Lottery Laws Animal

The animals at manor farm are treated appallingly. Their life is one of toil and misery as their food rations are constantly cut. Tested to breaking point they finally snap. They rebel and rise up and finally after considerable violence, force the hated Mister Jones from his land.

The animals are now free, no longer under the domination of humankind, led by the pigs, especially the domineering Napoleon and the more imaginative Snowball.

From now on, life will forever be sweet, with heated accommodation, education, security, good pensions, and ample food for all.

I first read this book 45 years ago at school, and it was indeed this very same copy, that somehow found its way back to me. (Where has that time gone?)

Back then I thought it a rather sweet kid’s story and was only vaguely aware that it held added meanings.

Reading it again today brought those meanings to the fore. Mister Jones is a substitute Czar, Napoleon could be Stalin, and Snowball must be the chased out Trotsky. Boxer the shire horse, loyal to the end, who adopts the slogan “I must work harder”, could be the Soviet people en masse.

Life on Animal Farm steadily grows harder. There is near starvation, and bullying by Napoleon’s specially trained dogs. This leads to show trials and forced confessions and murder, and the parallels go on and on and on.

Then the hated neighbours invade and after brutal battles they are finally defeated. Animal Farm will remain independent, solely for the animals, though things are about to change forever.

This book was written and first published in 1945 and yet it foretells of the total collapse and ruin of the Soviet way of life. One wonders if George Orwell himself would have been surprised at just how accurate his prophesies became. I suspect not.

Animal Farm is only a short book, my copy runs to just 120 pages, but it is a cracking story that continues to throw up twists and surprises. It can be bought for next to no money and be read in a couple of good sittings.

Go on, treat yourself, remind yourself of what a wonderful work this is. As the blurb says: A biting satire on dictatorship. It is that, and much more besides.

JAMES BYRON DEAN

LIFE IMITATES ART

GENERATION NEXT

ANIMAL FARM

FOUR EYES

THESE GO TO ELEVEN

THE ACTOR WAY

FRANK, BILLIE AND JIMMY

ACTING THE PART

DEAD MAN’S CURVE

APOCALYPSE NOW

GIANT

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” – James Dean

JAMES BYRON DEAN

James Dean was born on February 8th, 1931 in Marion, Indiana. His hobbies were writing, painting, bullfighting (when did that happen?), photography, sculpting, car racing, horse racing and playing the bongos. His favorite drink was coffee and his favorite ice cream flavor was coffee and raspberry.

LIFE IMITATES ART

“To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication. Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that’s all you have. Being a good actor isn’t easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I’m done.”

GENERATION NEXT

James Dean’s first professional acting gig was a Pepsi commercial. Since then, Michael Jackson, Cindy Crawford, Michael J. Fox, Shaquille O’Neal, Jeff Gordon, Ray Charles, Billy Crystal, Britney Spears, Beyonce, Shakira, The Osbournes, Faith Hill, Sammy Sosa, Joe Montana, Ken Griffey Jr., Gloria Estafan, Tina Turner and many others have endorsed the blue canned beverage.

BRAD’S CHOICE

Before Pepsi was called Pepsi, it was called “Brad’s Drink” way back in 1898. Well, another Brad, Brad Pitt is now vying for the chance to remake James Dean’s first film, “East of Eden” with Pitt in the starring role. Dean’s performance in “East of Eden” won him an Oscar nomination, making him one of only five actors to receive a nomination from their first screen performances. He was also the only actor in history to receive more than one Oscar nomination posthumously.

ANIMAL FARM

“Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn’t hiss or boo me. I also became close to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty with which this world is endowed.”

FOUR EYES

Dean was required to wear glasses while driving as he was nearsighted. The king of cool, had to wear glasses, if only he had been around long enough to do a public service announcement for that, then being a “four-eyes” would have meant a completely different thing these days.

THESE GO TO ELEVEN

No matter what kind of music James Dean listened to, he liked it LOUD! But what did he listen to? After all it was the early 50′s and Elvis had yet to become the King, the Beatles had yet to become the Fab Four…What did James Dean rock out to, before there was Rock? He liked African Tribal music, Afro-Cuban songs and dance (Dean liked to play the bongos), Classical music – especially Bartok and Stravinsky, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday.

THE ACTOR WAY

“When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn’t acting. It’s following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that. So the director’s task is just that ? to direct, to point the way. Then the actor takes over. And he must be allowed the space, the freedom to express himself in the role. Without that space, an actor is no more than an unthinking robot with a chest-full of push-buttons.”

FRANK, BILLIE AND JIMMY

It has been said that James Dean’s favorite song was Billie Holiday’s “When Your Lover Has Gone” and his favorite album was Frank Sinatra’s “Songs for Young Lovers”.

