THE HONORS KEEP ROLLING IN :

The Internationalist : Christopher Hitchens on George Orwell (LA Weekly Literary Supplement, May 3 - 9, 2002)

[H]aving confronted the world with little except a battered typewriter and a certain resilience, he can now take posthumous credit for having got the three great questions of the 20th century essentially "right." Orwell was an early and consistent foe of European imperialism and foresaw the end of colonial rule. He was one of the first to volunteer to bear arms against fascism and Nazism in Spain. And, while soldiering in Catalonia, he saw through the biggest and most seductive lie of them all -- the false promise of a radiant future offered by the intellectual underlings of Stalinism. As he once wrote of Kipling, his own enduring influence can be measured by the number of terms and phrases -- Doublethink; Thought Police; "Some animals are more equal than others" -- that he embedded in our language and in our minds.

Mr. Orwell, besides this lovely tribute from Mr. Hitchens, was named one of the Brothers Judd Top Ten Cultural Figures of the 20th Century. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 3, 2002 1:38 PM