Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 8

 Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 8

Bonus: 

READ SO WE DON'T TURN INTO STAR TREK

Summary: Animals forget stuff. Pigs get drunk. We were always at war with East/Eurasia

Commentary: 

The animals saw no reason to disbelieve him, especially as they could no longer remember very clearly what conditions had been like before the Rebellion.

Has it been a week since I said, "being able to read and be aware of history is a crucial defense against totalitarianism" yet? 

This is getting kind of repetitive.

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 7

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 7

Bonus: 

Basically Star Trek

Summary: Orwell really likes the word countenance. Napoleon does the "no, we were always at war with Eurasia" thing. The executions start.

Commentary: These are a lot harder to do when I only mark the book, but don't do chapter summaries. Especially if I read it a couple days ago.

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 6

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 6

Bonus: 

"They were happy in their work." (Not Star Trek)

Summary: Snowball is fully made into a traitor. The animals work on a windmill, but it is sabotaged. 

Commentary:

How are they shoeing the horses? I really feel like the pigs' (?) dexterity is all over the place. Blah, blah, allegory, I guess. 

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 5

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 5

Bonus: 

Even the kids have guns!

Summary: Mollie consorts with humans! She leaves and enjoys herself! Napoleon says the animals should get guns. They turn old Major's skull into Lenin's tomb. 

Commentary:

The whole proletariat must be armed at once with muskets, rifles, cannon and ammunition, and the revival of the old-style citizens’ militia, directed against the workers, must be opposed.

 

I'm a firm believer that you can't be much of a socialist if you're in favor of more than the most minor gun control. Like, maybe registration? Can't let the state usurp the worker's power.

Other than that, we get a bunch more Star Trekking where everyone is mad at Mollie for choosing her human friendly lifestyle and this great quote from Squealer:

He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be? 

Like wanting people not to be bald. Apparently that's all I'm going to harp on this book.

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 4

 Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 4

Bonus: 

Okay, one day off from Star Trek

Summary: Pigeons shit on people FOR THE REVOLUTION!

Commentary: I marked two things in this chapter: pigeon shitting and, "The only good human is a dead one."

Some Fruits of Solitude By William Penn (1682) Part 22: 237-252 (Temporal Happiness)

Some Fruits of Solitude By William Penn (1682) Part 22: 237-252 (Temporal Happiness)

Bonus: 

I am becoming a hat person.

Summary: Don't be greedy.

Commentary:

My copy of Animal Farm is (hopefully) sitting on my desk at work, which is why I've posted fillerish stuff the last few days.

William Penn is a stoic: 240. If thou wouldest be Happy, bring thy Mind to thy Condition, and have an Indifferency for more than what is sufficient.

I don't have a ton to say about this chunk, but I have been kind of seeing the general theme (don't want a ton of stuff, learn to be satisfied with what you have and be a good person) in my life lately. I've been a bit better with my money, and not buying as much random crap. I've sold or donated some stuff to help just get the house less cluttered, and I appreciate it. I did buy some nice hats, but I feel like it's a much more practical use of money than 15 video games I won't play or pocket knives I'll throw in a drawer.

A good hat is really nice. 

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell: Chapter 3

 Chapter 3

Bonus: 

I'm just going to use Star Trek for all of these.

Summary: The pigs kind of try to educate the other animals, but they're mostly too stupid. So instead they just scam/brainwash them. Also, they kidnap some puppies.

Commentary: 

"Everyone worked according to his capacity." I think the vaguely reworded Marxist cliches are my favorite part of this book.

The pigs are clearly lying about not being able to make sugar/syrup, since they're now working on blacksmithing, carpentry, etc. 

The sheep are too dump to learn the Seven Commandments, so they just Newspeak them into: "Four legs good, two legs bad."

Wings count as legs, because they're for moving.

Everyone in this book is either shitty or a moron. Except maybe the grumpy donkey.