sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

August 17, 2005


animal farm
posted by soe 1:08 am

George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm turns 60 today.

I picked Animal Farm up off my parents’ book shelves in the living room when I was 10 or so. I don’t remember ever being told I couldn’t read things off their shelves, but I believe this marked the first occasion where I availed myself of the option. (It wasn’t until after my freshman year English class at Conn when three of us shared a copy of a tale of Giants in the Earth that I discovered my mother’s college copy on the shelf. Come to think of it, maybe I should read it now, since I’m pretty sure I didn’t have time to finish it before I wrote the paper.)

I’m sure I wasn’t expecting an allegory when I started and I’m sure I missed much of the undercurrent of the book (not being up on facism or socialist ideals in the fourth grade), but I do know that I understood a certain amount of the intended message. And I remember having a conversation with Dad about it while we were doing dishes one night (although I don’t recall what we talked about — 1984, perhaps, given that it would have been around that time?).

So, if you haven’t read it, do. From what I remember, it features pigs — of all sorts.

And if you have read it, feel free to do what I’m going to do at some point — see if you can track down the 1999 live-action made-for-tv movie voiced by Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammar, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Ian Holm (of LOTR fame), among others.

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good for knitting projects
posted by soe 12:40 am

Interestingly enough, sitting in a hosptial waiting room, while waiting for someone who is not too seriously injured and when there are no bloody patients being wheeled through, is very productive for knitting. Do you think Georgetown University Hospital would mind if I came back next week and brought my knitting then, too?

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