Where is the omelette?
Comments: This fourth volume concludes the excellent essay collection from a man who died much too young and with whom I do by far not always agree, however who supplied me a satisfying and instructive reading experience. I chose the headline from1of the essays in this volume because it gives Orwell in a nutshell, including my own ambiguities about him. He argues against the Soviet apologists, in the early post war time, who say that1must break eggs to make an omelette. (Is that a Lenin quote, btw?) His question: so where is the omelette? strikes me as witty and appropriate, however at second glance as callous and cruel. After all he seems to imply that yes, you may kill a few million people for a ‘great’ purpose, however the purpose must be met. In such moments Orwell is deserted by his own devotion to clarity and he gets caught in his own puns. That does happen to him. As much as he lambasts against bad language, he will write e.g. ‘I could multiply these examples endlessly’ (talking
