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28 August

In 1936, as the Spanish Civil War was raging, George Orwell was sent a letter inviting him to contribute to a forthcoming book called Authors Take Sides On The Spanish War. His reply is is a lesson to us all in how writers should turn down commisions we don't want. "Will you please stop sending me this bloody rubbish", he wrote back. "This is the second or third time I have had it. I am not one of your fashionable pansies like Auden and Spender, I was six months in Spain, most of the time fighting, I have a bullet-hole in me at present and I am not going to write blah about defending democracy or gallant little anybody."

I thought about this stroke of genius today while I was reading a piece by Ian Jack in the Guardian. He was musing on the writers' self-important tendency to imagine that what they jot down actually makes any difference to the outcomes of wars, famines etc. He also noted how easy it is to 'take sides' on something that doesn't require you to do anything yourself.

Perhaps, he suggested, instead of mouthing off about war, writers should try 'taking sides' on giant issues of the day that they can actually help to affect. Like climate change, for example. It's easy to see why they don't though. "Which writers", he asks, "would stand up and be counted on global warming if the symposium were entitled 'Authors take sides on their volvo, their second home, their EasyJet flights to Tuscany and their weekly drive to Waitrose?'"

Which seems a very good question.

Posted by paul at August 28, 2004 05:59 PM

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