George Orwell
Decline of the English Murder and other essays
Interesting collection of essays by Orwell where you get to know him and where he's coming from a little better. I never tend to intellectualise books, or music, or art, but I can see why people do and this is it. A range of subject matter from the newspaper's coverage of crime through to saucy picture postcards and on to various artists. There's long interludes critiquing Kipling and Dickens which are less interesting in their own right rather than Orwell's view of them and supposedly the view of the liberal educated classes (as Orwell would identify them) around the time of WWII. Reading this whilst reading Kate Tempest did make me analyse the latter a bit more (see review) but not whilst actually reading it. I'm not sure that overthinking the themes of a book is good for you if you then miss the feel of it for looking for deep meaning in every line. As Orwell identifies, Dickens can stray from the plot a great deal and delve into irrelevant detail at times. But if it's enjoyable to read so what as the Anti Nowhere League once said. And I doubt they spent a lot of time angsting about whether their lyrics were meaningful. Just listen to So What. They sounded bloody good though back in the day. Must update Kate T blog so you's know why it was such an intellectual write up.
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