This famous essay by the novelist George Orwell discusses the development of his intentions in writing. His conclusion is well known and striking. The political edge, for Orwell, is what allowed him to subsume the weakness that could creep into his works of fiction, such as “purple prose.” His purpose ultimate guided him toward writing the books he wanted to write. The conclusion is:
Looking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it appear as though my motives in writing were wholly public-spirited. I don’t want to leave that as the final impression. All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist or understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane. I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.
George Orwell, Gangrel, No. 4, Summer 194
See the full text (short and highly recommended!) from the George Orwell Foundation here: https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/why-i-write/
This is not to say that all strong writing needs to be explicitly “political” as we usually use the term. The important element of this conclusion, I believe, is to find a voice and story that allows the writer to as Orwell states “efface” one’s own personality. Orwell implies that his writing process succeeds most when he is writing to open understanding for himself and others about conditions larger than his individual experience.
This landmark essay provided the title another famous essay in this list of resources: Joan Didion’s “Why I Write”
Print this page