Animal Farm

Tumbledown would be remiss if he failed to mention the 61st anniversary of George Orwell's classic farming handbook, first published after a year and a half delay (to satisfy the publisher, and perhaps also some British censors, that Russia would not be unduly offended) in August 1945. It should be some small comfort that the satire is still required reading in the U.S., along with Nineteen Eighty-Four, in many High School and college literature classes. Mostly, with the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, we've exorcised our "communist" demons. But totalitarianism of all sorts is still with us, especially the sort that says "if you are not with us, you are against us" (in the words of The Seven Commandments, "whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy"; "whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend"). In other words, the sort of totalitarianism that gives rise to animal revolutions in the first place is still all too much with us. After all, Eric Blair begins his classic "fairy tale" with Mr. Jones and his last glass of beer, not with the comrade pigs.

Tumbledown thinks we still have a few things to learn from Mr. Orwell's farm--and not just to use a lantern, shut the popholes on the hen-houses, and mow and rake with Boxer and Clover. Some animals are still "more equal than others." Too many farms are still Manor Farm and too many farmers still rulers less-than-entirely great.

Haven't read it in a while? Check out Animal Farm,The 50th Anniversary Edition. And while you are at it, listen to NPR's Day to Day, with Alex Chadwick's tribute to the book, August 17, 2005.