Steven wrote: I read that one in A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS.
Definitely worth your finding and reading again. One thing
Orwell does have in common with the hard boiled greats is
that he packs a lot of wallop (or is it whallop?) into a
punch. He uses few words (and seemingly just the right ones)
to express a lot of ideas. The elephant story covers
imperialism, growing up, psychological state of the shooter,
ditto the watchers, and a host of other items in just a few
pages.
*********** I remember how calm and matter-of-fact the
elephant essay was, and I thought, "There's a huge raving
killer elephant loose, dude! Get excited!" I think the Brits
invented the device of calm understatement in the face of all
hell breaking loose, and they've never been equalled.
Rankin's Rebus gets just slightly flustered when he loses his
girlfriend, his best friend is beaten into a coma, his
brother is kidnapped, he's threatened by organized crime, and
he gets thrown off the force. It just don't get no
better.
miker
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