"The secrecy of your revolt poisons you like a secret disease..."

Why Orwell Matters by Christopher Hitchens
Basic Books, 2002
(New York)

Why should we care about George Orwell?  Why does he matter?  Does he, in the 21st century, have anything pertinent or relevant to show us?  Isn’t Orwell just a crack-pot conspiracy theorist, whose grim outlook on life compelled him to write of a totalitarian, dark future?  Are his ideas of that future not overblown and overly gloomy (to say nothing of accuracy)?

Well, as it turns out, he is mind-bendingly relevant and still an important read for us advanced 21st century humans.  He died over 60 years ago, yet his voice wafts ever eerily to us over the decades, warning us, scolding us, and in a way shaming us:  the type of shame one feels when being told by a healthy person that eating that chocolate bar will make you unhealthy.  It's not that we don't already know this, it's just that more often than not, we succumb to our frailty.  In relation to George Orwell, this frailty involves a linguistic laziness.

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"There was no more talk of doves and pigeons..."

Pilgrim by Timothy Findley

HarperCollins Publishers

1999: Toronto

I have only read one other book by Timothy Findley, and that book is Famous Last Words, which I enjoyed thoroughly.  It is, like Pilgrim, a dark and fantastically mysterious journey that mingles and copulates fact with fiction.  That is not to say that Findley portrays his work as some sort of documentary - far from it.  What it does mean, however, is that the reader is left with an oftentimes plausible alternative reality that is, most times, only fit for the page or the screen (as fortunate or unfortunate as it is).

We actually know quite a great deal about the novel before we open the first page, which to me is quite unfortunate.  I like to delve and discover a novel, which is why I have conflicted opinions on putting writing on the back covers of books.  I think sometimes they tell way too much; in this case, the back cover of Pilgrim told me way too much:  "Ageless.  Sexless.  Deathless.  Timeless.  Pilgrim - the man who has lived throughout human history..."  Those are things I would have loved not to know beforehand.  I digress...

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