George Orwell, a name every bibliophile, literature fanatic would know about. He's considered as one of the best essayist of all time. I don't disagree. I don't consider myself an expert on Orwell but for me he is indeed one of the best essayist of all time. George Orwell, in his essay 'why I write', writes what are the motives behind writing. Is it fame, money that writers want? Or is it revolution that they want to bring about? Social reformists have written in pamphlets, newspapers about social reforms in history. In 'why I write', Orwell along with the four motives also tells us his reason for writing.
But before we get to that, imagine this -- imagine a world where Charles darwin didn't write 'On The Origin of Species (1859) ' or Albert Einstein didn't write 'Relativity - The Special and General Theory (1916)' or George Washington didn't write ' constitution of the USA ' or Isaac Newton didn't write 'The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687)'. What would have happened if any one of these great men wouldn't have written their discoveries or ideas on a piece of paper? Would the wisdom of great people like Newton have survived? Would the memory of a girl named 'Anne Frank' have survived had she not written? Would we have come to know the most dangerous man of Germany -- 'Hitler' from his perspective? Get this -- people didn't live but their ideas lived for centuries. And how & what made that possible you ask -- writing.
They wrote down ideas, words of wisdom on a piece of paper. Little did they knew that those words would change the world for centuries to come.
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| George Orwell's essay, 'Why I write' |
Now let’s get back to George Orwell’s essay ‘Why I write’. According to Orwell in his words,
“.. there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living.”
According to Orwell, the four motives for writing are:
- Sheer egoism,
- Aesthetic enthusiasm,
- Historical impulse and
- Political purpose
Sheer egoism:
To put it in Orwell’s words,
“Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grownups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc.”
Orwell argues that this characteristic applies to writers to “the whole top crust of humanity” such as scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen.
In my last couple of years I have encountered many people, who are writers. These writers are indeed clever and want themselves to be remembered. But as Orwell argues not all of them are selfish. He writes, after the age of about thirty, “the great mass of human beings”, abandon everything and live for others.
Aesthetic enthusiasm:
To put it In Orwell’s words,
“Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed.”
Historical impulse:
To put in Orwell’s words,
“Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.”
We can easily conclude that people with historical impulse are historians. Historians like Ramachandra Guha, Romila Thapar, Bipan Chandra or William Dalrymple must have historian impulse behind their writing.
Political purpose:
To put in Orwell’s words,
“Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to pushthe world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.”
Orwell also argues that no book is genuinely free from political bias as the opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.
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| George Orwell |
Now, I want to talk about why I write? What is the motive behind my writing? To answer that question I too, like Orwell, have to go into my past. When I was in 4th, I used to write about key issues like women empowerment & poverty. Although I was too young to truly understand these issues my mind just couldn't stop thinking about them. May be it was a side effect of watching people beat their wives on the streets or watch people beg on the streets. But I knew someday, one day, i'm going to do something about it. As Hitler once said:
“If you don’t like the Rule, just follow it, reach at the top and then change the Rule.”
Although I had not thought about changing the rules or dogmas of the society back then, my mind was always filled with these superhero fantasies -- superheroes who would save suppressed women & end poverty. After all these years I know there are no superheroes but I do know that there are super human beings, people who with the help of action can and are doing exactly what I wanted to do.
Anyways, today, I have a better understanding of the world. Today, I can connect the dots. But most importantly, today, I can provide possible solutions to the issues which matter to me. I write or will write from now on to address key issues & provide solutions for them whenever possible. And if for some reason, I can't provide any solutions for the problems, I would love to hear some of your solutions. I want to, to quote Orwell,
“push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.”
I want to write about politics, social reforms etc. and of course I would be politically biased. As Orwell argues,
“..No book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.”
My writing would be politically biased and it is supposed to be. Only time will tell where this journey leads me.
Written by Rishikesh Pande
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