Book Review

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Okay, it's well known that Animal Farm was a 1:1 allegory for the Russian revolution. Old Major is Marx. Napoleon and Snowball are Stalin and Trotsky. Farmer Jones is Czar Nicholas II. Squealer and the sheep are the propagandist, useful-idiots media. The dogs are the secret police. The neighboring farms are western powers and Orwell was concerned about the way they were starting to romanticize the movement as seen towards the end. And it's about as subtle as a hammer on your thumb. In that regard it's a frustrating read because it's so simplified and on the nose that it borders on a children's picture book. If you're looking for the obvious lesson to take away, it's that revolutions born of envy and ignorant violence instead of ideas, faith, and sound philosophy will inevitably substitute one tyranny for another. Another good example is the French revolution which brought about the real Napoleon. But the lesson is boring because it is so obvious.

My mind would wander to things that weren't really a part of the themes. Like the Godless nature of the allegory. People that have no solid grounding in faith are naive enough to put their faith in leaders who themselves are corrupted swiftly after stating all the lofty goals because they have no faith in something higher than themselves either. It's represented well by these characters, though Orwell wouldn't recognize it as he was an atheist. I would also find myself picking things apart that were only partially related or not related at all. Like the exploited worker archetype. Boxer's fate was already spoiled for me since I listen to literary podcasts here and there. I'm blessed to live in a country that doesn't exploit me into poverty and subservience like this. But I found that I related to him on a micro level since I've worked at jobs with bosses that show a shameful lack of appreciation complete disrespect for the most conscientious employees, using them up and spitting them out and it brought back harsh memories. I also couldn't groove with the choice of farming and animals as the vehicle for the message. Men have been stewards of animals since before the Fall and you couldn't sustain a farm without investing a lot of care and maintenance into the livestock. If Farmer Jones' Manor House is the model, it wouldn't be in business long enough for their to be a revolution. Orwell must have been "city folk", lol. Like I said - nothing to do with the themes or story, just where my mind went. However, I will say that the simplicity makes it a very easy read. I finished it in two days. (I could have done it in one if I'd had a little more time.) And for as many names as there are, they're all very easy to remember. Probably because it's so short. 

I do recommend it because it's historically significant. But, I had a hard time finding it intellectually stimulating. Mostly I was just thinking, good for Mollie for getting out early in spite of what it represents and wondering what happened to Snowball. I guess working his assassination in would have been to complex and it didn't happen on the farm. If I had to rate it out of five stars I'd give it three. 

Book Review

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Making of a Legend, Colin Duriez

This one was a gift in my Christmas books. Thank you,... Dawn? I think? It's just a biography of Tolkien focusing on the experiences of his life that definitely did or possibly may have inspired the collective content in his Middle Earth lore. From buildings to people to his experiences in WWI. He had an official biographer who was given all of Tolkien's personal papers and family records and Duriez cites his work often. But I think this is a more condensed biography that follows his journey of writing his magnum opuses. Beginning with the first inspirations in his youth and love of languages, and moving through the most impactful changes in his life like the death of his parents and meeting Edith, who he always thought of as his Lúthien. It describes him bouncing his ideas and stories off the minds of the men in his first club the Tea Club and Barrovian Society formed when he was still a student in college and naturally the interactions of the Inklings. They would hang out together and be each other's beta readers. One of them even got tired of Tolkien's elves and forbid him to offer any more chapters to the group. But Lewis kept him motivated in private. His relationship with C.S. Lewis was of special interest to me, of course. But I was surprised at how crucial Lewis' encouragement was to getting Lord of the Rings completed and published. It details his, even their (his and Lewis') crusade to make the fantasy genre respectable. All of us who enjoy the genre credit Tolkien as the father of it, but it's amazing just how true that statement really is. It tracks his children's involvement with the stories especially Christopher who shared a special understanding of the works enabling him to organize them. But also his daughter Priscilla's involvement by typing up a lot of work for him. And it details his brief interaction with fame after LOTR caught fire in American publication. It wasn't agreeable to him, but he wasn't impolite about it. In the middle is a series of photographs of the different buildings he grew up in and around, colleges he taught at, and the all important Eagle And Child pub. He mentions a lot of places in the book that no longer exist, so these are gems.

It also gives brief summaries of some of his other "fairie stories" along the way and it makes me want to look a few up. I already had purchased his Father Christmas letters he'd written to his children a few years ago and I'm delighted to know there are other outlets of his creativity. So I definitely recommend this little book for fans of The Professor. It's an interesting read.

Book Review

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

What fresh, depressing, dystopian hellscape is this? Oh my. 

