Does anyone NOT like Animal Farm?

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I love it. My mates love it. Even my driver, who's only other reading material is The Sun, loves it. Is there anyone who doesn't?

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Never read it.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't like it. (Though admittedly it's been many years since I read it.) Also don't like 1984 much. I prefer Orwell's nonfiction writing (some of his essays have fantastic sentences, supple and controlled), as well as things like "Down And Out In Paris And London".

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 18:45 (twenty-two years ago)

i'll bet stalin hated it!!

really, though, there's a great essay by hitchens about orwell (which i think was expanded into a book?) where he makes the case that orwell is almost universally loved and somewhat unimpeachably because more than any other 20c writer he embodies basic human decency and dignity. this is truth, i think.

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Somewhere in an essay (or interview snippet) discussing corporate media self-censorship, Noam Chomsky discusses Orwell's never-published-until-recently introduction to Animal Farm, and calls it "one of [Orwell's] worst books." He recommends stuff like Homage To Catalonia (I think) instead. So, that's two people.
Myself, I can't remember much about it from ninth grade, but I like Orwell. When I'm a prof I'm going to make every single one of my students read "Politics and the English Language." Multiple times if possible.

― Phil Christman, Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I love it, he only wrote two really great novels and Animal Farm is one of them.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, I love Animal Farm. It's one of the few books in high school I was forced to read that I actually enjoyed.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 22 January 2004 04:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Animal Farm is great, especially if you read it at the right age. I think it's a perfect introduction to the uses and dangers of power for, say, 13 or 14 year olds. A lot of 20th century history makes more sense after you read it.

1984, on the other hand, bored me silly. Pedantic. After the first 50 pages (which are, OK, pretty cool), I was just like, "Right, I get it," but Orwell went on for another couple hundred pages anyway. I'll take Brave New World any day.

― spittle (spittle), Thursday, 22 January 2004 08:33 (twenty-two years ago)

As a story I like the first and last parts of 1984. The middle seemed never ending.

I'm not sure about the 'politics' of the book, or whether there is any.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 22 January 2004 08:50 (twenty-two years ago)

In a crummy English comprehensive it brightened my day. We had a great (if in retrospect a little cliched) English teacher; CND badge, more left wing than Ryan Giggs, vegetarian. These were dangerous ideas in Essex at the time. She brought Animal Farm to life for us and was full of enthusiasm about how Stalin ruined the perfect plan. I think she was dismantled when the Berlin Wall came down.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Thursday, 22 January 2004 10:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I think she was dismantled

!!!

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 22 January 2004 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been dismantled many times. It's not so bad if you know someone reliable to reassemble you.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 23 January 2004 13:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't particularly care for the book. I do feel that it was a good introduction to Orwell's writing style and do to that exposure, I did enjoy reading "1984."

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Friday, 23 January 2004 16:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Lack of caffeine this morning, I missed my spelling error. I meant "due" not "do."

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Friday, 23 January 2004 16:15 (twenty-two years ago)

A friend of mine had a video of Animal Farm. It wasn't like the book at all...

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 23 January 2004 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyone see the live action American TV version that was on TNT a few years ago? They added a coda to the end where a smiling young family come and buy the farm. I assumed it was supposed to be some comment about American democracy saving the world from dangerous ideology but it pissed me off no end. Unless they were trying to be ironic.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 23 January 2004 16:36 (twenty-two years ago)

It's probably their agents' fault, but let's face it, some animals act better than others.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 23 January 2004 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

All animals act equally, but some more equally than others . . .

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Saturday, 24 January 2004 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

See Martin Amis' 'Money'... or EP Thompson's seminal 'Outside The Whale'.

Not one of his best by any means -- I've never liked it. I need to re-read '1984' which I *did* like aged 13 in order to make up my mind.

But let's be clear about this: Orwell was not the only man to call out the Communist Party on Stalin's regime!

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 26 January 2004 11:22 (twenty-two years ago)

My mum read 'Animal Farm' for a book club that she's part of and was suprised that the others weren't keen on it. One woman said, "I didn't like it...I can't stand science fiction".

― winterland, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 09:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked the cartoon ;) 1984 was rubbish tho, that's the only two Orwells I've read. That said, politics isn't my thang so maybe I should stick to Bill Bryson.

― oorweeberky, Wednesday, 4 February 2004 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

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