He makes the decision to defy the odds, to rebel against “the money god” and follow his dream of writing poetry. That is the generation to which Gordon Comstock, the protagonist of “Keep the Aspidistra Flying” belongs. Beth Kobliner, author of “Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties”, describes it as “a great depression mentality”. They are willing to accept lower salaries, work longer hours and at jobs for which they are grossly over-qualified. They too grew up amid economic upheaval and austerity. But one of George Orwell’s lesser-known works also enjoys renewed relevance: “Keep the Aspidistra Flying” (1936)-a novel he was thoroughly dissatisfied with-captures the financial bind in which many millennials find themselves.įrequently stereotyped as profligate and entitled-think of T im Gurner’s “avocado toast” tirade-research conducted by Standard and Poor’s, a market intelligence firm, shows that millennials are in fact as thrifty and risk averse as the generation that came of age in the 1930s. Others point out echoes of “Animal Farm” (1945) in modern political rhetoric. WE have become accustomed to hearing how prescient “Nineteen Eighty-Four” (1949) feels in today’s political climate.
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