WIKA "1984"

What I know about 1984:

Pretty much everything I know about 1984 I know from osmosis.  It is literally everywhere in entertainment.  Whether it's Hodgins on Bones saying he's worried about Big Brother listening in the on the conversation or watching Minority Report and worry about the Thought Police, we cannot help but know this novel without having actually read it.   It directly informs THX1138, George Lucas' student film which is world the reading, and even my favorite novel of all time which I've never actually finished reading, Lanark by Alisdair Grey.  All of Phillip K. Dick's paranoid sci-fi fantasies find their root there.

One of the most acclaimed commercials of all time was a spot for the first Macintosh from Apple.  It's tagline declared that the Macintosh was the reason "1984 won't be like 1984", an endearing moment of marketing hubris that clearly wasn't the case.  Even our most recent scandal, the NSA spying on American citizens, is reported on by using buzzwords from George Orwell's work.  It has so fully permeated the culture that I believe that anyone could tell you the basic storyline without ever having actually read it.

George Orwell was, of course, the man who wrote Animal Farm which I also haven't yet read.  I can feel the judgmental glares now, stop.  I was homeschooled half my life.  I was reading Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Robinson Crusoe, and Pilgrim's Progress instead and they've done well enough.  I regret nothing.

I often get George Orwell and H. G. Wells mixed up in my head.  I'm not sure why.

I'm really looking forward to this one.  A dark novel about a totalitarian society is probably just what I need after Wuthering Heights.  At least it might be a bit of a decent comedown before I get to the next novel,  Little Women.

Pax,

W