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Why the Homage to Orwell?

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Why the Homage to Orwell? Why The Homage to Orwell? by LLOYD EDMONDS One of the most commonly prescribed men and massive military aid from nazi books for students of English literature has Germany and fascist Italy. The troops been George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. marshalled by the government on the various Educational authorities and others present fronts numbered over 600,000. this book, not only as literature, but as the The main countries all played some part in authority on the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. the conflict. •. :ner openly, as in the case of Is this choice justified? And if not, why is it Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union, or promoted in this way? indirectly, or in an underhand way, as in the George Orwell served altogether about four case of the USA, Great Britain and France. months on the Aragon and Teruel fronts in Yet our students get as a definite statement Catalonia. On arrival in Barcelona,‘he enlisted of this Armageddon, a picture of a futile in a unit dominated by Anarchists and POUM- guerrilla skirmish. ists, had a brief excursion into the Aragon hills, fired a few shots, returned to Barcelona and, after a short stay there, returned to London. In the minds of the troops and the people of ' Because of the stalemate that had been the war zones in Central and Southern Spain, reached in the Aragon, he saw little fighting. Barcelona represented an oasis of By a mischance he was nearly killed in May recuperation and recreation where the rigors 1937 when a bullet went through his throat. and austerities of war could be forgotten for a time at least. In Central Spain, on the Madrid front, in Andalusia, in the Asturias, in the Basque The well-being was, of course, relative. country, large armies were locked in combat. Compared with Paris, Barcelona was austere; The insurgent generals, in addition to their in comparison with Madrid, it was the regular troops, recruited over 100,000 Moorish fleshpots. mercenaries in North Africa, and also received Madrid was very nearly isolated. It was WHY THE HOMAGE TO ORWELL? 13 linked by only one route with the rest of Spain. And in comparison with these three, As its food was all brought in on this one road - Orwell’s knowledge of Spain and the war is the Valencia road - the diet of the Madrileno obviously limited and deficient. was meagre and unvarying: salted cod, lentils, Orwell and Hemingway are two leading Mexican chick peas, and ersatz coffee - that figures in the world of letters. Both went to was it. Spain on the side of the Republic. Both wrote For nearly three years the living conditions books about the war and both books deal with of the Madrileno were like that. They suffered the exploits of a guerrilla band. However, while food shortage, actual danger and physical Hemingway’s work is a novel, a piece of restriction to a limited city area. imaginative literature, Orwell’s work is a political memoir. Barcelona was heavily bombed several times, but apart from that it survived the war Hemingway really knew Spain. Before the intact without becoming a battleground. war he had lived in Spain and he appreciated Barcelona had hundreds of square kilometres the Spanish way of life. He held this of farmland surrounding it - all of Catalonia. hispanismo so deeply that, on the defeat of the From it came a constant flow of fresh food. The Republic, he went to Cuba to live. There he many textile and clothing factories of witnessed another revolution. With the victory Barcelona operated throughout the war. Many of Fidel Castro, Hemingway continued to live of these, particularly the self-managing in Cuba, greatly to the satisfaction of the enterprises, had their own purchasing and Cubans. selling agents in France. Through these After May 1937, Orwell returned to England channels were brought food, clothing and to be lionised by the literary establishment. cigarettes, mainly for the employees of the Orwell had gone to Spain for the experience. factories, but some trickled out to the general His immediate and unremitting concern was to population. be a writer. He needed experiences and And of course there was the port. Despite concerns that he could transmute into the blockade, some ships were generally in the literature. harborand consumer goods dribbled through. Orwell kept aloof from his fellow soldiers. He shows no particular liking or interest in the The two cities felt the impact of the war, but individual Spaniard or Catalan who were his in one case it was extreme and in the other, comrades. The history of Catalonia, or of relatively mild. Spain, or the intricacies of the Spanish and Madrid never capitulated. It was betrayed in Catalan political scene were not his concerns. March 1939 by a clique of officers headed by Hemingway, on the contrary was in Spain Colonel Casado. because he was a partisan on the side of the Franco’s troops marched into Barcelona Spanish people. He loved their individualism, early in February 1939 and the city was vigor and distinctiveness. His ear for their surrendered without a shot being fired. conversation and their thoughts is portrayed in his description of the members of the If the two cities are compared for their war guerrilla band. In sharp contrast to Orwell’s records, their devotion to democratic ideals qualified war effort, sense of futility and self­ and constancy to the Republican government, recrimination is Hemingway’s whole-hearted then Madrid deserves the honor and the glory. commitment, optimism and vigor. Truly heroic Madrid! Yet Orwell pays his homage to Catalonia. Hemingway had no doubts. Every talent and There is no lack of material on the Spanish asset he had, he devoted to the cause of the Civil War. On the contrary, a veritable spate of Republic - his writing skills and literary renown, his contacts with influential people, novels, poems, anthologies, histories, pamphlets and films deal directly with the war. his personal income. He risked his life beyond Writers of the eminence of Andre Malraux in the call of his journalistic duties. France, Jose Maria Gironella in Spain and He saw as clearly as did Orwell, cruelty, Ernest Hemingway - to name three from inefficiency and political manoeuvring. But different countries - have written major novels paramount, over-riding these, was the with the Spanish Civil War as the dominant necessity to defeat the resurgent forces of motif. reactionary Spain. 14 AuS I RALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 54 W ar To many people, especially those In contrast to Orwells desultory excursion concerned with the onward march of the in Homage to Catalonia, the band of guerrillas fascist rt^m es, Spain was the scene of over­ in H em ingw ay’s book For Whom the Bell Tolls riding importance in this struggle. has a positive role to play in the war They are part of an offensive by the Republican Army. And it is extraordinary that this struggle They are to blow up a bridge so as to disrupt should so often be presented as a story of one the communications of Franco’s forces - an man's episodic and brief stay in one region of exploit integral to the strategic plan of the Spain It is extraordinary because of the battle Republicans. of the Spanish people against the military coup of Franco, although it had aspects Orwell’s centuria makes its excursion into peculiar to Spain and arising from Spanish the hills of the Aragon with no aim. with no history, was generally regarded as part of the purpose. Its members are apparently actuated defence of democracy against fascism. This by a consciousness of their inactivity in defence became Europe-wide, then world­ Barcelona and by a vague hope that what they wide, with World War II. do may be of some use. Orwell says of himself: “I was sick of the inaction on the Aragon front Why, then, homage to Catalonia? and chiefly conscious that I had not done my It was not Catalonia. The attraction to Orwell share of the fighting. I used to think of the was the Anarchists and their allies, whose base recruiting poster in Barcelona which was Barcelona. demanded accusingly of passers-by ‘What have you done for democracy’ and feel I could Their philosophy, their methods of only answer ‘I have drawn my rations’ .... And, organisation, or lack of organisation, their of course, I wanted to go to Madrid. Everyone more primitive style of life - these are the in the A rm y whatever his political views always factors which appealed to Orwell. A more wanted to go to Madrid.” appropriate title for his book would possibly have been "Homage to Spanish Anarchism”. Why didn’t they go to Madrid? There was nothing to stop them. John Cornford, a The Anarchists figured prominently during communist and a poet who also served with the Spanish Civil War period. It is different the POUM in Barcelona went to Madrid. He today. Summarising from a study of the was killed there. underground workers’ parties in Spain today in an inform ed article in The Economist of When staying in Madrid, Hemingway had a January 28, 1976, the prevailing trend among room at the leading hotel in the city, the the Spanish workers is towards socialism. Of Florida. The main buildings of Madrid were the trade unionists, about half are influenced regularly shelled by Franco’s artillery, among by the communists and a third by the them the Hotel Florida. So Hemingway socialists. The article specifically states “The became a collector of shell fragments.
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