This morning all surfaces, even indoors, damp as a result of mist. A curious deposit all over my snuff-box, evidently residue of moisture acting on lacquer.
Very hot, but rain in afternoon.
Am told the men caught another snake this morning – definitely a grass snake this time. The man who saw them said they had tied a string round its neck & were trying to cut out its tongue with a knife, the idea being that after this it could not “sting.”¹
The first Beauty of Bath apples today.
¹See note 2, August 9 1938.
August 11, 2008 at 7:43 am
Again with the weather.
August 11, 2008 at 9:35 am
If this weren’t 70 years ago, I would charge them with animal cruelty!
>:)
August 11, 2008 at 9:39 am
looks more like the lewis and clark journals… so far :-D
August 11, 2008 at 9:42 am
Congratulations on this excellent idea. I am not sure that Orwell would have bothered with links, though ;-)
http://benevolencia.blogspot.com/2008/08/george-orwell-abre-su-propio-blog.html
August 11, 2008 at 10:09 am
“A novelist who simply disregards the major public events of the moment is generally either a footler or a plain idiot”. This comes from “Inside the Whale”, an essay by Orwell on Henry Miller, published in 1945. I guess we all would like that the Orwell’s diary developed along such lines, but, for one, perhaps this really is a true personal diary not intended for publication, and, secondly, we are as yet in the initial stages. I guess we should be patient and brave the weather… and the snakes.
August 11, 2008 at 10:34 am
WordPress is malleable enough to put the original written date right above or below the repost date. It would be nice to have a quick reference on all the entries in a consistent place.
August 11, 2008 at 11:03 am
Great that a 70 years long distance look like nothing because of the postmodern reactions made here. Linking “mist” with Radiohead or the Olympic Games, for example. I admire the links to Googlemaps too.
August 11, 2008 at 11:27 am
A Non-postmodern reaction:
“A curious deposit all over my snuff-box, evidently residue of moisture acting on lacquer.”
Clearly shows his critical intelligence.
Note: We could all have lost faith in the man if he’d written, “Crappy stuff all over snuff box.”
Snuff? Hmmm…
~ Alex
August 11, 2008 at 1:45 pm
[...] August 11, 1938, George Orwell wrote: This morning all surfaces, even indoors, damp as a result of mist. A curious [...]
August 11, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Beauty of Bath are not particularly special eating apples, but obvioulsy worth looking forward to for their early cropping, what with being early august still.
August 11, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I would have called police on the people hurting that snake. Indeed a case of animal cruelity. :(
August 11, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Re: the notion that snakes could sting with their tongues: Orwell was apparently fond of collecting myths about animals. An example would be the commonly-held belief that a swan could break a man’s arm with one blow from its wing.
I suppose “the men” to whom Orwell refers were employees of Preston Hall, the Kent sanatorium at which G.O. was then convalescing. Michael Sheldon, in his biography of Orwell, writes that Preston Hall was located on the former estate of a nineteenth-century railroad magnate. The sanatorium was established by the British Legion in 1925 for military veterans; the management seems to have admitted Orwell primarily because his brother-in-law was one of the consulting doctors at the institution. (Sheldon, ORWELL: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY [London: Minerva, 1992], 318.)
August 11, 2008 at 4:49 pm
@David Nichols – you had Orwell’s *coming Up For Air* in mind (published June 12, 1939). One of his best, btw.
“According to Mother…. All animals were dangerous, except Nailer, the two cats, and Jackie the bullfinch. Every animal had its special recognised methods of attacking you. Horses bit, bats got into your hair, earwigs got into your ears, swans broke your leg with a blow of their wings, bulls tossed you, and snakes “stung”. All snakes stung, according to Mother, and when I quoted the penny encyclopedia to the effect that they didn’t sting but bit, she only told me not to answer back.”
August 11, 2008 at 5:05 pm
@Bonnie: Thank you for the reference to Coming Up for Air (a title which I found remarkably difficult to get hold of when I went looking for it ten years ago). I believe Orwell reprinted some of these myths in one of his later essays, but this appears to be the most complete list.
