Matthew

"I was 11, and it was one of the first books where it really hit me that there was a story underlying this fairy tale"

...fairy tale? Did he mean "fable"?

Regardless, I get the impression his thinking on the book hasn't evolved since he was 11. If he really wanted to update it, he should have made it an allegory for MAGA instead of the USSR.

I saw the first couple eps out of curiosity, and I remain completely perplexed about its popularity.

The songs were just...OK? The characters and plot were...passable? I just don't get what inspires the fervor.

"He's claimed by both sides of the aisle, across left and right."

Serkis, just admit you have a shallow understanding of Orwell's politics and the way Animal Farm was presented.

Many schoolkids were taught that AF is a critical allegory of the USSR, and that therefore Orwell was anti-communist. Right-wingers have latched onto this for decades. (The CIA even helped fund an AF adaptation in the 50s!)

But Orwell wasn't right-wing, he was an avowed democratic socialist, who fought in the Spanish civil war with a Troskyite column. His animus against the USSR (and Stalin in particular) stemmed from watching Stalin refuse to help the anti-fascist forces against Franco unless they put the tiny minority of Spanish communists in charge.

Orwell was many things, and the man had some flaws and questionable choices, but positioning the right-wing "claim" on him as legitimate is ahistorical nonsense.