As someone who has adored Orwell a great deal in my youth I do have to say that his works are vastly overrated for as far a literally merits go.
They are popular because they offer an easy way to project your own political opinions and biases into them. They are tempting by their simplicity while offering a way to show off how intellectual your are. That thing you don't like? Literally 1984!
Again, I am saying this as someone who has been very fascinated by his works and always will be be. You can like something while recognizing its flaws. Orwell hasn't introduced anything substantial that hasn't been done better by other authors.
Some of the ideas he partially helped popularize like the concept of language shaping how we think has been pseudo-scientific nonsense that is still actively harming society today. Except instead of being applied by authoritarian regimes it is political activists that waste their energy on useless battles trying to police language. The childish idea that we could change society by changing how we speak is just too tempting .
Orwell was also not a great human being but I think it is fine to separate the author from the works.
They are popular because they offer an easy way to project your own political opinions and biases into them. They are tempting by their simplicity while offering a way to show off how intellectual your are. That thing you don't like? Literally 1984!
Again, I am saying this as someone who has been very fascinated by his works and always will be be. You can like something while recognizing its flaws. Orwell hasn't introduced anything substantial that hasn't been done better by other authors.
Some of the ideas he partially helped popularize like the concept of language shaping how we think has been pseudo-scientific nonsense that is still actively harming society today. Except instead of being applied by authoritarian regimes it is political activists that waste their energy on useless battles trying to police language. The childish idea that we could change society by changing how we speak is just too tempting .
Orwell was also not a great human being but I think it is fine to separate the author from the works.