Revenge

I hate to plug an article by Christopher Hitchens, but when he's right, he's right. (As we all know, he is often wrong, although he won't admit it, and when he is confronted with the flaws in his logic, he resorts to childish name calling.) That said, I found some of his recent articles on the hanging of Sadam and TJ's Koran to be quite good. Slate

Hitchens also references a fantastic short essay by George Orwell. The writer is most well remembered for his novels, 1984 and Animal Farm, but many have unfortunately not read his other works. In highschool I read Down and Out in Paris and London, and found it to be an engaging and interesting read, full of historicity, insightful personal observations, and exciting narrative pace.

Orwell's talent as a journalist and short story writer is almost unmatched; his ability to communicate complicated ideas in straightforward and direct prose in a first-person narrative style no doubt influenced much of the 'new journalism' of the '60's and '70's (although I will admit I have not yet done the work necessary to demonstrate this. I may be wrong, but I suspect that this is so. Slate even had a recent article in which a famous art critic sites Orwell as his primary influence.)Here is a short piece by Orwell, on the nature of revenge, which focuses on his recollection of visiting a prisoner of war camp following the end of the Second World War. Like Hitchens, I agree it is wildely relevant to todays discussions on war and torture.