story may be repeated so many times that its very ubiquity lends undeserved credibility. Points in Wikipedia are meant to have citations, but the citations themselves may be entirely spurious.
China removed. Times have changed, in some ways at least for the better.
Napoleon is Stalin like for sure. I had not thought of the other characters in the terms of actual individuals. That is great, and makes me think about everything again! Thanks Petra.
Ron wrote: "Napoleon is Stalin like for sure. I had not thought of the other characters in the terms of actual individuals. That is great, and makes me think about everything again! ."It did me when I read who they all were. It gives the book another layer of meaning and obviously (even historically) of relevance.
Interesting review but I take exception to the comment that Cuba, Kenya & N. Korea have banned the book to show solidarity with Muslims. Only Kenya of the 3 countries has a sizable Muslim population & their government would most likely ban the book for other reasons. Also, the attempt to market a book that was copyright-protected in a version that is in contravention of that protection is a rather large deal for both publishers & authors, whose revenue & royalties are dependent on such protection. That said, countries have other reasons to prohibit Orwell's books.
Quo wrote: "I take exception to the comment that Cuba, Kenya & N. Korea have banned the book to show solidarity with Muslims. Only Kenya of the 3 countries has a sizable Muslim populatio..."Where did you get that from? I didn't write that at all! The only time I refer to Islam is to do with the UAE which banned it on religious grounds rather than political ones. It is a separate sentence from the other countries. Also you wrote it was "a comment". The only comment referring to the Arab countries and banning is from Christopher Hitchens and does not refer to any country by name.
Please read what I wrote before having a go at me.
