Cover of Animal Farm

Book · 2009 · Literary Criticism

Animal Farm

by George Orwell · Recommended by 23 people on 17 podcasts

Why people recommend it

Animal Farm by George Orwell is a satirical allegorical novella that depicts a group of farm animals overthrowing their human farmer, only to see their revolution descend into totalitarian tyranny under the rule of pigs. The book is widely celebrated as a brilliant critique of political corruption and the perversion of revolutionary ideals. On the Lex Fridman Podcast, Brian Keating named the novel as one of his absolute favorites, occasionally referencing its themes to illustrate discussions on distractions and human behavior. The book has also been championed on Timcast IRL, where Tim Pool and Hotep Jesus discussed the enduring relevance of Orwell's literature, noting with concern that public school systems appear to be phasing these vital texts out of the curriculum. Hotep Jesus specifically highlighted the famous maxim regarding equality while urging listeners to revisit the brief yet impactful story to understand government hypocrisy. Furthermore, Lex Fridman has grouped the work alongside other dystopian classics to emphasize the unique value of literature in decoding complex societal structures and the perils of unchecked authority.

Who recommended it

Lex Fridman — 12 mentions
Discussed
“Of course, "The Trial" is a work of fiction, but I think it is often useful to go to the surreal world of literature, even of the over-the-top dystopian variety like "1984," "Animal Farm," "Brave New World," "The Trial," "The Castle," "Metamorphosis," even "The Plague" by Albert Camus...”
Discussed
“If you can have swarms of non-biological beings. 'cause they can be like the sheep in "Animal Farm."”
Discussed
“So to that degree, to which degree is everybody kinda chanting e/acc, e/acc, like the sheep in "Animal Farm"? - Well, first of all, it's fun, it's rebellious, right?”
Discussed
“Well, I could spoil "Animal Farm". There's pigs, there's animals at a farm, (laughs) and the humans are abusing them. And then the animals overthrow the humans.”
Discussed
“So like if you look at a book like "Animal Farm" where the pigs start to rule the other animals, and over time, the life of the animals gets worse and worse and worse while the pigs keep saying that it's actually getting better and better and better.”
Discussed
“just like an animal farm you'll be like the horse boxer and slaughtered unjustly by those that are much more powerful than you because you'll be happy when you're slaughtered”
Discussed
“If you work hard enough, just like in Animal Farm, you'll be like Boxer and be slaughtered unjustly by those who are much more powerful than you because you’ll be happy when you’re slaughtered.”
Discussed
“that's why I admire a boxer the horse I will work harder even if he gets sent to the slaughter by the evil pigs you're on Orwell today”
Discussed
“and uh of course George Orwell brilliantly and probably my favorite book of his which is animal farm”
Discussed
“on the book point i've read animal farm by george orwell a ridiculous number of times”
Yeonmi Park — 5 mentions
Discussed
“like the one point that changed me as a child was Georgia W Animal Farm”
Discussed
“so you've uh i have to say i often say that my favorite book is animal farm by george orwell i've read it i don't know how many times”
Discussed
“I was starting reading Georgia West animal farm in 1984.”
Discussed
“Like I could see in that little pigs in the animal farm was it, I see myself as in my grandmother's like, Oh this is what happened.”
Discussed
“And I think it just, it just reminds me of like the animal farm, how it all began.”
Tim Pool — 3 mentions
Discussed
“it's a little bit of all of them it's a crock pond it's Animal Farm of all of it”
Recommended
“animal farm also another great book that a lot of people don't uh you know attribute to him but there's so many important pieces of literature that he puts together that really are worth reading and a lot of the public school systems are pushing them out”
Discussed
“don't you think replacing the police with civil guard is kind of like animal farm”
Michael Malice — 3 mentions
Discussed
“I mean, it's 'Catcher in the Rye'. There are a lot of books that seem trivial.”
Discussed
“To me, 'The Plague' is about the doctor, and it’s about love, and it’s about the different roles that humans take in a time of tragedy like the plague. Also, it’s an allegory, so you can start to think about whatever you think that is. See, you've been for white pill, researching a lot of actual, specifically defined suffering, sure.”
Discussed
“so animal farm by george orwell is one of my favorite books”
Hotep Jesus — 2 mentions
Discussed
“so the more you add on it just turns into animal farm they just start amending and amending and interpreting”
Recommended
“some animals are more equal than others animal farm yeah if you people haven't read animal farm make sure you go give that a good refreshing read it should only take you about an hour or two”
Brian Keating — 2 mentions
Recommended
“i've asked him and then it comes from animal farm by probably my favorite book”
Discussed
“It comes from Animal Farm, by my probably favorite book. So you remember Benjamin, the donkey?”
Yannis Pappas — 2 mentions
Discussed
“and one of my favorite books is animal farm by orwell and the horses don't get a good ending in that”
Discussed
“yeah the horse's one is interesting and one of my favorite books is animal farm by orwell and the horses don't get a good ending in that uh i kind of uh my spirit animal i suppose is the horse from animal farm boxer where he says uh i will work harder”
