conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is a description for a book titled A Collection of Essays about Imagine, creative, narcissism with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Essays & Correspondence? Start with the sentence 'Imagine any of today's writers of "creative nonfiction" dispatching a rogue elephant before an audience of several thousand'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Imagine any of today's writers of "creative nonfiction" dispatching a rogue elephant before an audience of several thousand. Now, imagine the essay that would result. Can we say "narcissism"? As part of the Imperial Police in Burma, the author actually found himself aiming the gun, and his record--first published in 1936--comprises eight of the highest voltage pages of English prose you'll ever read. In "Shooting an Elephant," the author illumines the shoddy recesses of his own character, illustrates the morally corrupting nature of imperialism, and indicts you, the reader, in the creature's death, a process so vividly reported it's likely to show up in your nightmares ever after. "The owner was furious, but he was only an Indian and could do nothing.... Among the Europeans opinion was divided. The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth much more than any damn Coringhee coolie."