Random Thoughts While Re-reading ANIMAL FARM

First off, I promise that this post will contain NO spoilers.

So I decided to re-read ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell this week. I have read this book probably about 3-4 times in the past, but I don’t think that I’ve read it since I was in high school. (Side note: I first read it in eighth grade and then even wrote a paper in ninth, analyzing the book in relation to Communism.)

I had forgotten how short the novel actually is. I did a rough calculation and figured that the book was about 39,000 words. That’s it. That’s like the length of a middle school book.

Part of me was wondering if that was normal back in 1946. But then a part of me was wondering if this was originally supposed to be a short story. At any rate, Orwell managed to pack quite a punch in such a short length (which gave me something to think about when it comes to my own writing).

Speaking of ‘back in the day’, my ANIMAL FARM copy was originally my dad’s book that he picked up when he was a kid back in the 60s. It’s sort of difficult to see in the picture below, but the price tag in the upper right hand corner amuses me.

Do you see that? The book cost 95 cents. Less than a dollar!

It’s an antique! (I’m just kidding. Sort of.)

Anyway…

Despite me not reading this book in a few years, it still fills me with disgust and disbelief at how the pigs (mainly Napoleon, but Squealer certainly helped tremendously) managed to manipulate the animals. And how the other animals went on believing it anyway.

And Boxer’s ultimate demise still tears away at me (no spoilers!).

The most gut-wrenching chapter of them all (and there are only ten chapters) was clearly the last one. As I was reading it, I kept thinking, “No. That did not just happen.”

Looking back from reading this book when I was thirteen (which was not a required reading, by the way; a friend was reading it in her class and recommended it), I think this was really the first novel where it didn’t have some sort of happy ending. Everything just got worse and worse until the animals were right back where they started initially.

It frustrated me back then. Nowadays, when I find myself writing stories, I notice that I typically include some sort of mix; some characters get “happy” endings, but others in the same story don’t.

And I wonder if that is the result of me shedding my child-like thinking while I was growing up, beginning to view the world where some things just aren’t fair.

…How’d I get on the topic of childhood psychology from ANIMAL FARM?

Whatever. Just read the book. It’s a classic.


P.S. I’m sorry for the excess use of parentheses that I included in this post.

Brick Wall

So...I realize that it has been a month since I last posted on this blog. I've come to realize that I'm doing bad in the "post-more-than-once-a-month" department.

It's not that I've forgotten about this blog. I just feel like I have nothing interesting to say. I don't even have a possible topic that I could create a more structured post.

Basically I feel like for the past two weeks, I've hit a brick wall.

Nothing too terribly exciting has happened in my life in the past month.

I mean, I could talk about:

*The music that I've been recently obsessed with (Marina and the Diamonds' new Froot album)
*The most recent book that I finished (BURNING KINGDOMS by Lauren DeStefano)
*The fact that it's now considered spring (I'm happy it's now roughly in the forties and even fifties now, but it has been raining all week long and I hate being out in the rain.)
*my new writing project (I spent the last week and a half brainstorming and I finally started writing yesterday. Don't bother asking me what it's about.)

I don't know. I just feel like I've been in this weird funk lately. Like I've been walking in this cloud of fog for the past couple of weeks and every time I try to do something proactive/useful, I keep hitting this mental brick wall.

How do I overcome this?

By doing something out of the ordinary?? Wait it out? Try something new?

Yeah. I got nothing. Let's just hope that the fog dissipates come next week.


P.S. To reward you for reading this rambling of a small blog post, gaze upon this adorable picture:

I. Want. Him.