Someone once said that reading my blog was just like having a conversation with me except that they don't get a chance to talk back. To which my wife replied, "And how is that different from any conversation with him?"
Today's "conversation is about George Orwell's book "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" which was made into the movie "A Merry War", which, as is the case with any movie adaptation, left a lot out but also added a few bits.
The one bit added which I liked was when the poet-in-the-garret Gordon Comstock tells his girlfriend Rosemary about a man who lives along the street. He's called Sam the Shoveller. He follows the horses and collects their shit. He sells it to people to make their garden grow. He's happy to sell it and they're happy to buy it. Nobody is under an illusion. They're buying and selling shit.
Why do I tell you all this? Well, because it's so refreshing in today's world where we are surrounded by all those Sams in politics and in the media who are trying to sell us shit while pretending to do otherwise. Which leads me directly to George Orwell's best-known book "Nineteen Eighty-Four" which was written in 1948 but, except for the chocolate rations, could just as easily describe the system we live under today.
If all this is a little too depressing for you, keep watching the full-length movie "A Merry War" while it's still on YouTube.
