Anthony Daniels, no seu Orwell's "Catalonia" Revisited argumenta que a "Homenagem à Catalunha" desmente o que Orwell escreveu em 1946 ("Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.”) - ou seja, parece-me que Daniels está a dizer que a "Homenagem" não foi escrita a favor do socialismo democrático e contra a totalitarismo.
Vamos lá analisar as suas alegações:
Indeed, the very opening passage is distinctly unpleasant. The first sentence reads:
Agora, vamos comparar com o texto de Orwell:
Para começar Daniels oculta a parte em que Orwell diz que o miliciano tinha "cara de anarquista (embora provavelmente fosse comunista)" - esta omissão poderia ser um mero detalhe, não fosse o caso de Daniels insinuar que Orwell admiraria o miliciano por achá-lo com ar de quem estaria disposto a matar "por reverencia pelos seus supostos superiores" - algo pouco provável para um anarquista. E seja como for, Orwell escreve claramente "um homem disposto a matar ou a dar a vida por um amigo" - não em obediência a "superiores". Além disso, ao truncar grande parte do texto, dá a impressão que "a reverência pelos seus supostos superiores" foi um aspecto decisivo na admiração de Orwell (pode ter sido ou não, não sabemos).
Vamos lá analisar as suas alegações:
Indeed, the very opening passage is distinctly unpleasant. The first sentence reads:
In the Lenin Barracks in Barcelona, the day before I joined the militia, I saw an Italian militiaman standing in front of the officers’ table.Orwell took an immediate shine to the Italian:
He was a tough-looking youth… . His peaked leather cap was pulled fiercely over one eye… . Something in his face deeply moved me.What was it about it that so moved Orwell?
It was the face of a man who would commit murder and throw away his life for a friend… . There was both candour and ferocity in it; also the pathetic reverence that illiterate people have for their supposed superiors.Do illiterate people reverence their supposed superiors, pathetically or otherwise? I have never noticed it, and I have had dealings with a lot of illiterates, but perhaps the nature of illiteracy has changed since Orwell’s day. In any case, one might have supposed that the type that Orwell describes, ready to commit murder and with a reverence for his superiors, was a rather dangerous type. But Orwell says, “I have seldom seen anyone—any man, I mean—to whom I have taken such an immediate liking… . Queer, the affection you can feel for a stranger!”
(...)
Having extolled ferocity and potential murderousness, presumably at the service of a pathetic reverence of superiors, Orwell goes on to describe Barcelona as it struck him when he first arrived there.
Agora, vamos comparar com o texto de Orwell:
In the Lenin Barracks in Barcelona, the day before I joined the militia, I saw an Italian militiaman standing in front of the officers' table.
He was a tough-looking youth of twenty-five or six, with reddish-yellow hair and powerful shoulders. His peaked leather cap was pulled fiercely over one eye. He was standing in profile to me, his chin on his breast, gazing with a puzzled frown at a map which one of the officers had open on the table. Something in his facedeeply moved me. It was the face of a man who would commit murder and throw away his life for a friend--the kind efface you would expect in an Anarchist, though as likely as not he was a Communist. There were both candour and ferocity in it; also the pathetic reverence that illiterate people have for their supposed superiors. Obviously he could not make head or tail of the map; obviously he regarded map-reading as a stupendous intellectual feat. I hardly know why, but I have seldom seen anyone--any man, I mean--to whom I have taken such an immediate liking.
He was a tough-looking youth of twenty-five or six, with reddish-yellow hair and powerful shoulders. His peaked leather cap was pulled fiercely over one eye. He was standing in profile to me, his chin on his breast, gazing with a puzzled frown at a map which one of the officers had open on the table. Something in his facedeeply moved me. It was the face of a man who would commit murder and throw away his life for a friend--the kind efface you would expect in an Anarchist, though as likely as not he was a Communist. There were both candour and ferocity in it; also the pathetic reverence that illiterate people have for their supposed superiors. Obviously he could not make head or tail of the map; obviously he regarded map-reading as a stupendous intellectual feat. I hardly know why, but I have seldom seen anyone--any man, I mean--to whom I have taken such an immediate liking.
Para começar Daniels oculta a parte em que Orwell diz que o miliciano tinha "cara de anarquista (embora provavelmente fosse comunista)" - esta omissão poderia ser um mero detalhe, não fosse o caso de Daniels insinuar que Orwell admiraria o miliciano por achá-lo com ar de quem estaria disposto a matar "por reverencia pelos seus supostos superiores" - algo pouco provável para um anarquista. E seja como for, Orwell escreve claramente "um homem disposto a matar ou a dar a vida por um amigo" - não em obediência a "superiores". Além disso, ao truncar grande parte do texto, dá a impressão que "a reverência pelos seus supostos superiores" foi um aspecto decisivo na admiração de Orwell (pode ter sido ou não, não sabemos).
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