Tuesday, July 03, 2007

An Orwell Quote

George Orwell about the situation now, speaking in 1944, as reprinted on page 186 of the excellent book, Orwell in Tribune compiled by Paul Anderson:

"Laissez-faire capitalism is passing away, and the independent status of the artist must necessarily disappear with it. He must become either a spare-time amateur or an official. You see what has happened to the arts in totalitarian countries, and when you see the same thing happening here in a more veiled way through the MOI, the BBC and the film companies-- organizations not only buy up promising young writers and geld them and set them to work like cab horses, but manage to rob literary creation of its individual character and turn it into a sort of conveyor-belt process-- the prospects are not encouraging."

1 comment:

FDW said...

Wright on ! The moral of the blurb then is to call a spade a spade. Get some laizze faire capitalism goin' on in the "ruins", in the culture underground, like the real pirate communities did. Learn from the true socialiste where some real greats like Yeats, Paz, Neruda, Cardenal, countless others even now (which we doan hear about in Kapitalland. Now.!)who where full time writers/poets and full time officials!