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As an author and a teacher of literature I believe in one simple truth when it comes to the meaning of all literature: authors should keep their mouths shut when it comes to the "meaning" of their work.

Now to be fair to Mr. Orwell, I understand that his declaration of Animal Farm as an allegory for the Russian Revolution was in a letter to French author and translator Yvonne Davet. It was a private correspondence, so it's not like he posted his 240 characters on Twitter or went on a late night talk show and shared his thoughts with a Jimmy or started a "Here's what my books mean" YouTube channel. He wrote a letter to a friend / colleague and his words have since escaped to all the world. Even so, I wish that letter had been burned before the rest of us caught wind of Orwell's official intentions.

It is, you see, a giant impediment to understanding the breadth of Animal Farm. Yes the Russian Revolution is there. It's impossible to miss, and we all would have seen its presence without Orwell's epistolary confirmation (especially those of us familiar with the October Revolution). The problem is that too many people (students I have taught, folks I've argued with in bars, leftover '80s Cold Warriors, my Dad) hear USSR, stop at USSR, then sum it all up with "Communism is bad! See ... Orwell said so," and all too often these same fucktards add, "Communism bad! Capitalism Good!" like the oblivious little sheep they are.

That isn't what Orwell was ultimately saying, no matter what he said in his letter to Ms. Davet. Though he found inspiration in the Russian Revolution and what Stalinism eventually did to derail Marxism in the Soviet Union, Animal Farm -- as a work of literature -- goes for something more fundamental: the story reveals the overwhelming drive to obtain and maintain power and how each and every one of us is responsible for whatever system springs up to oppress others or ourselves.

Animal Farm = Responsibility. It is as simple and as complicated as that.