Dear Editor,
I have read and have been told many amusing stories and think the most seriously amusing one to be “Animal Farm”- a masterpiece of satire by George Orwell. Definitely he got the muse when he wrote it, is there an equal to it? It is so nice going through it every once in a while – say every four years like elections-yes! Being much more mature – so long beyond school days and having the benefit/experience of intrigues, intricacies and vicissitudes of life and politics one finds “Animal Farm” much more easily yielding – like a compliant lover, the picture becomes a clear blue sky, more piercing and insightful and thus a better understanding of things of men and politics – words versus deeds. Even more exciting are the amusements which bare themselves more hilarious: “the clean-Tail league committee” for the cows. “Whiter wool movements” for the sheep; “Wild comrades re-education programme” for the wild creatures. Yet at the same time one can see that the animals carrying on are not merely funny but are placed within specific contexts, somethings become so palpable you can spot them a mile away. Without realising it, within the sub-conscious the characters have all changed with human beings assuming the animals’ role. Dear reader as you move about this silly season keep an observing eye, listen to voices-all kinds of voices and I’m sure that you will begin to look at some eagerly ambitious folks, brazen opportunists with gimlet eyes, as you will sure too heed their words with a spoon of salt. I beg you to keep your eyes open within the scheme of things for as Bob Marley sang: “they have created a great confusion to force on us the devil’s illusion”.
Editor, there are parts in “Animal Farm” that we find so familiar and which have been noted throughout history that come always with every new changing of the guard. In Animal Farm they are crafted to suit the animals and which inevitably with time those rules/commandments disappear before our eyes without even realising and of course always special dispensations being granted to the ruling clan. Allow me Editor a few pointing quotations: “Man is the only real enemy we have, remove man from the scene and the root cause of our hunger and over work is abolished forever”. “It is for your sake that we pigs drink milk and eat apples, not that we love them. Do you know what will happen if we fail in our duty!?” ha! …..“and remember also that in fighting man we must never come to resemble him; do not accept his vices.” oh oh! and it is very difficult to prevent a cynical chuckle when reading about the vote taken to decide whether the wild creatures should be considered as comrades or enemies, where it was overwhelmingly agreed they be friends except for four dissentients who it was afterwards discovered had voted on both sides. But I love the ever suspicious mind of Benjamin the Donkey who never grabbed anything, hook, line and sinker; he understood how deceiving appearances could be, so that when he was asked if he wasn’t happy now that Jones/man was gone his reply was deep and perplexing: “Donkeys live a long time”, go-figure. And what would have given more weight and credence to that statement any more than when Napoleon and Pilkington were playing cards and they both played an ace of spade simultaneously, leaving the animals peeping from outside in total bewilderment to tell the difference between pigs and man. Oh please don’t dismiss me as a cynic – I am not, it’s just the musings of my mind. Look for the words of the prophet between the raindrops. Take care.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe