{"id":131,"date":"2009-12-31T14:19:03","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T20:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/?p=131"},"modified":"2010-08-10T00:48:30","modified_gmt":"2010-08-10T06:48:30","slug":"why-i-write-george-orwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/?p=131","title":{"rendered":"Why I Write. George Orwell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sour\u00adce: Poli\u00adti\u00adcal Wri\u00adtings of Geor\u00adge Orwell<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a wri\u00adter. Bet\u00adween the ages of about seven\u00adteen and twenty-four I tried to aban\u00addon this idea, but I did so with the cons\u00adcious\u00adness that I was outra\u00adging my true natu\u00adre and that soo\u00adner or later I should have to settle down and wri\u00adte books.<\/p>\n

I was the midd\u00adle child of three, but the\u00adre was a gap of five years on either side, and I barely saw my father befo\u00adre I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely, and I soon deve\u00adlo\u00adped disa\u00adgreea\u00adble man\u00adne\u00adrisms which made me unpo\u00adpu\u00adlar throughout my school\u00addays. I had the lonely chil\u00add\u2019s habit of making up sto\u00adries and hol\u00adding con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtions with ima\u00adgi\u00adnary per\u00adsons, and I think from the very start my lite\u00adrary ambi\u00adtions were mixed up with the fee\u00adling of being iso\u00adla\u00adted and under\u00adva\u00adlued. I knew that I had a faci\u00adlity with words and a power of facing unplea\u00adsant facts, and I felt that this crea\u00adted a sort of pri\u00adva\u00adte world in which I could get my own back for my fai\u00adlu\u00adre in every\u00adday life. Neverthe\u00adless the volu\u00adme of serious \u2014 i.e. seriously inten\u00added \u2014 wri\u00adting which I pro\u00addu\u00adced all through my childhood and boyhood would not amount to half a dozen pages. I wro\u00adte my first poem at the age of four or five, my mother taking it down to dic\u00adta\u00adtion. I can\u00adnot remem\u00adber anything about it except that it was about a tiger and the tiger had \u201cchair-like teeth\u201d \u2014 a good enough phra\u00adse, but I fancy the poem was a pla\u00adgia\u00adrism of Bla\u00adke\u2019s \u201cTiger, Tiger.\u201d At ele\u00adven, when the war or 1914\u201318 bro\u00adke out, I wro\u00adte a patrio\u00adtic poem which was prin\u00adted in the local news\u00adpa\u00adper, as was another, two years later, on the death of Kit\u00adche\u00adner. From time to time, when I was a bit older, I wro\u00adte bad and usually unfi\u00adnished \u201cnatu\u00adre poems\u201d in the Geor\u00adgian sty\u00adle. I also attem\u00adpted a short story which was a ghastly fai\u00adlu\u00adre. That was the total of the would-be serious work that I actually set down on paper during all tho\u00adse years.<\/p>\n

Howe\u00adver, throughout this time I did in a sen\u00adse enga\u00adge in lite\u00adrary acti\u00advi\u00adties. To begin with the\u00adre was the made-to-order stuff which I pro\u00addu\u00adced quickly, easily and without much plea\u00adsu\u00adre to myself. Apart from school work, I wro\u00adte vers d\u2019oc\u00adca\u00adsion<\/em>, semi-comic poems which I could turn out at what now seems to me asto\u00adnishing speed \u2014 at four\u00adteen I wro\u00adte a who\u00adle rhy\u00adming play, in imi\u00adta\u00adtion of Aris\u00adtopha\u00adnes, in about a week \u2014 and hel\u00adped to edit a school maga\u00adzi\u00adnes, both prin\u00adted and in manus\u00adcript. The\u00adse maga\u00adzi\u00adnes were the most piti\u00adful bur\u00adles\u00adque stuff that you could ima\u00adgi\u00adne, and I took far less trou\u00adble with them than I now would with the chea\u00adpest jour\u00adna\u00adlism. But side by side with all this, for fif\u00adteen years or more, I was carrying out a lite\u00adrary exer\u00adci\u00adse of a qui\u00adte dif\u00adfe\u00adrent kind: this was the making up of a con\u00adti\u00adnuous \u201cstory\u201d about myself, a sort of diary exis\u00adting only in the mind. I belie\u00adve this is a com\u00admon habit of chil\u00addren and ado\u00adles\u00adcents. As a very small child I used to ima\u00adgi\u00adne that I was, say, Robin Hood, and pic\u00adtu\u00adre myself as the hero of thri\u00adlling adven\u00adtu\u00adres, but qui\u00adte soon my \u201cstory\u201d cea\u00adsed to be nar\u00adcis\u00adsis\u00adtic in a cru\u00adde way and beca\u00adme more and more a mere des\u00adcrip\u00adtion of what I was doing and the things I saw. For minu\u00adtes at a time this kind of thing would be run\u00adning through my head: \u201cHe pushed the door open and ente\u00adred the room. A yellow beam of sun\u00adlight, fil\u00adte\u00adring through the mus\u00adlin cur\u00adtains, slan\u00adted on to the table, whe\u00adre a match-box, half-open, lay besi\u00adde the ink\u00adpot. With his right hand in his poc\u00adket he moved across to the win\u00addow. Down in the street a tor\u00adto\u00adiseshell cat was cha\u00adsing a dead leaf,\u201d etc. etc. This habit con\u00adti\u00adnued until I was about twenty-five, right through my non-lite\u00adrary years. Although I had to search, and did search, for the right words, I see\u00admed to be making this des\u00adcrip\u00adti\u00adve effort almost against my will, under a kind of com\u00adpul\u00adsion from outsi\u00adde. The \u201cstory\u201d must, I sup\u00adpo\u00adse, have reflec\u00adted the sty\u00adles of the various wri\u00adters I admi\u00adred at dif\u00adfe\u00adrent ages, but so far as I remem\u00adber it always had the same meticu\u00adlous des\u00adcrip\u00adti\u00adve quality.<\/p>\n

