The orange under the boot

Press, 28 December 1985, Page 14

The orange under the boot

Orwell: the War Broadcasts. Edited by W. J. West. Duckworth/8.8.C„ 1985. 304 pp. index. $49.95 (Reviewed by Glyn Strange) It was probably best to wait until 1985 to publish this book. So engrossed had our narcissistic age become with 1984 and the book it was named after, it might have seemed perverse to have suggested that there was any way in which Orwell’s work could be viewed, other than as that of a seer and a prophet However, W. J. West’s research in the 8.8. C. archives has shown that there is life for Orwell after 1984, and this book is the fascinating result of that research. Orwell was, from August, 1941, to November, 1943, Talks Producer in the Indian Section of the Eastern Service, helping provide educational programmes for Indian listeners, coupled with war commentaries that were intended to combat the propaganda that was being beamed to the sub-continent by the Nazis. Just before resigning from his post, he wrote to a friend that he felt like “an orange that’s been trodden on by a very dirty boot,” and it therefore might seem that he would have agreed with most subsequent biographers and critics that his broadcasting work was a waste of his time and energy. Soon after resigning, he produced “Animal Farm” and the first draft of “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Was the newly liberated artist celebrating with a burst of creative activity? Perhaps,

but this does not mean that the intervening years should be ignored as being of little value. One of his duties as producer was to adapt works of fiction, usually short stories, for reading over the air. West reprints several scripts, including an adaptation of a story called “The Fox” by Ignazio Silone. A political allegory set in a pig farm, it may have inspired “Animal Farm.” Certainly, adapting stories for broadcast seemed to teach Orwell to construct his own work better, because his post-war novels are much tauter than his pre-war efforts. However, the most interesting of West’s theories, explained in a long introduction, is that there is a relationship between Orwell’s wartime experiences and “Nineteen EightyFour.” He made it clear when he resigned that he had no quarrel with the BJB.C. The “dirty boot” was the powerful propaganda machine, the Ministry of information headed by Brendan Bracken (B.B.).

The clues to a reinterpretation of the novel are clear enough. For Ministry of Information read Ministry of Truth, and for the leader, 8.8., read Big Brother. The wartime Ministry was housed in a building that dominated London’s skyline as the Ministry of Truth’s building towers over the world of the novel, and the former body’s telegraphic address, MINIFORM, may be compared with the Newspeak word of the fictional Ministry, MINITRUE. Orwell certainly chafed under the

restrictions placed on him and his contriubtors by the men from the Ministry. The fact that he did not often agree with the British Government’s Indian policy makes it seem surprising that he was ever offered his job in the first place, and his love of intellectual freedom and of radical views makes it doubly surprising that he lasted as long as he did. His country was fighting totalitarianism, which he hated, but Britain at war was in many ways little different from a totalitarian State. Orwell’s emotions, suppressed while in his job, and never openly avowed, were channelled into his best and most important novel. Did he, editing the news for war broadcasts, feel like Winston Smith altering the past? It seems quite likely. The questions raised in this book should give Orwell scholarship a new lease of life. As well as 16 scripts of programmes produced by him, there are numerous letters, notes and memoranda that were dashed off by him as part of his job. All of the materials are published for the first time, which generates a sense of excitement even though the letters may be rather devoid of interest except for thesis-hunting scholars. One wonders what else might be found in the 8.8. C. archives — but rest assured. Mr West is still beavering away therein, and plans to publish a volume of the war commentaries as well Orwell enthusiasts will await it with high hopes.