{"id":711,"date":"2018-09-25T10:52:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T14:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/?p=711"},"modified":"2018-09-25T10:53:48","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T14:53:48","slug":"you-shouldreadorwell-leopold-and-teale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/blog\/2018\/09\/25\/you-shouldreadorwell-leopold-and-teale\/","title":{"rendered":"You SHOULD\u2026Read:Orwell, Leopold, and Teale"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UConn Humanities Institute<\/a> asked me to contribute to their “You Should…<\/a>” series. Here’s a copy of my contribution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You should\u2026Read: Orwell, Leopold, and Teale<\/p>\n

But not the Orwell you think. Read\u00a0 Politics and the English language<\/a><\/em> to be reminded that \u201cPolitical language\u2026is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind\u201d and Shooting an elephant<\/em> for a concrete example of how \u201cwhen the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.\u201d[1]<\/a> Read Leopold\u2019s A Sand County Almanac<\/em> to learn that when Canada geese return north in the spring \u201cthe whole continent receives as net profit a wild poem dropped from the murky skies upon the muds of March\u201d and the many things a poor farm can teach those willing to learn. Read Teale\u2019s A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm<\/em> to learn Leopold\u2019s lessons in our own backyard on a farm in Hampton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> And for the best first sentence in an essay: \u201cIn Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by a large number of people\u2013the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.\u201d WARNING: Descriptions in the essay would have offended many in 1936. More will find them offensive now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UConn Humanities Institute asked me to contribute to their “You Should…” series. Here’s a copy of my contribution. You should\u2026Read: Orwell, Leopold, and Teale But not the Orwell you… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}