Royal Tenenbaum
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America: Write Your Own History
- Thread starter Royal Tenenbaum
- Start date
Atlantic Pacf.
Back from the dead
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In a span of a mere two days, in the dark, wintry nights of January, the world lost two another of its most profound authors. On the 23rd, Italian-American author Luigi Guglielmo died of a heart attack at the age of 73; he was found on the floor of his hotel in New York. It was the first time in nearly twenty-three years; for over two decades, he had been living in exile in Europe, an exile both self-imposed and forced. Previously, on the 21st, the English author George Orwell died after a long battle with tuberculosis, at the premature age of 46. Though antibiotics made tuberculosis a distant memory for most in the developed world, Orwell was infected with a multiple-drug-resistant variety, and tragically he was allergic to all the remaining available drugs.
Ever since they first met in 1934, they had been close friends to one each other. They both shared a vision, a vision of a world free from the exploitation of capitalists yet also free from the dictators and tyrants trying to crush the world under their boot heels in the name of Socialism and Communism. It was a time of massive change: in America, the Browder Administration transformed America into a totalitarian dictatorship; in Germany the rise of Adolf Hitler sealed the fate of millions of Jews, Slavs, and other scorned groups; the Commonwealth of Nations rose out of the former British Empire and the seceded American territories to face the challenges the dictators posed. Though one war had ended, the seeds were sown for a greater, more terrible war. People were confused, trying to make sense out of the situation; both Guglielmo and Orwell were no exception.
Both men led colorful lives. Guglielmo, before he became an author, was a teacher. He was not just a teacher, though; he was determined to prepare his students for a dynamic, ever-changing world. It was because of this that he took up the challenge of becoming the leader of his school's Model United Nations delegation, guiding students who were exploring the complex nature of our world while at the same time discovering their weaknesses and building upon his strengths. Even when he witnessed the infamous UN Shooting of 1921 he persisted. Even after he quit his job and left Europe in 1927 he continued to be an active citizen of the world. At first, his writings focused on the societal aspects politics, but as time went on he grew increasingly critical of the governments and economic systems themselves of the countries around him.
Orwell, too, was a teacher at various places in England, from 1932 to 1934. He spent the earliest days of his adult life being deployed in Burma, at an age when his colleagues were still at university. After returning to England in 1927, he continued to develop his writing skills, and spent a fair bit of time going among the working poor of England, observing their poverty in the wake of the collapse of the British Worker's Commonwealth. He stayed in Paris for two years, where he became a journalist and continued his explorations into the life of the poor. The most dramatic part of his life, of course, began when he joined a group of anarchists in Spain in 1936, fighting off the dictatorial Nazi regime that still holds an iron grip there.
Orwell, as a political commentator, hides nothing when elaborating on his grudges. We can see his trademark social commentary and cynicism in all of his seven novels and three nonfiction books, as well as most of his many articles, poems, and essays. However, they are most apparent in his two most famous novels, Animal Farm and 1984. The former, published shortly after the deposing of the Browder administration in 1945, is but a transparent satire of the dictator's rise to power, with anthropomorphic animals taking the place of the American people, and the Manor Farm taking place of the United States. He documents how a movement that was genuinely created in the name of social change (namely Communism, in the book creatively renamed Animalism) in response to a hell-on-Earth could be turned into a dystopia much worse. The second book depicts a totalitarian nightmare where spying is pervasive, history itself could be rewritten at will, and even thinking the wrong thoughts could wipe out one's existence. While the elements of the book remain theoretical in the Commonwealth, they were and remain a reality for so many people on Earth.
Guglielmo, first of all, was not a very prolific fiction author, having only written three novels and twenty short stories (though like Orwell he had written many an essay and editorial). However, they are all masterpieces; the novels extend for many hundreds of pages and go into very intricate details and machinations, even including bibliographies featuring the latest psychological or historical research. Yet, they remain engaging for readers; all three have sold more than a million copies. Perhaps it is because they relate to people, in their own ways (like how 1984 is for many as well). His first novel, Short Years of Terror, documents the struggles of adolescent girls as they experience the dog-eat-dog world of public secondary school, with its segregated cliques and its permanence of manipulation. The second, A Second From Annihilation, is about a British PM dealing with other world leaders in trying to defuse tensions before they lead to a nuclear apocalypse; in many ways, the characters act as grownup versions of the girls from the first book. His final book, America: 1776-2020, depicts an alternate reality where capitalism reigns supreme; despite being the dream of many oppressed Americans (as opposed to the nightmare 1984 is), Guglielmo still manages to make it a dystopia for the bottom half of the world.
Such writing was and remains the primary tool against the totalitarian dictatorships, regardless of what strip - Communist, Capitalist, Fascist, Theocratic - they wear. Now that two of the most brilliant authors on Earth, two of freedom's most elite foot soldiers, have passed on, the rest of us must carry the torch. We, the people, must ensure that it is a better world, neither a police state like Orwell's Oceania nor a saccharine-covered abyss like Guglielmo's alt-United States, that our children can inherit. A new generation of authors will carry on the fight for liberty, but it is the entirety of the human race that must help them in order to secure victory over the dark forces, to carry out the visions of Orwell and Guglielmo.
Ever since they first met in 1934, they had been close friends to one each other. They both shared a vision, a vision of a world free from the exploitation of capitalists yet also free from the dictators and tyrants trying to crush the world under their boot heels in the name of Socialism and Communism. It was a time of massive change: in America, the Browder Administration transformed America into a totalitarian dictatorship; in Germany the rise of Adolf Hitler sealed the fate of millions of Jews, Slavs, and other scorned groups; the Commonwealth of Nations rose out of the former British Empire and the seceded American territories to face the challenges the dictators posed. Though one war had ended, the seeds were sown for a greater, more terrible war. People were confused, trying to make sense out of the situation; both Guglielmo and Orwell were no exception.
