Orwell's efforts in (self-)persuasion
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Date
2023
Authors
Considine, John
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University of Pennsylvania Press
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Abstract
When George Orwell was appointed literary editor of London's Tribune magazine in late 1943 he was a financially unsuccessful author. Encouraged by his new position, he engaged in a campaign of journalistic persuasion. The campaign started by seeking to persuade the public to purchase more books. His initial enthusiasm was replaced by a despairing realization that the public's purchases were less than he suspected and that his campaign was unlikely to change the situation. His journalism then changed in a subtle way. On the surface he asked the public to admit their preference for movies, dog racing, and socialized alcohol consumption. But at a deeper level, Orwell's weekly columns were an effort in self-persuasion. Ironically, as his editorial campaign failed to persuade people to buy more books, his efforts to find a larger market for his own books started to succeed. Maybe this persuaded him to be more accepting of the public's preferences.
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Keywords
George Orwell , Economics , Books v. Cigarettes , Literary world , Value of reading , As I Please , Self-persuasion , Tribune magazine , London
Citation
Considine, J. (2023) 'Orwell's efforts in (self-)persuasion', Capitalism: A Journal of History and Economics, 4(1), pp. 181-186. Project MUSE. doi: 10.1353/cap.2023.a899275
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© 2023, Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.