Orwell’s problem with Orwell

Or, “ On why ‘Orwellian’ isn’t a thing, being a victim of your success, and the danger of lazy showing off.”

George Orwell is inescapable. The man and his work, justifiably, are an indisputable fact of British life. Animal Farm and Nineteen Eight-Four are on the GCSE and A-Level curriculums respectively, and the terminology of Airstrip One is constantly thrown back and forth by both sides of the political spectrum. Both previously mentioned novels regularly appear on Britain’s most popular novels lists while his work is so well-loved, respected and recognised as intelligent it also appears in the list of novels Brits lie about having read.

As proof of his influence on the world, we have the eponymous adjective “Orwellian”. But not only does that not mean anything anymore, ole’ Orwell — Orwell’s nickname during the Spanish Civil War — would have refuted it.

“We don’t say “Babe: Pig in The City is Orwellian because there is a talking pig in it.”

We might point to the fact both the political Left and Right use it to describe the behaviour of the other as evidence that one or both sides don’t understand what they are saying. If they are opposing forces and ideologies, they can’t both be right…