Rob writes: " Around once a week I’d stop by my high school library after class and browse the shelves."
I often remember fondly the first time I spent a portion of HS lunch-hour in the library (as a sophomore). After milling about a bit, I pulled down "Hitler's Spies" by David Kahn. I never checked it out, but over several subsequent visits I did revisit to read various chapters. Thus began the serendipity of a visit to the Library - any Library. Thousands of stories available for a tug off the shelf. Honestly, providence seems to have brought me there, to that point and my subsequent practice of reading. I can't begrudge today's youth their cellies, Tik Tok and game consoles. But, I do admit to a small sadness over a practice of "reading for joy" that probably never really existed at scale for my generation (X). Rob's got me all sentimental, and that my friends is why I subscribe.
Lucid, unsentimental observations, and why we still read Orwell. Reminds me how and why I strove to become part of the bourgeoisie, damned if I ever want to give it up, but will always be an outsider. And what a gift that is.
Oh man you can't go wrong with a post of great Orwell quotes. I'd say a monthly Orwell selection would be great. Meanwhile, that fabulous quote about any life viewed from inside being a series of defeats, what is that from?
Hi Rob, Great observation and really good conclusions!!
You really helped me ...... make sense of my timeline that may become a book.
On the second book it is not time yet but it would be a good book at 45, 55, 65, 75 years old. If you speak real about the interior struggles right in the mist of a successful or recovery or a more balanced then not lifestyle :)
Orwell was really prescient about the culture of his day and now history repeats itself: Technology changes, climate changes, but human nature remains the same. Still, Orwell had his own ingrained prejudices as documented in the book The Orwell Mystique by Daphne Patai.
A keeper, one of your best ever.
You took the words out of my mouth. :)
Rob writes: " Around once a week I’d stop by my high school library after class and browse the shelves."
I often remember fondly the first time I spent a portion of HS lunch-hour in the library (as a sophomore). After milling about a bit, I pulled down "Hitler's Spies" by David Kahn. I never checked it out, but over several subsequent visits I did revisit to read various chapters. Thus began the serendipity of a visit to the Library - any Library. Thousands of stories available for a tug off the shelf. Honestly, providence seems to have brought me there, to that point and my subsequent practice of reading. I can't begrudge today's youth their cellies, Tik Tok and game consoles. But, I do admit to a small sadness over a practice of "reading for joy" that probably never really existed at scale for my generation (X). Rob's got me all sentimental, and that my friends is why I subscribe.
Lucid, unsentimental observations, and why we still read Orwell. Reminds me how and why I strove to become part of the bourgeoisie, damned if I ever want to give it up, but will always be an outsider. And what a gift that is.
Oh man you can't go wrong with a post of great Orwell quotes. I'd say a monthly Orwell selection would be great. Meanwhile, that fabulous quote about any life viewed from inside being a series of defeats, what is that from?
Fantastic!
Hi Rob, Great observation and really good conclusions!!
You really helped me ...... make sense of my timeline that may become a book.
On the second book it is not time yet but it would be a good book at 45, 55, 65, 75 years old. If you speak real about the interior struggles right in the mist of a successful or recovery or a more balanced then not lifestyle :)
Orwell was really prescient about the culture of his day and now history repeats itself: Technology changes, climate changes, but human nature remains the same. Still, Orwell had his own ingrained prejudices as documented in the book The Orwell Mystique by Daphne Patai.