When I was about six\u00adteen I sud\u00addenly dis\u00adco\u00adve\u00adred the joy of mere words, i.e. the sounds and asso\u00adcia\u00adtions of words. The lines from Para\u00addi\u00adse Lost<\/em> \u2013<\/p>\n

So hee with dif\u00adfi\u00adculty and labour hard
\nMoved on: with dif\u00adfi\u00adculty and labour hee.<\/p>\n

which do not now seem to me so very won\u00adder\u00adful, sent shi\u00advers down my back\u00adbo\u00adne; and the spe\u00adlling \u201chee\u201d for \u201che\u201d was an added plea\u00adsu\u00adre. As for the need to des\u00adcri\u00adbe things, I knew all about it already. So it is clear what kind of books I wan\u00adted to wri\u00adte, in so far as I could be said to want to wri\u00adte books at that time. I wan\u00adted to wri\u00adte enor\u00admous natu\u00adra\u00adlis\u00adtic novels with unhappy endings, full of detai\u00adled des\u00adcrip\u00adtions and arres\u00adting simi\u00adles, and also full of pur\u00adple pas\u00adsa\u00adges in which words were used partly for the sake of their own sound. And in fact my first com\u00adple\u00adted novel, Bur\u00adme\u00adse Days<\/em>, which I wro\u00adte when I was thirty but pro\u00adjec\u00adted much ear\u00adlier, is rather that kind of book.<\/p>\n

