Eric & Us is a 1974 memoir by Jacintha Buddicom recalling her childhood friendship with Eric Blair, the real name of author George Orwell. Buddicom first met Blair when he was eleven and he became very close to her family. Their friendship lasted until Blair became a policeman in Burma and the two lost touch. Blair and Buddicom never saw one another again and did not resume contact until 1949, shortly before Orwell's death from tuberculosis...
Buddicom's cousin, Dione Venables, added a postscript to the memoir in 2006, suggesting that the real reason for the ending of Blair and Buddicom's friendship was the possibility that Blair, in an attempt to further their relationship, may have tried to rape Buddicom. Dione Venables responded by revealing that Buddicom never interpreted Blair's adolescent fumbling as rape, but that the incident was merely a moment when his immature desires got the better of him.
This is all the information I know. If this is the extent of the story, it can be read in multiple ways, one of which is "he tried to rape a childhood friend, that ended their relationship, and when the story came out decades later someone threw in the type of excuse polite society often uses to excuse rapists." It could be read more generously in Orwell's favor, too, but it really doesn't matter one way or the other.
I think the far more compelling rebuttal to people who default to "this is 1984" is "maybe you shouldn't base your political opinions on young adult literature."
That's much more damning, and it leaves less room for doubt, but hey, that's why I started with "this is all the information I know and more information might change what I think."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_%26_Us
This is all the information I know. If this is the extent of the story, it can be read in multiple ways, one of which is "he tried to rape a childhood friend, that ended their relationship, and when the story came out decades later someone threw in the type of excuse polite society often uses to excuse rapists." It could be read more generously in Orwell's favor, too, but it really doesn't matter one way or the other.
I think the far more compelling rebuttal to people who default to "this is 1984" is "maybe you shouldn't base your political opinions on young adult literature."
yeah I don't think I'll add that to my anti-Orwell collection if that's it
deleted by creator
That's much more damning, and it leaves less room for doubt, but hey, that's why I started with "this is all the information I know and more information might change what I think."