1984 - Burying Caeser

[_honorentheos]

I came across this interesting article on the approach of the 70th anniversary of Orwell's 1984 and thought some here may find it interesting as well.

https://spectator.us/nineteen-eighty-four-guidebook/

"Nineteen Eighty-Four is not a guidebook for the present day"
Will Lloyd

These ideas (from the novel) have been applied to everything and anything, usually under the shade of the adjectival umbrella of ‘Orwellian’. Orwellian simply means bad. A long queue at an airport is Orwellian. China’s social credit system is Orwellian. Kellyanne Conway gassing on cable news, oh yes that too is Orwellian. If this is what makes Nineteen Eighty-Four relevant – as a source of dead fish to lob at whatever we disagree with – rather than considering exactly what it is about the things we disagree with in themselves that is objectionable, then the novel has probably come to obscure more than it reveals. Or to put it a different way, it is a novel with the meaning drained out, leaving behind an empty lake with no fish left in it.
...

If the last decade has shown us anything at all, it is that a powerful totalitarian state is no longer needed to coerce human beings. People will merrily rat on each other, hurt each other and tear each other down in exchange for more Twitter followers.

I should add I count myself among Orwell fans, and his writing is some of my favorite to read in any form. But the author makes a few good points that deserve consideration as well. I'm sure this won't be the only reference anyone comes across to the novel in the next little while, so might as well begin with a jaundiced view first. I doubt Orwell would have expected anything to be more appropriate.

[_MeDotOrg]

If I could time travel, I would like to go to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park to hear Orwell speak.

I think people say Orwellian when they mean 1984ish. Like Byzantine and Draconian, the word seems to have a life of its own, removed from the original source.

I always hear an echo of 1984 in Pete Townsend's We won't get fooled again. Four legs good! Two legs better! sounds an awful lot like Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss.

You have to wonder if he were alive today, how would he write the novel 2084? He should probably have lunch with Margaret Atwood and Neil Stephenson before sitting down at a word processor.

[_honorentheos]

One idea from the article that I found interesting is that the dystopian novel seems to have become the subject of popular young adult fiction more than contemporary novels aimed at a sophisticated adult audience:

Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four are not kept alive by literary critics or by university departments. What novelistic imitators he has today largely write dystopian young adult fiction. As impressive as Orwell’s achievements were, he inspired few serious novelists.

In many ways this story is on a shelf with Huxley's A Brave New World and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 with Orwell's own Animal Farm. But they are also products of their time. Today, the stories are portrayed in sci fi programs (Black Mirror) and visual media it seems. The novels that take on the subject get converted to visuals as quickly as the rights can be obtained. We've become complacent in accepting the background story of A Clockwork Orange and, like the adults in it, would probably benefit from a modern Orwell holding up the mirror to force us to consider why that is and what it means rather than seeking quick fixes and targets to blame for it. But we can't because the insanity of the big, sweeping brush strokes of nationalism/discontent aren't given to portrait in thoughtful media formats. How does one reflect on the nuanced way we let this happen when we're being shouted at all the time, and the obvious insanity of it all is being ignored? We can't differentiate between right and wrong, just facism and antifa because of the side they serve...

I would like to think a modern Orwell would be able to capture that and how our current dilemmas may be due to our interests becoming so niche and our values so vague we can't help but be at war with ourselves.

[_Gunnar]

Honor and MeDot, what you wrote in this thread resonates so well with the book I recently finished reading: The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump is a 2017 book, edited by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist, containing essays from 27 psychologists, psychiatrists, and mental health professionals on the "clear and present danger" that US President Donald Trump's mental health poses to the "nation and individual well being".

I would be surprised if both of you have not read it. Honestly, to me, it seems, based on well publicized events since the publication of that book, the concerns of the 27 authors who contributed to it have become noticeably more apparent. They also do a great job of describing the psychology of tyrants, in general, and that of the type of people who are initially attracted to them.