[Foundation-l] George Orwell: "Why I Write"

[Chris Keating]

I was reading Orwell's essay last night (in the old-fashioned paper form,
while in the bath).

I thought it was an interesting analysis which could apply to peoples'
motivations for contributing to the Wikimedia projects, from those who edit
"from the desire to see things as they are" to those who write for "sheer
egoism", and just a few "who may feel strongly about typography, width of
margins, etc" (or possibly hyphens ;-) )  Not sure an editor survey couched
in quite these terms would get a useful result though.

Orwell's full text is available here:
http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw but this is the key bit;

Chris

--

I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing
prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one
writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the
atmosphere in which he is living. They are:

*(i) Sheer egoism.* Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be
remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed
you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive,
and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists,
artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short,
with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not
acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense
of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply
smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful
people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers
belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more
vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.

*(ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm.* Perception of beauty in the external world, or,
on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the
impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm
of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable
and ought not to be missed. The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of
writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words
and phrases which appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel
strongly about typography, width of margins, etc. Above the level of a
railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic considerations.

*(iii) Historical impulse.* Desire to see things as they are, to find out
true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.

*(iv) Political purpose.* — Using the word ‘political’ in the widest
possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter
other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.
Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that
art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.