Shooting An Elephant by George Orwell

I haven't blogged in a while (probably because I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be blogging about), but after reading and re-reading "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, I decided that this is the perfect thing to blog about.  George Orwell is by far one of my most favorite authors.  He writes so old fashion yet calm and introspective and subtly casual.

Well anyway "Shooting an Elephant" was one of the best essays ever.  The essay was mainly about imperialism, but that's not the main reason why I like it.  For those who don't know, the essay is an account of George Orwell shooting an elephant in a small place in Burma.  He was a soldier their and was ordered to stop a supposedly threatening elephant.  He describes the death of the elephant as a slow painful process, and he does this so beautifully that I almost feel like I was there, as if I had seen the elephant collapse on its knees and fall on its side.

I read "Shooting an Elephant" while trying to complete some edits on my still-in-the-process-but-will-hopefully-be-done-soon novel, The Commune.  The high point of my novel is when the two main characters go on a journey into the the "wild".  This was by far my least favorite part of writing the book.  Yeah, I know its the point of action, and turning points, and climax, and should ultimately be my favorite part to write.  But it really wasn't.  It's one of the most important parts of the book so it was extremely difficult for me to nail it (I recently sent the edited version to my agent, so I still don't really know if I've nailed it yet, but gosh, I really don't want to write it again, so I hope I did.)

Anyway reading "Shooting an Elephant" really helped me with that part.  Because after reading and re-reading it, that little light bulb turned on.  For those who haven't read it, I really encourage you to.