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April 23, 2015
Totalitarianism, however, does not so much promise an age of faith as an age of schizophrenia.
to be corrupted by totalitarianism one does not have to live in a totalitarian country. The mere prevalence of certain ideas can spread a kind of poison that makes one subject after another impossible for literary purposes. Wherever there is an enforced orthodoxy — or even two orthodoxies, as often happens — good writing stops. This was well illustrated by the Spanish civil war. To many English intellectuals the war was a deeply moving experience, but not an experience about which they could write sincerely. There were only two things that you were allowed to say, and both of them were palpable lies: as a result, the war produced acres of print but almost nothing worth reading. George Orwell -- The Prevention of Literature
Posted by gerardvanderleun at April 23, 2015 7:09 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.