ACTING THE PART

“An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet. In the short span of his lifetime, an actor must learn all there is to know, experience all there is to experience, or approach that state as closely as possible. He must be superhuman in his efforts to store away in the core of his subconscious everything that he might be called upon to use in the expression of his art.”

DEAD MAN’S CURVE

Dean only made three Hollywood pictures, propelling him into super stardom. As his final film, Giant, was wrapping up in Marfa, Texas, Dean was driving his Porsche Spyder to an auto race in Salinas, California. His car collided with another can outside Cholame, California. James Dean, an American legend, died on September 30th, 1955. The Failure Analysis Associates later re-created all the details of the accident at the same approximate time on September 30th, and concluded that James Dean was traveling 55 to 56 m.p.h. when the fateful accident occurred, thereby proving he had not been speeding, despite the fact that he had received a speeding ticket only two hours before the crash.

APOCALYPSE NOW

“Jim Dean and Elvis were the spokesmen for an entire generation. When I was in acting school in New York, years ago, there was a saying that if Marlon Brando changed the way people acted, then James Dean changed the way people lived. He was the greatest actor who ever lived. He was simply a genius.” – Martin Sheen

GIANT

“Every time I go to Europe, I remember that James Dean never saw Europe, but yet I see his face everywhere. There ?s James Dean, Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe windows of the Champs Elysees, discos in the south of Spain, restaurants in Sweden, t-shirts in Moscow. My life was confused and disoriented for years by his passing. My sense of destiny destroyed the great films he would have directed, the great performances he would have given, the great humanitarian he would have become, and yet, he is the greatest actor and star I have ever known.” – Dennis Hopper

Animal Farm begins on an evening where Mr. Jones-owner of Manor Farm-is heading to bed. As the lights go off in Mr. Jones’ farmhouse, animals gather in the barn to listen to the musings of Old Major, the revered old pig. Old Major reveals to the animals that they have lived under oppression for too long and need to rebel against the rule of men. He teaches them the song “Beasts of England”, which will become the revolutionary anthem. Old Major dies soon after, leaving other pigs to prepare the animals for rebellion.

Of the pigs, Napoleon and Snowball emerge as the two leading figures. They develop a system by which animal should live, appropriately called Animalism. The revolution occurs unexpectedly, but is successful. Mr. Jones and his family are driven from Manor Farm. Napoleon and Snowball alter the name of Manor Farm to Animal Farm and post the seven commandments of Animalism on the barn wall.

Everything seems to be working well on Animal Farm for a while. The animals attend weekly meetings, during which future plans for the farm are discussed. The pigs’ power and influence grow due to the illiteracy of the animals. Snowball attempts to simplify the tenets of Animalism into one maxim: “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Signs of cronyism start to emerge in the plot at this point.

Led by Snowball, the animals fend off an attack by other farmers in what came to be known as the Battle of the Cowshed. The farmers were concerned about the situation at Animal Farm and the militating effect it was having on their animals. Snowball is highly revered and decorated after this event. Napoleon becomes wary of Snowball’s influence and picks his battles with Snowball over farm decisions. Unknown to Snowball, Napoleon raises nine pups to become guard dogs. At the height of the controversy over a windmill, the dogs chase Snowball off the farm.

Squealer becomes the spin doctor and mouthpiece for the pigs on the farm. He spreads false information about Snowball to justify his exile. Napoleon adopts Snowball’s idea to construct the windmill, but claims it as his own-with Squealer’s help. Napoleon pronounces the death sentence on the exiled Snowball after falsely declaring him responsible for the ruin of the windmill after a storm. Snowball is held accountable for all that goes wrong on the farm. Napoleon calls a meeting to identify Snowball’s alleged cohorts. The animals that are made to confess are killed by Napoleon’s dogs, even though Animalism forbade this.

The pigs begin trading with men and drinking the whiskey that they discovered beneath the far house. All of these were against the tenets of Animalism, but Squealer continues to modify the commandments on the barn wall. In winter, the rations for animals, except the pigs, are reduced significantly. The pigs manage to distract the animals from their suffering with pomp and ceremony.

Boxer, the unsophisticated mule who worked ceaselessly for the benefit of the farm, becomes ill. Napoleon announces that they are going to send Boxer for treatment at the hospital. Some of the animals discover that Boxer is being taken to the slaughter-house and there are rumblings of discontent. Squealer manages to pacify the animals by pronouncing that the van just was not repainted after being purchased by the vet.

The end of the novel has Animal Farm being renamed Manor Farm. Astonishingly, the pigs begin to walk on two legs as well. The final modification to the tenets of Animalism is that “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” The pigs begin to act as men and carry whips. They summon a meeting with the men at the neighbouring farms. Some of the animals peek at the gathering and are stunned to realise that they find it difficult to discern between pig and human.