I give all this back\u00adground infor\u00adma\u00adtion becau\u00adse I do not think one can assess a wri\u00adte\u00adr\u2019s moti\u00adves without kno\u00adwing something of his early deve\u00adlop\u00adment. His sub\u00adject mat\u00adter will be deter\u00admi\u00adned by the age he lives in \u2014 at least this is true in tumul\u00adtuous, revo\u00adlu\u00adtio\u00adnary ages like our own \u2014 but befo\u00adre he ever begins to wri\u00adte he will have acqui\u00adred an emo\u00adtio\u00adnal atti\u00adtu\u00adde from which he will never com\u00adple\u00adtely esca\u00adpe. It is his job, no doubt, to dis\u00adci\u00adpli\u00adne his tem\u00adpe\u00adra\u00adment and avoid get\u00adting stuck at some imma\u00adtu\u00adre sta\u00adge, in some per\u00adver\u00adse mood; but if he esca\u00adpes from his early influen\u00adces alto\u00adgether, he will have killed his impul\u00adse to wri\u00adte. Put\u00adting asi\u00adde the need to earn a living, I think the\u00adre are four great moti\u00adves for wri\u00adting, at any rate for wri\u00adting pro\u00adse. They exist in dif\u00adfe\u00adrent degrees in every wri\u00adter, and in any one wri\u00adter the pro\u00adpor\u00adtions will vary from time to time, accor\u00adding to the atmosphe\u00adre in which he is living. They are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Sheer egoism. <\/strong>Desire to seem cle\u00adver, to be tal\u00adked about, to be remem\u00adbe\u00adred after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snub\u00adbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is hum\u00adbug to pre\u00adtend this is not a moti\u00adve, and a strong one. Wri\u00adters sha\u00adre this cha\u00adrac\u00adte\u00adris\u00adtic with scien\u00adtists, artists, poli\u00adti\u00adcians, law\u00adyers, sol\u00addiers, suc\u00adcess\u00adful busi\u00adness\u00admen \u2014 in short, with the who\u00adle top crust of huma\u00adnity. The great mass of human beings are not acu\u00adtely sel\u00adfish. After the age of about thirty they almost aban\u00addon the sen\u00adse of being indi\u00advi\u00adduals at all \u2014 and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothe\u00adred under drud\u00adgery. But the\u00adre is also the mino\u00adrity of gif\u00adted, will\u00adful peo\u00adple who are deter\u00admi\u00adned to live their own lives to the end, and wri\u00adters belong in this class. Serious wri\u00adters, I should say, are on the who\u00adle more vain and self-cen\u00adte\u00adred than jour\u00adna\u00adlists, though less inter\u00ades\u00adted in money .<\/li>\n
  2. Aesthe\u00adtic enthu\u00adsiasm.<\/strong> Per\u00adcep\u00adtion of beauty in the exter\u00adnal world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arran\u00adge\u00adment. Plea\u00adsu\u00adre in the impact of one sound on another, in the fir\u00admness of good pro\u00adse or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to sha\u00adre an expe\u00adrien\u00adce which one feels is valua\u00adble and ought not to be mis\u00adsed. The aesthe\u00adtic moti\u00adve is very fee\u00adble in a lot of wri\u00adters, but even a pamph\u00adle\u00adteer or wri\u00adter of text\u00adbooks will have pet words and phra\u00adses which appeal to him for non-uti\u00adli\u00adta\u00adrian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typo\u00adgraphy, width of mar\u00adgins, etc. Abo\u00adve the level of a rail\u00adway gui\u00adde, no book is qui\u00adte free from aesthe\u00adtic considerations.<\/li>\n
  3. His\u00adto\u00adri\u00adcal impul\u00adse.<\/strong> Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and sto\u00adre them up for the use of posterity.<\/li>\n
  4. Poli\u00adti\u00adcal pur\u00adpo\u00adse<\/strong> \u2014 using the word \u201cpoli\u00adti\u00adcal\u201d in the widest pos\u00adsi\u00adble sen\u00adse. Desire to push the world in a cer\u00adtain direc\u00adtion, to alter other peo\u00adples\u2019 idea of the kind of society that they should stri\u00adve after. Once again, no book is genui\u00adnely free from poli\u00adti\u00adcal bias. The opi\u00adnion that art should have nothing to do with poli\u00adtics is itself a poli\u00adti\u00adcal attitude.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It can be seen how the\u00adse various impul\u00adses must war against one another, and how they must fluc\u00adtua\u00adte from per\u00adson to per\u00adson and from time to time. By natu\u00adre \u2014 taking your \u201cnatu\u00adre\u201d to be the sta\u00adte you have attai\u00adned when you are first adult \u2014 I am a per\u00adson in whom the first three moti\u00adves would out\u00adweigh the fourth. In a pea\u00adce\u00adful age I might have writ\u00adten orna\u00adte or merely des\u00adcrip\u00adti\u00adve books, and might have remai\u00adned almost una\u00adwa\u00adre of my poli\u00adti\u00adcal loyal\u00adties. As it is I have been for\u00adced into beco\u00adming a sort of pamph\u00adle\u00adteer. First I spent five years in an unsui\u00adta\u00adble pro\u00adfes\u00adsion (the Indian Impe\u00adrial Poli\u00adce, in Bur\u00adma), and then I under\u00adwent poverty and the sen\u00adse of fai\u00adlu\u00adre. This increa\u00adsed my natu\u00adral hatred of autho\u00adrity and made me for the first time fully awa\u00adre of the exis\u00adten\u00adce of the wor\u00adking clas\u00adses, and the job in Bur\u00adma had given me some unders\u00adtan\u00adding of the natu\u00adre of impe\u00adria\u00adlism: but the\u00adse expe\u00adrien\u00adces were not enough to give me an accu\u00adra\u00adte poli\u00adti\u00adcal orien\u00adta\u00adtion. Then came Hitler, the Spa\u00adnish Civil War, etc. By the end of 1935 I had still fai\u00adled to reach a firm deci\u00adsion. I remem\u00adber a little poem that I wro\u00adte at that date, expres\u00adsing my dilemma:<\/p>\n

    A happy vicar I might have been
    \nTwo hun\u00addred years ago
    \nTo pre\u00adach upon eter\u00adnal doom
    \nAnd watch my wal\u00adnuts grow;<\/p>\n

