George Orwell's '1984': Nothing But The Truth & Time To Wake Up
Last edited Sun May 19, 2019, 04:54 PM - Edit history (1)
Nothing But The Truth: The Legacy of George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four. Every generation turns to it in times of political turmoil, and this extract from a new book about the novel examines its relevance in the age of fake news and Trump. By Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, May 19, 2019. *Excerpts:
December 1948. A man sits at a typewriter, in bed, on a remote island, fighting to complete the book that means more to him than any other. He is terribly ill. The book will be finished and, a year or so later, so will the man.
January 2017. Another man stands before a crowd, which is not as large as he would like, in Washington DC, taking the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States of America. His press secretary says that it was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period both in person and around the globe. Asked to justify such a preposterous lie, the presidents adviser describes the statement as alternative facts. Over the next four days, US sales of the dead mans book will rocket by almost 10,000%, making it a No 1 bestseller.
When George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in the United Kingdom on 8 June 1949, in the heart of the 20th century, one critic wondered how such a timely book could possibly exert the same power over generations to come. Thirty-five years later, when the present caught up with Orwells future and the world was not the nightmare he had described, commentators again predicted that its popularity would wane. Another 35 years have elapsed since then, and Nineteen Eighty-Four remains the book we turn to when truth is mutilated, when language is distorted, when power is abused, when we want to know how bad things can get.
Nineteen Eighty-Four has not just sold tens of millions of copies it has infiltrated the consciousness of countless people who have never read it. The phrases and concepts that Orwell minted have become essential fixtures of political language, still potent after decades of use and misuse: newspeak, Big Brother, the thought police, Room 101, the two minutes hate, doublethink, unperson, memory hole, telescreen, 2+2=5 and the ministry of truth. No work of literary fiction from the past century approaches its cultural ubiquity while retaining its weight.. A novel that has been claimed by socialists, conservatives, anarchists, liberals, Catholics and libertarians of every description. Orwells famously translucent prose conceals a world of complexity.
In 2016, the world changed. As Trump took the White House, Britain voted for Brexit and populism swept across Europe, people took to talking anxiously about the upheavals of the 1970s and, worse, the 1930s. Bookshop shelves began filling up with titles such as How Democracy Ends, The Road to Unfreedom and The Death of Truth, many of which quoted Orwell. Hannah Arendts The Origins of Totalitarianism merited a new edition, pitched as a nonfiction bookend to Nineteen Eighty-Four. So did Sinclair Lewiss 1935 novel about American fascism, It Cant Happen Here. Hulus adaptation of Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale was as alarming as a documentary. I was asleep before, said Elisabeth Mosss character, Offred. Thats how we let it happen. Well, we werent asleep any more.
I was reminded of something Orwell wrote about fascism in 1936: If you pretend that it is merely an aberration which will presently pass off of its own accord, you are dreaming a dream from which you will awake when somebody coshes you with a rubber truncheon. Nineteen Eighty-Four is a book designed to wake you up...
More, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/19/legacy-george-orwell-nineteen-eighty-four
appalachiablue
(41,177 posts)"There are precedents in Orwells writing. During Trumps campaign against Hillary Clinton, it was hard to watch the candidate whipping supporters into a cry of Lock her up! without being reminded of the two minutes hate.
The president also meets most of the criteria of Orwells 1944 definition of fascism: Something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class almost any English person would accept bully as a synonym for fascist. Orwell contended that such men can only rise to the top when the status quo has failed to satisfy citizens need for justice, liberty and self-worth, but Trumps victory required one more crucial ingredient."
George Orwell Bio, BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/orwell_george.shtml
(15 mins). '1984' dystopia explained.
Uncle Joe
(58,426 posts)Thanks for the thread appalachiablue.
appalachiablue
(41,177 posts)Gumboot
(531 posts)A perfect descrition of Nigel Farage. Latter-day fascist and Brexit con-man.
appalachiablue
(41,177 posts)Last edited Wed May 22, 2019, 01:04 PM - Edit history (1)
Gumboot
(531 posts)I hope he had a good sip of it first before launching it.
appalachiablue
(41,177 posts)not happy over that one! (The shake tosser was apprehended by police early in the film).