Orwell the Prophet

I just stumbled upon a bunch of posts by Emma Larkin, author of Finding George Orwell in Burma. I hadn't realized how deep Orwell's connection to Burma was:

Orwell's mother was born in Burma, at the height of the British raj, and Orwell was fundamentally shaped by his experiences in Burma as a young man working for the British Imperial Police. When Orwell died, the novel-in-progress on his desk was set in Burma.

When Larkin quietly asked one Burmese intellectual if he knew the work of George Orwell, he stared blankly for a moment and then said, "Ah, you mean the prophet!"

Larkin recently returned from a few weeks in Burma and has been blogging about the situation. Very disturbing.