Norman Ohler — 1 mention
Discussed
“It's like in Animal Farm when the pigs discover alcohol. Animal Farm by George Orwell. There's no evidence that they drank.”
Jeffrey Wasserstrom — 1 mention
Discussed
“And then there's 'Animal Farm in 1984' is a second book.”
Steven Bartlett — 1 mention
Discussed
“There's a scene the book Animal Farm where there's this donkey named Benjamin and he's talking to the pig and the pig says to the donkey you know, I love your tail. It's so big. I got this short little curly tail. It's good for nothing. You got this beautiful tail. It could sweep away the flies. And the donkey”
Jennifer Szalai — 1 mention
Discussed
“he was perhaps best known for his two dystopian novels Animal Farm in 1984 and to look at the way that his name has sort of come to be synonymous”
Bridget Phetasy — 1 mention
Discussed
“I think you could read Animal Farm in a week”
Ben Bowlin — 1 mention
Discussed
“this is spot on with the pigs in Animal Farm there is a very it's very”
David Pakman — 1 mention
Discussed
“I probably read 1984 five or ten times, I don't remember. I've read Animal Farm far more. But I don't think I had to analyze what I think about 1984.”
Gurwinder Bhogal — 1 mention
Discussed
“you see it in the novel Animal Farm as well where um the character of uh Napoleon the pig Napoleon um wants to consolidate his power by sort of um essentially exiling snowball”
Mia Wong — 1 mention
Discussed
“so his two favorite books in this period are 1984 an animal farm”
Jeremi Suri — 1 mention
Discussed
“so it's like animal farm all animals are equal”
Jordan B. Peterson — 1 mention
Discussed
“Justin can go on about how horrific the justice system of the Supreme Court is while up here he plays a game halfway between Animal Farm in 1984.”
Chuck Klosterman — 1 mention
Discussed
“My favorite book of all time is probably Animal Farm, and it’s funny to think that the first time I read that, I must have read it only as text.”
John Sweeney — 1 mention
Recommended
“go to by the way go via belarus um take a copy of a 1984 animal farm leave it in a bar”
Dmitri Dolgov — 1 mention
Discussed
“i'm a huge fan of animal farm which is a kind of friendly as a friend of 1984 by orwell it's kind of another thought experiment of how our society may go in directions that we wouldn't like it to go”
Yaron Brook — 1 mention
Recommended
“UK is very interested in dystopian novels Animal Farm”
Edwidge Danticat — 1 mention
Discussed
“the summer i was reading with my girls we were reading animal farm and and it was just really striking”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 12
Discussed
“Yeah, I know that a lot of us listening today are huge fans of Animal Farm, right? In the work of George Orwell, there is an incredibly bleak, incredibly well-written part of that book where the animals—well, quick spoiler—Animal Farm, if you are not familiar with the plot and don’t want it spoiled for you and you’ve been waiting for”
Discussed
“In the work of George Orwell, there is an incredibly bleak, incredibly well-written part of that book where the animals—well, quick spoiler—Animal Farm, if you are not familiar with the plot and don’t want it spoiled for you and you’ve been waiting for a chance to read it or watch one of the many adaptations, please consider this your spoiler”
Discussed
“I believe that is a joke reference to the book 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell. In the book, the animals use the phrase 'Four legs good, two legs bad' as they rise against the humans. That must be it, love the show, longtime listener.”
Discussed
“Right, when he wrote Animal Farm and 1984; those books are warnings based on the totalitarian systems of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. And again, they're meant to be warnings, not instruction manuals.”
Discussed
“I picture some guys, you know they always do the oh, the guys sitting in a racine bar, you know, what's really concerning them? I damn sure guarantee you it's not banning Animal Farm! They're talking about God, it's too damn expensive to pay for child care, or I'd like to do this!”
Discussed
“And uh, sure, it caused, um, or at least it was intended to cause people to take kind of a hard look at, uh, pre-Animal Farm, uh, to make sort of a social statement about how we treated animals.”
Discussed
“But my reading teacher was also the social studies teacher, and I guess that explains why all of our reading lists included Animal Farm, Hiroshima, All Quiet on the Western Front, and you know it. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a powerful book.”
Discussed
“You would love it, it's called Animal Joy and it's about laughter!”
Discussed
“It's precisely the reason why when he wrote Animal Farm, he couldn't get it published for so long, because people were horrified by the possibility that left-wing people could be authoritarian.”
Discussed
“But you have this mantra; it is communist-like, where it's like the commandments written on the barn in Animal Farm where it is propaganda that’s so at odds with reality; it’s just absurd.”
Recommended
“animal farm also another great book that a lot of people don't uh you know attribute to him but there's so many important pieces of literature that he puts together that really are worth reading”
Recommended
“some animals are more equal than others animal farm yeah if you people haven't read animal farm make sure you go give that a good refreshing read”