August 11, 2008 at 5:35 pm
[...] George: Good to hear from you. No mist here, but some rain. Windows closed, so no mist inside. But I do wonder what kind of snuff-box you’re using and whether I should be using one. Surfaces of desk are laden with books and papers. On deadline and all. Also damned lazy. What have you been reading these days? Can you at least spill this much to us? Not as hot here as it was last week. There was rain in the morning and there may be rain in the afternoon. The super here cowers at grass snakes, doubt he has even seen one, but is braver when it comes to catching mice and cockroaches. Even though he seems to leave these duties to the tenants. I wonder what you’d think of the early 21st century American class system. Suspect there’s some beauty here in New York, although there are many glum faces. Spoke to a man in the elevator yesterday. Both of us agreed that it was the economy that was making it hard for both of us, but we planned to carry on surviving. Georgia’s on my mind. Saved a cabbie last night from a possible accident when I shouted at him to turn on his lights as he was driving. Was he absent-minded or as glum as the guy in the elevator? You tell me, George. By now, I suspect you may be coming up for air. [...]
August 11, 2008 at 5:50 pm
“A curious deposit all over my snuff-box, evidently residue of moisture acting on lacquer.”
His snuff box was probably finished in shellac, an alcohol dissolved finish. Moisture does often cause a whitish blush to form under the surface, which doesn’t easily rub off. Probably a lot of his things were not made well for his new environment.
August 11, 2008 at 6:21 pm
It seems to me that any snake not deft enough to escape the clutches of a mob of asylum inmates deserves to be toyed with.
:shock:
The yellow moon sparkles as it refracts through the glistening (polluted) condensation desecrating the lacquer snuff box—while this atrocity is permitted to occur, so-called “men” chase “stinging” snakes.
August 11, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Would love to see the post date reflect the year. I can do the math, but it would feel more legit. Does anybody there know how to “hack” wordpress so it appears to be the date authored?
August 11, 2008 at 8:10 pm
[...] finally, I kind of remembered that Orwell’s diaries are finally up. It’s in blog form, remember, and so far it’s boring. But you get to [...]
August 11, 2008 at 8:25 pm
He must live near the swampy area. Still, I feel sorry for the snuffed out snakes…
August 11, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I’d like to listen someone reciting this piece. Anyone into drama around here?
August 11, 2008 at 9:20 pm
There are many snakes out there. I am certain Mr. Orwell
would prefer the slithering variety to the forked tongue,
Orwellian, doublespeak varieties we are infested with.
Citizen Wells
August 11, 2008 at 9:54 pm
For some reason, my internet radio station of choice is currently playing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Jethro Tull.
August 12, 2008 at 1:13 am
I anyone taking note of the beauty of a short, but highly descriptive journal entry?
On an unrelated note , the U.S. woman’s Olympic beach volleyball team is wearing white bikinis today.
August 12, 2008 at 1:15 am
*Is*
August 12, 2008 at 7:56 am
Collin, it’s really not that hard. There are a lot of tutorials about messing with wordpress out there.
The easiest way to do this, of course, would be to simply set the post date as the older date. The most recent post will still be at the top and show up that day in readers.
August 12, 2008 at 9:53 am
@Ian Aleksander Adams, collin douma et al – the posts are now showing up as 1938.
Also, to the many of you who were hoping for translations into other languages… we’re signed up at Der Mundo, an online collaborative translation project, which you can find at http://orwelldiaries.dermundo.com/.
August 13, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I think I’m going to start a quasi-Dadaist punk band called A Curious Deposit All Over My Snuff-box
August 13, 2008 at 6:35 pm
[...] the Orwell diary isn’t yet terribly electrifying. From August 11: This morning all surfaces, even indoors, damp as a result of mist. A curious deposit all over my [...]
August 13, 2008 at 7:02 pm
http://orwelldiaries.dermundo.com/ doesn’t work that well for Dutch. One gets very strange sentences, which can be pleasant to read for different reasons.
August 24, 2008 at 12:31 pm
1nGood idea.0s I compleatly agree with last post. coq
паркет и ламинат 3h
August 24, 2008 at 8:47 pm
1rThank’s.3k I compleatly disagree with last post . xuq
паркетная доска 7k
August 25, 2008 at 1:20 am
7jGood idea.5i I compleatly disagree with last post . zez
ламинированный паркет 3y