Both men led colorful lives. Guglielmo, before he became an author, was a teacher. He was not just a teacher, though; he was determined to prepare his students for a dynamic, ever-changing world. It was because of this that he took up the challenge of becoming the leader of his school's Model United Nations delegation, guiding students who were exploring the complex nature of our world while at the same time discovering their weaknesses and building upon his strengths. Even when he witnessed the infamous UN Shooting of 1921 he persisted. Even after he quit his job and left Europe in 1927 he continued to be an active citizen of the world. At first, his writings focused on the societal aspects politics, but as time went on he grew increasingly critical of the governments and economic systems themselves of the countries around him.
Orwell, too, was a teacher at various places in England, from 1932 to 1934. He spent the earliest days of his adult life being deployed in Burma, at an age when his colleagues were still at university. After returning to England in 1927, he continued to develop his writing skills, and spent a fair bit of time going among the working poor of England, observing their poverty in the wake of the collapse of the British Worker's Commonwealth. He stayed in Paris for two years, where he became a journalist and continued his explorations into the life of the poor. The most dramatic part of his life, of course, began when he joined a group of anarchists in Spain in 1936, fighting off the dictatorial Nazi regime that still holds an iron grip there.
Orwell, as a political commentator, hides nothing when elaborating on his grudges. We can see his trademark social commentary and cynicism in all of his seven novels and three nonfiction books, as well as most of his many articles, poems, and essays. However, they are most apparent in his two most famous novels, Animal Farm and 1984. The former, published shortly after the deposing of the Browder administration in 1945, is but a transparent satire of the dictator's rise to power, with anthropomorphic animals taking the place of the American people, and the Manor Farm taking place of the United States. He documents how a movement that was genuinely created in the name of social change (namely Communism, in the book creatively renamed Animalism) in response to a hell-on-Earth could be turned into a dystopia much worse. The second book depicts a totalitarian nightmare where spying is pervasive, history itself could be rewritten at will, and even thinking the wrong thoughts could wipe out one's existence. While the elements of the book remain theoretical in the Commonwealth, they were and remain a reality for so many people on Earth.
Guglielmo, first of all, was not a very prolific fiction author, having only written three novels and twenty short stories (though like Orwell he had written many an essay and editorial). However, they are all masterpieces; the novels extend for many hundreds of pages and go into very intricate details and machinations, even including bibliographies featuring the latest psychological or historical research. Yet, they remain engaging for readers; all three have sold more than a million copies. Perhaps it is because they relate to people, in their own ways (like how 1984 is for many as well). His first novel, Short Years of Terror, documents the struggles of adolescent girls as they experience the dog-eat-dog world of public secondary school, with its segregated cliques and its permanence of manipulation. The second, A Second From Annihilation, is about a British PM dealing with other world leaders in trying to defuse tensions before they lead to a nuclear apocalypse; in many ways, the characters act as grownup versions of the girls from the first book. His final book, America: 1776-2020, depicts an alternate reality where capitalism reigns supreme; despite being the dream of many oppressed Americans (as opposed to the nightmare 1984 is), Guglielmo still manages to make it a dystopia for the bottom half of the world.
Such writing was and remains the primary tool against the totalitarian dictatorships, regardless of what strip - Communist, Capitalist, Fascist, Theocratic - they wear. Now that two of the most brilliant authors on Earth, two of freedom's most elite foot soldiers, have passed on, the rest of us must carry the torch. We, the people, must ensure that it is a better world, neither a police state like Orwell's Oceania nor a saccharine-covered abyss like Guglielmo's alt-United States, that our children can inherit. A new generation of authors will carry on the fight for liberty, but it is the entirety of the human race that must help them in order to secure victory over the dark forces, to carry out the visions of Orwell and Guglielmo.
Lord Bigfoot
King
Dwight D. Eisenhower is definitely the man of the hour!
CaterpillarKing
Conqueror of Cacoons
Vincent Hallinan clearly 
Atlantic Pacf.
Back from the dead
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Eisenhower back again!
TheNoob
Dank Memes
Moai_Spammer
Ave, True to Caesar!
Hallinan
Lord Bigfoot
King
Wait why does Hallinan have 4 votes when only 3 people have voted for him so far? I smell a potential scandal!
Royal Tenenbaum
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My vote.
CaterpillarKing
Conqueror of Cacoons
Royal Tenenbaum
Exiled
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Capitalist whiner
The nation is capitalist. Don't start up with this crap again.
CaterpillarKing
Conqueror of Cacoons
I'm not I was kidding. I know it's capitalist. I was joking. Hence the weird green dude with the tongue.
VGL
Deity
Vincent Hallinan clearly.
TheNoob
Dank Memes
I change my vote from Eisenhower to Hallinan
Don't know how I feel about legal prostitution though.
Don't know how I feel about legal prostitution though.
DKVM
Joker
Vincent Hallinan
VGL
Deity
CaterpillarKing
Conqueror of Cacoons
It will happen one way or another. Might as well regulate it. They do in Canada so it's "safer", with transmittable diseases. Also, I love his liberal ideas about abortion and whatnot. He is a true humanitarian.
Also, has there been a limit set on the number of terms yet?
Royal Tenenbaum
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There has not, as the reason it was passed was due to the FDR administration. And well... yeah.. that didn't happen.
VGL
Deity
Nope.no limmits