    But born, alas, in an evil time,
    \nI mis\u00adsed that plea\u00adsant haven,
    \nFor the hair has grown on my upper lip
    \nAnd the clergy are all clean-shaven.<\/p>\n

    And later still the times were good,
    \nWe were so easy to please,
    \nWe roc\u00adked our trou\u00adbled thoughts to sleep
    \nOn the bosoms of the trees.<\/p>\n

    All igno\u00adrant we dared to own
    \nThe joys we now dissemble;
    \nThe green\u00adfinch on the apple bough
    \nCould make my enemies tremble.<\/p>\n

    But gir\u00adl\u2019s bellies and apricots,
    \nRoach in a sha\u00added stream,
    \nHor\u00adses, ducks in flight at dawn,
    \nAll the\u00adse are a dream.<\/p>\n

    It is for\u00adbid\u00adden to dream again;
    \nWe maim our joys or hide them:
    \nHor\u00adses are made of chro\u00admium steel
    \nAnd little fat men shall ride them.<\/p>\n

    I am the worm who never turned,
    \nThe eunuch without a harem;
    \nBet\u00adween the priest and the commissar
    \nI walk like Euge\u00adne Aram;<\/p>\n

    And the com\u00admis\u00adsar is telling my fortune
    \nWhi\u00adle the radio plays,
    \nBut the priest has pro\u00admi\u00adsed an Aus\u00adtin Seven,
    \nFor Dug\u00adgie always pays.<\/p>\n

    I dreamt I dwelt in mar\u00adble halls,
    \nAnd woke to find it true;
    \nI was\u00adn\u2019t born for an age like this;
    \nWas Smith? Was Jones? Were you?<\/p>\n

    The Spa\u00adnish war and other events in 1936\u201337 tur\u00adned the sca\u00adle and the\u00adreaf\u00adter I knew whe\u00adre I stood. Every line of serious work that I have writ\u00adten sin\u00adce 1936 has been writ\u00adten, directly or indi\u00adrectly, against<\/em> tota\u00adli\u00adta\u00adria\u00adnism and for<\/em> demo\u00adcra\u00adtic socia\u00adlism, as I unders\u00adtand it. It seems to me non\u00adsen\u00adse, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid wri\u00adting of such sub\u00adjects. Ever\u00adyo\u00adne wri\u00adtes of them in one gui\u00adse or another. It is simply a ques\u00adtion of which side one takes and what approach one follows. And the more one is cons\u00adcious of one\u2019s poli\u00adti\u00adcal bias, the more chan\u00adce one has of acting poli\u00adti\u00adcally without sacri\u00adfi\u00adcing one\u2019s aesthe\u00adtic and inte\u00adllec\u00adtual integrity.<\/p>\n

    What I have most wan\u00adted to do throughout the past ten years is to make poli\u00adti\u00adcal wri\u00adting into an art. My star\u00adting point is always a fee\u00adling of par\u00adti\u00adsanship, a sen\u00adse of injus\u00adti\u00adce. When I sit down to wri\u00adte a book, I do not say to myself, \u201cI am going to pro\u00addu\u00adce a work of art.\u201d I wri\u00adte it becau\u00adse the\u00adre is some lie that I want to expo\u00adse, some fact to which I want to draw atten\u00adtion, and my initial con\u00adcern is to get a hea\u00adring. But I could not do the work of wri\u00adting a book, or even a long maga\u00adzi\u00adne arti\u00adcle, if it were not also an aesthe\u00adtic expe\u00adrien\u00adce. Anyo\u00adne who cares to exa\u00admi\u00adne my work will see that even when it is down\u00adright pro\u00adpa\u00adgan\u00adda it con\u00adtains much that a full-time poli\u00adti\u00adcian would con\u00adsi\u00adder irre\u00adle\u00advant. I am not able, and do not want, com\u00adple\u00adtely to aban\u00addon the world view that I acqui\u00adred in childhood. So long as I remain ali\u00adve and well I shall con\u00adti\u00adnue to feel strongly about pro\u00adse sty\u00adle, to love the sur\u00adfa\u00adce of the earth, and to take a plea\u00adsu\u00adre in solid objects and scraps of use\u00adless infor\u00adma\u00adtion. It is no use trying to sup\u00adpress that side of myself. The job is to recon\u00adci\u00adle my ingrai\u00adned likes and dis\u00adli\u00adkes with the essen\u00adtially public, non-indi\u00advi\u00addual acti\u00advi\u00adties that this age for\u00adces on all of us.<\/p>\n