I can't remember if this was one of the books on my list because of my desire to give select classics the chance I never gave them when I was growing up or if one of the blurbs about it hooked me in. I'm guessing it's the former because this book embodies everything that frustrates me about science fiction. But, I also found a lot of things charming. 

The beginning is jarring but intriguing as it's a few excursions from Earth as seen from the Martian's POV. After the third I was thinking - you'd think after a jealous husband, a clueless psychologist, and a psychic trap with more men lost each trip that they'd just start sending probes or drones or something. But on the fourth trip all the Martians are dead from chicken pox... because that would totally happen again in any modern era when people understand how diseases work! Aren't western culture white men the worst? Especially Americans?? Don't humans suck??? They do because Earth is on the verge of a planet destroying war (as always.) Shame on us for existing and committing mass genocide. On purpose of course, even though the intent was clearly never there. I get so sick of it... and this is from the 1940s. Maybe it was something to ponder back then, but it's just so old and tired now some 80ish years later. Although, it is a neat coincidence that the story takes place between 1999 and 2026 with the penultimate vignette dated August of 2026 as I'm reading it. Why do some authors want to relish in such pessimistic visions of the future? He even imagined race relations would be the same in the early 21st century as in the decades before the civil rights movement. But I guess nobody back then could have predicted that in the future the demand for racism would far exceed the supply either. 

Anyway, the book charts the course of human progression on Mars over the years from their first expeditions and onward while Earth declines into another nuclear war. And not all the natives are gone at first after the epidemic. There are still a few that turn up here and there and I thought there should have been more stories focused on them. Their psychic abilities and connections were an interesting trait that the author gave them with a lot of creative potential. Not exploring them more was a wasted opportunity in my opinion. The first three little "chapters" were gripping as the humans sent their rockets. Each time they're killed by the Martian's ability to foresee their coming or poor analysis on the part of the Martian psychologist who thought they were part of a mental health challenge suffered by the natives that made their hallucinations real and interactive. Even the madness of Spender in the fourth installment seemed to be influenced by the psychic residue remaining after the aliens have died. That's probably just what I wanted it to be... my interpretation of it, but it fits. And as it progresses there are other, random encounters with the natives. Later on there's the Night Meeting between a young human man and a Martian in which they can see and talk to each other but can't physically interact because they exist in two different planes of time and space, intersecting only briefly in a choice spot. And it's a peaceful meeting. Then there's another of a Martian fated to shape shift in order to find a symbiotic life with humans that fulfills the needs of both parties who is torn apart after being discovered. 

I described these scenes as random because they don't seem to fit with the overarching narrative. Space-time and shape shifting are just one-off phenomena that are never hinted at before or after their occurrences. That's because The Martian Chronicles isn't a structured novel. It's a series of short stories and vignettes that were published in magazines from 1944 to 1950. The general theme is that humans ruin everything they touch, but the stories can be episodic and not necessarily connected. However, there is some continuity as some of the characters from the fourth expedition turn up again like Captain Wilder and a couple of his men towards the end. It's a much needed through-line for it to remain one story. 

And I didn't hate it. There were a couple of stories that I liked and found really funny like Usher II, an homage to Edgar Allen Poe. The premise is as dumb to me as the rest of the theme, but the dark humored tribute to Poe is fantastic, not only borrowing from The Fall of the House of Usher but The Masque of the Red Death, Murders of the Rue Morgue, and The Cask of Amontillado. And I'm always a sucker for a revenge story. 

Another funny one was The Silent Towns where a man believes he's the last person on Mars and after discovering there may be a woman on the planet as well sets out to find her. But when he sees she's fat, unattractive, and has a shallow personality he runs away and is content to just be alone for the rest of his life . I realize that this is probably very offensive in today's culture (as other stories within unboubtedly would be), but I think it's hilarious and I'm not even sorry. 

Then there's the writing itself. One of my complaints about Something Wicked This Way Comes was the way Bradbury leaned too heavily on hyperbole and metaphor to suit my taste, but not here. The writing is intense and hooks you in without sacrificing any necessary details of such short yarns. Even the stories that had me rolling my eyes also had me turning the pages wanting to see the outcome. And, of course, it's another example of science fiction before the science caught up to the fiction which I have a soft spot for. From the landscape and people of Mars to the automated house on earth that does all the domestic chores by itself (just like in the old cartoons!) to the robots. Does it make sense that fully sentient robots with personalities are a thing in this time and yet they still send humans to Mars at first to die and unwittingly spread chicken pox? No. But this contradiction along with a few others is the product of it being a pulp, serial adventure rather than a planned and outlined book. It doesn't ruin the vibe for me. 

I do recommend it. For its "classic" status if nothing else. And the writing talent. And for the variety of stories.... one or two of them are bound to land with different people's tastes.