Also mentioned in the same episodes

Other mentions (24: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“- And the book I've read more than any other book is Animal Farm by George Orwell.”
Passing
“And then there's "Animal Farm in 1984" is a second book.”
Passing
“But it'll be just like Animal Farm because they'll still be eating cow.”
Passing
“That sounds like "Animal Farm." But yes, two legs better, but yes, democracy's better and invading countries is bad.”
Passing
“For the critics in the stands, chanting the latest slogans of the mass hysteria machine like sheep in Animal Farm.”
Passing
“For the critics in the stands, chanting the latest slogans of the mass hysteria machine like sheep in 'Animal Farm'. I love you too.”
Passing
“people aren't sitting around in the bar talking about banning uh you know Animal Farm they're sitting in the bar talking about how expensive Child Care is and how we going to get it”
Passing
“there's the one where they're burning all the books um there's the one where the pigs are in charge”
Passing
“This is spot on with L Ron Hubbard AKA The Commodore in Scientology This is spot on with the pigs in Animal Farm”
Passing
“and when I went to college the the whole notion of basically people who are Juniors and seniors being more important or more equal than others to do the animal farm line”
Passing
“I read uh 1984 an animal farm Those are like the only two dystopian novels i've read so far”
Passing
“Justin can go on about how horrific the justice system of the Supreme Court is while up here he plays a game halfway between Animal Farm in 1984.”
Passing
“sort of beyond over there in sugar candy mountain as uh crow says that in animal farm”
Passing
“the shirt i'm wearing right now is also my representation of our society and it has the hunger games animal farm they live brave new world matrix fahrenheit 451 v for vendetta and of course 1984 representing where i think we are”
Passing
“the shirt I'm wearing right now is also my representation of our society and it has the hunger games animal animal farm they live brave new world matrix fahrenheit 451 v for vendetta and of course 1984 representing where i think we are”
Passing
“take a copy of a 1984 animal farm leave it in a bar”
Passing
“Everyone talks about the situation as being 1984. Consider sometime the idea and influence of animal farm on the establishment”
Passing
“UK is very interested in dystopian novels Animal Farm uh and in 1984 84 is published a couple of years after I think after an there's reason to believe he read he read Anthem uh that and uh George read Animal Farm”
Passing
“All animals are equal But some animals are more equal than others”
Passing
“I was educated books like Animal Farm in 1984 before I was in the cult”
Passing
“I was educated books like Animal Farm in 1984 before I was in the cult”
Passing
“like every book we read in high school or college brave new world Lord of the Flies 1980 or Animal Farm like The Giver which we read in [ __ ] middle school”
Passing
“so it's like Animal Farm some chickens are more equal than others yeah”