Lucy Kippist, George Orwell, Animal Farm, and a good reason not to read the column about a book that hasn't been read

(Above: cover to the first edition of Animal Farm).

Over at The Punch, Australia's most torpid, cheap assed, tepid conversation, Lucy Kippist delivers us Five reasons to read the book before watching the movie.

Her opener?

Today is the 64th anniversary of the mass publication in America of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a book considered one of the most influential of all time.

What a pity I’ve actually never read it.

And this is despite the fact that I’ve owned a copy since I was 17, when everyone else I knew read it. Or did they?

Dear lord, I wonder if this is the same Lucy who elsewhere tipped us off that Chairman Rupert has offered that no contributors be paid for their contributions to this wretched site (here). No matter if it isn't, because clearly what you pay is what you get. Or you get what you pay for.

Tip to Lucy. Animal Farm in its UK paperback edition runs only 112 pages, and even then it can hardly be said to be condensed or thick, seeing as how it's a parable running along the same lines as one of Aesop's fables. It's a simple, but great read, infinitely clever, vicious and funny.

Why on earth should anyone read the rest of your column and pay any attention to it, especially as you explain that reading the book before watching the movie is the way to go.

Because reading the book before writing a column is infinitely more preferable, and if you're going to write a column about the joys and virtues of reading a book, for the love of the lord, read the book first.

Even better in case you lost your unread childhood copy, you can get a copy of the text at Project Gutenberg for free here (and at sundry other places on the intertubes), even if these versions lack the nice pictures, and even if in some territories copyright is still asserted.

After a quick read, you might actually have some reasons to explain why the animated feature film version by Joy Batchelor and John Halas doesn't measure up to Orwell's novel, and therefore why reading the novel first is a good idea.

Sure it would have been a slam dunk - the animation isn't one of the finer moments in the British film industry - but it's way better than proclaiming ignorance as a virtue.

By the way, as sundry film versions have fallen into the public domain, you can find one version here at Google videos, and the Batcehlor and Halas version here on YouTube - takes time to load - but don't blame me if the links fail at some point when someone discovers the evil intertubes once again has failed to respect Senator Conroy's love of IP rights.

Now I don't blame Kippist for this outing - I'm sure she's a very nice person, and just doing what she can to fill up the gaps on the site - but you do have to wonder about those in charge of The Punch.

Is anyone home, and sub-editing, and advising the younger contributors on the finer points of not setting themselves up for a fall, so that they won't get comments like this:

You can read it easily in a day.

No valid excuses.

What a half baked exercise The Punch is, growing more imponderable by the day. Copy for nothing, and your illustrative Animal Farm trailer from YouTube for free. Another medal for Chairman Rupert please.