Decency and Julia

Anita Singh at The Telegraph on Orwell’s misogyny:

George Orwell was a “sadistic, misogynistic, homophobic, sometimes violent” man who wrote women out of his story, according to a biographer of his wife.

Anna Funder said that Orwell was a brilliant writer but a complicated man whose personal life was at odds with the “decency” of his writing.

“Decency is such a core Orwellian value. He writes about it. It’s the quality of the ‘proles’ in 1984 that is going to save us. He wanted to be decent, to be seen as decent, by which he meant a man of integrity, the same inside and out,” said Funder.

If that’s what he meant by decency then I think it’s inadequate at best. I always assumed it meant not being a shit – not being sadistic or selfish or ruthless. Not harming other people, in short. I think that matters more than integrity and being the same inside and out.

Wifedom is not the only book this year to reassess Orwell through a feminist lens. Sandra Newman has written Julia, which retells 1984 through the eyes of its main female character.

Newman was invited by the Orwell estate to take on the project. She had “absolutely idolised” the author when younger, having read his political works.  “Then you read his fiction, particularly 1984, and that hatred of women is really extreme,” said Newman.

Decency isn’t enough.

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