At the moment I have three books on the go. After reading Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier for the Literary Journalism course I have been inspired to read more of his work. I read Animal Farm when I was still at school and 1984 while working on a kibbutz in the early 1970's. His name came up in the Brittania to the Beatles history unit that I studied last year and so I was glad to get the chance to study him in more detail this semester. His use of language is stunning. His style is 'plain English prose' and in an essay entitled; 'Politics and the English Language' (1946), he gives some examples of bad ugly and incomprehensible writing of the kind found in academia and politics and some sound advice on how to write clearly: He suggests asking yourself several questions when it comes to writing - 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it. 3. What image or idiom will make it clear. 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? 5. Could I put it more shortly? 6. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly? Having applied these questions to his own writing what emerges is a style of clarity and beauty of language. So to further my study of his writing I am currently reading, Coming up for Air. Even though he was writing before the second world war much of his writing is still relevant. Even then his narrator is harking back to the 'good old days' before the WW1. It is inspiring me to do some blogging about childhood memories of growing up in rural England in the 50's and 60's.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is having the effect of allowing me to see the strange madness of the world. The other morning on my morning walk with Freddie the Dog the world seemed like a Mad Hatters Tea Party at full throttle - and I was a part of its dazzling insanity.
My final book is a real treasure. I found it in Bill Campbell's Secondhand Bookshop on High Street. A slim volume with a brown cover, it could easily be overlooked. The title is Bodhinyana: Teachings of Ven. Ajahn Chah. I read this book over and over again as it is full of incredibly simple wisdom. It provides the inspiration to practice and spend time out from the Mad Hatters Tea Party of worldly concerns.
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I've sat with students of Ajahn Chah and was struck by their obvious devotion to him. Even after he'd had a stroke and could no longer talk he was still venerated. He must have been a remarkable man and an outstanding teacher.
yes, even from the book he radiates clear, simple, pure wisdom and is teaching me heaps. The transcribed talks are from the late 1970's.
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