Homage to George Orwell

Since I am waiting for the line-editing process to unfold for my forthcoming novel, 5th&Hope, clearly, I’ve been watching WAY to much national news!

Let me try to explain.

I graduated from high school in 1984.

Because of the year, and being a bit artistic I’ve always gravitated to George Orwell’s novels, 1984 and Animal Farm.  In middle-school, my teachers used to screen the cartoon film, I cried when the horse met the glue factory.

And I have also loved Ray Bradbury, and in particular, Fahrenheit 451.

As I’ve been lucky enough to age, I have learned to greatly respect the writing craft, and respect Mr. Orwell’s and Mr. Bradbury’s brilliance.

They wrote stories that on the surface appeared obvious, but were actually quite politically on-point.

In truth, my second novel, Fishing for Light was in part my homage to George Orwell. I wrote the story ten years ago…

Now, I’m not even in the same writing universe with either Mr. Orwell or Mr. Bradbury.

I think I’m a rational person, so I’m not Kanye West. (Kanye’s quite talented, he just seems, well – unhinged, you get my point.)

I would describe my writing philosophy along the lines of – write in a simple, a minimalist style, but try to dive deep. In a way, it’s like looking at a Salvador Dali painting, it might seem wacky – but in reality the artist was quite serious.

I’ll give you an example what I mean from a review for Fishing for Light.

“It was funny, in an over the top kind of way. I mean it’s got the IRS, genetic monsters, and the Hope Diamond! … I did enjoy the hyped up war between a father and a daughter. His genetically modified, evil daughter! It’s got a lot of funny situations, and a lot of great characters. … I laughed quite a bit, and I was entertained, I think the author did a great job of taking what we would usually expect and twisting it around a bit. I think overall, for a satire lover, this book would be a home run, …”

Yeah, I’ve kept that review around to read from time to time.

After all, writing by its very nature is a singular effort, some days you need some encouragement. And yes, I’ve kept my day job – that I equally enjoy.

The basic premise behind Fishing for Light was Professor Quan had accidentally created Ms. Prosperina. She was formed from a genetic starter he created that, included Nazi DNA, and a few other nasty genetic critters.

By the way, in the story, I even had a Caitlyn Jenner like character, but that’s a story for another day.

In the story, Ms. Prosperina was a chimera. What’s that?

The pasted photo comes from Britannica.com, and that’s a chimera. Or, as defined from Encyclopedia Brittanica, “a fire-breathing female monster resembling a lion in the forepart, a goat in the middle, and a dragon behind.”

But remember, I wrote the novel in part as a homage to George Orwell.

Mr. Prosperina was my representation for an out of control United States government – Lion, Goat and a Dragon. I’ll let you figure out which branch would be which – Executive, Legistative and Judicial.

But she also represented the sinister billionaires that seek to control the pet population – that would be the rest of us through money and influence. And I note, the middle-class continues to shrink, but the really rich are getting really rich. The poor continue to get screwed in place.

At the time my thoughts were more about George Soros, but over the years I would add the Koch brothers and several others. Simply stated, I don’t trust any of them.

Orwellian words:

Political Career,

Reality Television Star,

Revenues are Taxes?

(If that were true, the federal government would not be in bankruptcy, they’d already be in the liquidation process.)

IF, George Orwell were brought back from the dead, maybe had a few minutes to watch the television, we explained what he was watching, I suspect he’d shrug, light a cigarette, and say something along the lines, “well, told ya so.”

I’m sensing the desire to restart writing my follow-up to Fishing for Light – I’ve given it a working title:

Caste into Darkness.

NS