28. What Would Orwell Say? (TIME July 7, 2003)
More than 50 years after his death, we still miss his keen eye and analysis by Michael Elliott
28-1-117
If you are a writer on contemporary events and aspire to immortality, you had better have something special in your pen. George Orwell, whose centenary was celebrated last week, had honesty and clarity of expression. Combined, they enabled a man who was almost sick to produce a body of work--essays, reviews, novels like Animal Farm and 1984--that will illumine the next generation's understanding of the world as much as it did those of the past two.
Orwell, who died in 1950, never shrank from the big stuff. 'The three great subjects of the twentieth century were imperialism, fascism and Stalinism,' writes Christopher Hitchens in his wonderful book Why Orwell Matters. Those were Orwell's topics, and he was right on all of them: able to pierce the hypocrisy of imperial adventures, to warn of the deathly appeal of fascism, and--when many were in thrall to the supposed achievements of the Soviet Union--to state badly that Stalin was a 'disgusting murderer.' It is because Orwell was unflinching in his opposition to all the totalitarianisms of the past century that he was such a bewildering range of acolytes--liberals unable to stomach the idea that one race should lord it over another, socialists for whom his willingness to fight fascism in Spain is an inspiration, conservatives who are certain that had he lived, he would have become a true cold warrior, determined to roll back communism wherever its poisoned shoots took root.
A. 어휘
keen 예리한. analysis 분석. contemporary 當代(당대)의, 동시대의.
aspire 열망하다. immortality 불멸, 不朽(불후).
had better+동사원형(V)→...하는 것이 좋다. centenary 100년 기념일, 100년祭(제).
celebrate ...을 기념하다. clarity 명쾌, 明瞭(명료). illumine 밝혀주다, 계몽하다.
the past two=the past two generations. shrink-shrank-shrunk(shrunken) 움츠리다.
stuff 주제, 재료, 물건, 특성, 작품. subject 주제. imperialism 제국주의.
matter 중요하다. pierce 관통하다. hypocrisy 僞善(위선). appeal 힘, 매력, 간청, 호소.
thrall 노예, 속박. in thrall to ...에 사로잡히다. supposed 가정되는, 상상되는.
badly 지독히, 나쁘게. disgusting 역겨운, 정나미가 떨어지는. unflinching 굽히지 않는.
totalitarianism 전체주의. bewildering 당황하게 하는.
acolyte 沙彌僧(사미승), 侍僧(시승), 從者(종자). liberal 자유주의자.
stomach 소화하다. race 인종. lord over 안하무인으로 뻐기다.
willingness 기꺼이 하기, 자진해서 하기. inspiration 靈感(영감).
conservative 보수주의자. warrior 戰士(전사), 병사. roll back 물리치다.
shoot 새싹.
B. 구문
- combined, they enabled . . . a body of work.
cf. combined→being combined→ when they were combined
[정직성과 명료성이 결합하여 거의 환자가 된 사람으로 하여금 一群(일군)의 작품을 생산할 수 있게하였다.]
- did→ illumined
- It is because Orwell was . . . poisoned shoots took root.
cf. 가정법과거완료 도치구문→had+S+pp.
had he lived→If he had lived
ex. If I had had much time, I would have enjoyed the drama.
→Had I had much time, I would have enjoyed the drama.
[Orwell 이-- 한 민족이 다른 민족을 지배하는 것을 당연시하는 사상을 소화시킬 수 없는 자유주의자들, 스페인에서 파시스트와 싸우는 데 영감이 되었던 사회주의자들, 그가 살았더라면 공산주의가 독이 오른 새싹을 뿌리를 내리는 곳은 어디에서든지 공산주의를 쫓아내기로 결심한 냉철한 戰士(전사)가 되었을 것이라고 확신하는 보수주의자들과 같은 --그토록 놀랍도록 다양한 범위에 드는 인물이 되었던 것은 그가 지난 세기(20세기)의 모든 전체주의주의(제국주의, 파시즘, 공산주의 등)에 대해서 줄기차게 반대하였기 때문이다.]
28-2-118
I wish he were with us now; our times cry out for someone with Orwell's gifts of clear-eyed observation and analysis. What would he have thought, I wonder, of American policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, which uses essentially imperialist means to defeat fascist regimes and rebuild nations ravaged by them? Orwell was not a pacifist. He had lived long enough among the poor in Britain and France to understand the inequities of the liberal democracies, but he had a splendid contempt for those unwilling to defend them against a greater evil. If he believed that rogue states or radical Islamic terrorists had the means and motive to threaten Western lives and liberties, he would surely have supported the use of armed force to eradicate the danger.
At the same time, Orwell might have doubted the wisdom of some current policies--the willingness to speckle the Islamic world with American garrisons or award contracts for the reconstruction of wrecked nations to favored companies. His loathing of imperialism was visceral, because he knew, first-hand, what it meant. In the 1920s Orwell had served in the imperial police in Burma, then a British colony, and the experience left him with an almost physical hatred for the behavior--in fact, the very language and look--of the imperialist class. Last week I reread Burmese Days, Orwell's 1934 novel based on his time in Asia. It is not a great book--as a novelist, Orwell had less depth than his near contemporaries, Graham Greene and Anthony Powell--but it is bleakly unsettling, as page after page of racism and cruelty leaves you feeling in need of a shower.
A. 어휘
cry out 크게 외치다. gifts 재능. observation 관찰. means 수단.
defeat ...에 승리하다, 타도하다. regime 政權(정권). ravage 황폐화시키다, 파괴하다.
pacifist 평화주의자. inequity 불공평. liberal democracies 자유민주주의 국가들.
splendid 대단한, 걸출한, 탁월한. contempt 경멸. rogue 악당, 사기꾼.
rogue state 악당의 나라. radical 급진적인, 과격한, 근본의, 기초적인.
Western lives and liberties 서구자유민주주의 나라의 생명과 자유.
eradicate 근절하다, 撲滅(박멸)하다. current 현재의. speckle 얼룩덜룩하게 하다, 반점.
garrison 駐屯軍(주둔군), 경비대. award 상품, 상. award contract 특혜계약.
wrecked nations 난파된 나라. favored companies 특혜를 받는 회사.
loathing 嫌惡(혐오). visceral 內臟(내장)의, 감정적인. first-hand 직접, 바로.
contemporaries 동시대의 작가들. bleak 황량한, 매섭게 찬, 쓸쓸한.
racism 인종차별정책, 민족적 우월감. cruelty 잔인성. shower 소낙비.
B. 구문
- I wish he were with us now. (가정법 과거)
=I am sorry that he is not here.
- them→ the liberal democracies
- he would surely have supported . . .armed force
cf. would+have+pp.→...를 하였을 것이다.
[그는 군사력의 활용을 확실히 지지하였을 것이다.]
What Would Orwell Say? ①
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