Inside The Whale and Other Essays – Poetry and The Microphone is the seventeenth of The Essays that are ranked 917th on The Greatest Books of All Time site – however, the algorithm there changes the hierarchy and you could have a surprise, as you read this in a few hundred years’ time- yah, right, as if there would still be people around then, they will have migrated to Mars or some other place in this or a different galaxy – you have more than five thousand reviews on magnum opera from the aforementioned and other lists, plus notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html

 

Inside The Whale and Other Essays – Poetry and The Microphone is the seventeenth of The Essays that are ranked 917th on The Greatest Books of All Time site – however, the algorithm there changes the hierarchy and you could have a surprise, as you read this in a few hundred years’ time- yah, right, as if there would still be people around then, they will have migrated to Mars or some other place in this or a different galaxy – you have more than five thousand reviews on magnum opera from the aforementioned and other lists, plus notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html

 

 

9 out of 10

 

In Poetry and The Microphone George Orwell explains how they had these programs on the radio in India, destined to a very small audience – a few thousand students I think it was – and we could try and place this in the present

 

People listen to the radio even now, but I think this is mostly when they travel in their cars, or else they just sit around doing the work of security guards (around here) albeit even those seem to be using their phones (everybody does, it is a nightmare) to listen to some music, some far right nut, Orange Woland in America

https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/why-i-write-by-george-orwell-is-first.html The Essays have been a mesmerizing read so far, even when the subject seems passe, redundant, just like this one, poetry on the radio in India, at a time when that was part of the British empire sounds like such a remote theme

 

I was reading in The Economist about censorship in India – a dislike Modi very much – and elsewhere, Orange Woland tries to eliminate opponents, silence critics in America, which was once the beacon, model for us and others, but has now become a joke – networks, media, and social ones are in the hands of MAGA or allies

Musk has X, Ellison gets Paramount and more – by the way here is a good gook on what happened at Paramount (but pictures, not the behemoth of now – about quintessential films and more   https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-kid-stays-in-picture-by-robert-evans.html - there is Zuckerberg,

 

About poetry there is at least one tragicomic take in this essay – ‘the people are as scared of poetry as of fire’ words to that effect, meaning this genre used to be unpopular, not verse though, hoi polloi are into limericks, lyrics of popular songs, etc. even today – but it has a special place in my heart, in the past and future, Insha’Allah

I do not read poems, nevertheless, I have a few memorized, from Sonnets https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-sonnets-by-shakespeare-is-supposed.html to Eminescu, Verlaine, also some fantastic lines – ‘Now is the winter of our discontent turned into glorious summer by this son of York’

 

We can try to guess what percentage of humans still read poetry, only the obvious result would be a very small figure, considering that reading is becoming obsolete – The Economist again had this study connecting awful leaders with less reading – those who do read take the likes of Dan Brown and similar junk

I think of George Orwell’s essay on the Spanish Civil war and the fact that we are facing scary scenarios, again, with Russia invading Ukraine and now entering the space of Poland, my country, Romania, Estonia, and yesterday Denmark

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

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