The Duty to Stand Aside: Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Wartime Quarrel of George Orwell and Alex Comfort Contributor(s): Laursen, Eric (Author) |
|||||||
ISBN: 1849353182 ISBN-13: 9781849353182 Publisher: AK Press
WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD! Click here for our low price guarantee Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: June 2018 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - Literary Criticism | Subjects & Themes - Politics - Political Science | Political Ideologies - Anarchism |
Dewey: 823.912 |
LCCN: 2017957068 |
Physical Information: 0.5" H x 4.9" W x 7.9" L (0.40 lbs) 180 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles - Chronological Period - 1900-1949 |
Features: Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Price on Product |
Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 04/30/2018 |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The Duty to Stand Aside tells the story of one of the most intriguing yet little-known literary-political feuds--and friendships--in 20th-century English literature. It examines the arguments that divided George Orwell, future author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Alex Comfort, poet, biologist, anarchist-pacifist, and future author of the international bestseller The Joy of Sex--during WWII. Orwell maintained that standing aside, or opposing Britain's war against fascism, was "objectively pro-fascist." Comfort argued that intellectuals who did not stand aside and denounce their own government's atrocities--in Britain's case, saturation bombing of civilian population centers--had "sacrificed their responsible attitude to humanity." Later, Comfort and Orwell developed a friendship based on appreciation of each other's work and a common concern about the growing power and penetration of the State--a concern that deeply influenced the writing of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Shortly before his death in 1950, however, Orwell would accuse Comfort of being "anti-British" and "temperamentally pro-totalitarian" in a memo he prepared secretly for the Foreign Office--a fact that Comfort, who died in 2000, never knew. Laursen's book takes a fresh look at the Orwell-Comfort quarrel and the lessons it holds for our very different world--in which war has been replaced by undeclared "conflicts," civilian bombing is even more enthusiastically practiced, and moral choices between two sides are rarely straightforward. |
Contributor Bio(s): Laursen, Eric: - Eric Laursen is an independent journalist, activist, and commentator. He is the author of The People's Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan (AK Press, 2012), a BookList Editor's Choice selection; and co-author of Understanding the Crash (Soft Skull Press, Spring 2010), which tells the story of the 2008 economic meltdown in text-and-graphics format. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including The Nation, The Village Voice, In These Times, Z Magazine, The Indypendent, HuffingtonPost.com, and The Arkansas Review. He is currently writing a biography of Alex Comfort. A graduate of Columbia University, he lives in Buckland, Massachusetts. |
Customer ReviewsSubmit your own review |
To tell a friend about this book, you must Sign In First! |