Richard Thompson's Reviews > Orwell's Roses

I mostly agree with Rebecca Solnit's point of view, and her writing style is so excellent that she is a pleasure to read even when I disagree with her. But it is precisely my disagreements with her that keep bringing me back to her books because she challenges me to look a little differently at things about which I thought I already had settled opinions. George Orwell was equally challenging and hard to pin down. He was for the people, but very self-consciously not of the people, a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War on the side of freedom, who saw all the weaknesses and self destructive tendencies of the Republican cause, a socialist who wrote the iconic anti-communist novels, "Animal Farm" and "1984." And now we learn that this famously practical independent thinking political writer was a lover of roses. I liked him before, but after learning this about him, as a gardener myself, I now consider him to be fully redeemed.

And this brings me back to Ms. Solnit, who suggests that flower gardening, and in particular rose gardening, is an expression of aesthetic values - beauty without purpose. She talks about the slogan "Bread and Roses" which meant that oppressed people needed and had a right to more than just food. To live the full life that every human has a right to enjoy, you must also have access to beauty and an opportunity to enjoy it. Now that's an idea that I can get behind. She also talks about how the joy of country living is a myth created by the upper classes. The poor people fled rural poverty and had no great urge to retun to country life. So it may be true that when I garden, I'm living out a rich man's fantasy, but I prefer to think that it is a way to show care for nature and to appreciate the beauty in the world around me. Gardening lets me be a master of nature but also to be part of it and to mold it into my desired image, but to do so respectfully, coaxing cooperation out of the plants, water, sun and soil, while at the same time getting my hands dirty and engaging in honest toil. Yes for sure it a play form of toil, but I still get almost as tired, dirty and cut up from a full day of gardening as any farm hand. This aspect of gardening as care, communion and labor is largely missing from Ms. Solnit's discussion, though I'll warrant that it was part of what drew Orwell back to his roses.