Sign Up for Session One of The Peak Notions Book Club!

The PN book club is here, and our first read is a real philosophical door-kicker...

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“To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.”

George Orwell, The Freedom of the Press

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Peak Notions Book Club is finally here!

The plan is that it will be a monthly meeting (with a new sign-up sheet and book each time, so you can dip in and out depending on your interest) where we discuss works of non-fiction and fiction from a philosophical perspective. You don’t have to know anything at all about philosophy to come along but it should still be interesting for you if you do — the aim is to have an enjoyable conversation together, read more and encounter great writing as we go, all while honing our critical thinking skills. I’ll guide the discussion and keep things running but this isn’t a lecture or tutorial — it’s a dynamic conversation that we will create together.

Despite its cultural status, I didn’t read George Orwell’s Animal Farm until I was my twenties. When I finally read this short book in one revelatory sitting, it gave clarity to ideas and impressions that had been murmuring at me since adolescence. It gave voice to my distaste for blind deference to authority. It gave shape to the discomfort I felt during an intellectually stifling Irish state and religious education, when questions were largely discouraged and self-esteem was considered a form of lewd sexual act imported from America. It lent force to my inclination to ask questions anyway — especially the ones we know we aren’t supposed to ask. The ones that get us into trouble. Animal Farm reinforced my belief in the power of human will. All this from an allegory about a bunch of mutinous farm animals who can talk.

Animal Farm changed my mind. I’m interested to hear what it does for you. It’s an allegorical novel about power, the darkness and tenderness in human nature, truth, censorship and the importance of independent thought as well as skepticism toward hierarchy and social systems. It also features a pig named Napoleon, which is a pretty excellent characteristic in any book.

George Orwell wrote the essay quoted above as a proposed preface to Animal Farm. It’s a useful resource if you’d like some extra context on the book - you can read it here. Despite the fact that Animal Farm became one of the most successful and influential titles of the twentieth century, Orwell had trouble finding a publisher before it was finally published in August 1945. It was dismissed and denigrated for its overtly political content, which chafed against the status quo of its era.

In this first Peak Notions Book Club, we’ll consider Animal Farm’s relevance to modern life, discuss the philosophical ideas that underpin it, consider the role of art in prompting intellectual and political change, and examine which — if any — of its lessons and ideas are useful to us now in a world which often looks quite like the one Orwell was frightened of during his own lifetime.

There are 15 spots available for the first Peak Notions Book Club session, which takes place on Zoom at 8:30pm BST on Thursday June 15th. The Book Club is a perk for the paid subscribers who keep Peak Notions going and fund the work that I do. You can get all the details and put your name on the list via the sign-up sheet at the bottom of this page.

If you’re not currently a paid subscriber but would like access to the Peak Notions Book Club as well as audio versions of the weekly column, bonus content and access to our Tuesday evening chat, you can subscribe below for less than £1/€1 per week.