Nineteen Eighty-Four
by George Orwell (also rec’d by David Bowie , John Lennon , Hozier , Richard Branson , Richey Edwards & Steve Jobs )
Buy on AmazonThis is one of the few dystopian or cacotopian visions which have changed our habits of thought. It is possible to say that the ghastly future Orwell foretold has not come about simply because he foretold it: we were warned in time. On the other hand, it is possible to think of this novel as less a prophecy than the comic joining together of two disparate things — an image of England as it was in the immediate post-war era, a land of gloom and shortages, and the bizarrely impossible notion of...
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"This is one of the few dystopian or cacotopian visions which have changed our habits of thought. It is possible to say that the ghastly future Orwell foretold has not come about simply because he foretold it: we were warned in time. On the other hand, it is possible to think of this novel as less a prophecy than the comic joining together of two disparate things — an image of England as it was in the immediate post-war era, a land of gloom and shortages, and the bizarrely impossible notion of..."
Favorite books · radicalreads.com
"I read Animal Farm first, but 1984 was an even more intense examination of manipulation and psychological control that made me understand just how necessary it is to push back against restricting freedom of speech and the need to question propaganda. Big Brother has been a theme in a lot of my work, and I even named a show in London ‘Nineteen Eighty Fouria’ based on the seemingly joyful embrace of expanding surveillance in London post-9/11."
Favorite books · radicalreads.com