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Rebecca Solnit in conversation with Adam Hochschild on her new book Orwell’s Roses

October 19, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm PDT

One free ticket with purchase of the book

Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the surviving roses he planted in 1936, Solnit’s account of this understudied aspect of Orwell’s life explores  his writing and his actions—from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing Stalin when much of the international left still supported him (and then critiquing that left), to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism. 

Through Solnit’s celebrated ability to draw unexpected connections, readers encounter the photographer Tina Modotti’s roses and her Stalinism, Stalin’s obsession with forcing lemons to grow in impossibly cold conditions, Orwell’s slave-owning ancestors in Jamaica, Jamaica Kincaid’s critique of colonialism and imperialism in the flower garden, and the brutal rose industry in Colombia that supplies the American market. 

The book draws to a close with a rereading of Nineteen Eighty-Four that completes her portrait of a more hopeful Orwell, as well as a reflection on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance.

Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books including  Call Them By Their True Names (Winner of the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction), Men Explain Things to Me, and A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster.

Adam Hochschild is an American author, journalist, historian and lecturer whose books include King Leopold’s Ghost, To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, and Spain in Our Hearts.

Attendance is limited. Ticket with purchase of book now available at The Green Arcade Online Shop (www.TheGreenArcade.com). Individual tickets on sale closer to the event depending on availability. Doors open at 6:30 – event at 7pm.

This is a masked event and vaccination cards will be mandatory. The event will be livestreamed on YouTube.

Many thanks to the McRoskey Mattress Company

Details

Date:
October 19, 2021
Time:
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm PDT
Cost:
One free ticket with purchase of the book
Event Categories:
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www.TheGreenArcade.com

Organizer

The Green Arcade
Phone:
415-431-6800
View Organizer Website

Venue

3rd Floor McRoskey Mattress Loft
1687 Market Street
San Francisco, 94103
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Phone:
(415) 861-4532
View Venue Website