    It is not easy. It rai\u00adses pro\u00adblems of cons\u00adtruc\u00adtion and of lan\u00adgua\u00adge, and it rai\u00adses in a new way the pro\u00adblem of truth\u00adful\u00adness. Let me give just one exam\u00adple of the cru\u00adder kind of dif\u00adfi\u00adculty that ari\u00adses. My book about the Spa\u00adnish civil war, Homa\u00adge to Cata\u00adlo\u00adnia<\/em>, is of cour\u00adse a frankly poli\u00adti\u00adcal book, but in the main it is writ\u00adten with a cer\u00adtain detach\u00adment and regard for form. I did try very hard in it to tell the who\u00adle truth without vio\u00adla\u00adting my lite\u00adrary ins\u00adtin\u00adcts. But among other things it con\u00adtains a long chap\u00adter, full of news\u00adpa\u00adper quo\u00adta\u00adtions and the like, defen\u00adding the Trotsk\u00adyists who were accu\u00adsed of plot\u00adting with Fran\u00adco. Clearly such a chap\u00adter, which after a year or two would lose its inter\u00adest for any ordi\u00adnary reader, must ruin the book. A cri\u00adtic whom I res\u00adpect read me a lec\u00adtu\u00adre about it. \u201cWhy did you put in all that stuff?\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019\u00adve tur\u00adned what might have been a good book into jour\u00adna\u00adlism.\u201d What he said was true, but I could not have done other\u00adwi\u00adse. I hap\u00adpe\u00adned to know, what very few peo\u00adple in England had been allo\u00adwed to know, that inno\u00adcent men were being fal\u00adsely accu\u00adsed. If I had not been angry about that I should never have writ\u00adten the book.<\/p>\n

    In one form or another this pro\u00adblem comes up again. The pro\u00adblem of lan\u00adgua\u00adge is subtler and would take too long to dis\u00adcuss. I will only say that of late years I have tried to wri\u00adte less pic\u00adtu\u00adres\u00adquely and more exactly. In any case I find that by the time you have per\u00adfec\u00adted any sty\u00adle of wri\u00adting, you have always out\u00adgrown it. Ani\u00admal Farm<\/em> was the first book in which I tried, with full cons\u00adcious\u00adness of what I was doing, to fuse poli\u00adti\u00adcal pur\u00adpo\u00adse and artis\u00adtic pur\u00adpo\u00adse into one who\u00adle. I have not writ\u00adten a novel for seven years, but I hope to wri\u00adte another fairly soon. It is bound to be a fai\u00adlu\u00adre, every book is a fai\u00adlu\u00adre, but I do know with some cla\u00adrity what kind of book I want to wri\u00adte. Loo\u00adking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it appear as though my moti\u00adves in wri\u00adting were wholly public-spi\u00adri\u00adted. I don\u2019t want to lea\u00adve that as the final impres\u00adsion. All wri\u00adters are vain, sel\u00adfish, and lazy, and at the very bot\u00adtom of their moti\u00adves the\u00adre lies a mys\u00adtery. Wri\u00adting a book is a horri\u00adble, exhaus\u00adting strug\u00adgle, like a long bout of some pain\u00adful ill\u00adness. One would never under\u00adta\u00adke such a thing if one were not dri\u00adven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor unders\u00adtand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same ins\u00adtinct that makes a baby squall for atten\u00adtion. And yet it is also true that one can wri\u00adte nothing reada\u00adble unless one cons\u00adtantly strug\u00adgles to effa\u00adce one\u2019s own per\u00adso\u00adna\u00adlity. Good pro\u00adse is like a win\u00addow\u00adpa\u00adne. I can\u00adnot say with cer\u00adtainty which of my moti\u00adves are the stron\u00adgest, but I know which of them deser\u00adve to be follo\u00adwed. And loo\u00adking back through my work, I see that it is inva\u00adriably whe\u00adre I lac\u00adked a poli\u00adti\u00adcal pur\u00adpo\u00adse that I wro\u00adte life\u00adless books and was betra\u00adyed into pur\u00adple pas\u00adsa\u00adges, sen\u00adten\u00adces without mea\u00adning, deco\u00adra\u00adti\u00adve adjec\u00adti\u00adves and hum\u00adbug generally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sour\u00adce: Poli\u00adti\u00adcal Wri\u00adtings of Geor\u00adge Orwell From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a wri\u00adter. Bet\u00adween the ages of about seven\u00adteen and twenty-four I tried to aban\u00addon this idea, but I did so with the cons\u00adcious\u00adness that I was outraging [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/javierarmas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}