1984 by
George Orwell, 1949, Excerpt
War is
Peace.
Freedom is
Slavery.
Ignorance
is Strength.
A few agents of the
Thought Police moved always among them, spreading false rumors and marking down
and eliminating the few individuals who were judged capable of becoming
dangerous; but no attempt was made to indoctrinate them with the ideology of
the Party. It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political
feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could
be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working
hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they
sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because, being without general
ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils
invariably escaped their notice.
George
Orwell's 1984 heading for Broadway
03 Feb 2017
Dystopian novel 1984
has been topping US bestseller lists in recent weeks - and now a stage version
previously seen in the West End is heading to Broadway. Its talk of
"newspeak" and surveillance seem to have struck a nerve recently. Sales
of the George Orwell book rose after US president Donald Trump's adviser said
the White House was issuing "alternative facts" over the size of the
crowds at his inauguration. In the book, society is run by The Party which is
led by a shady figure called Big Brother - "Big Brother is watching
you". The Party uses simplistic slogans to warp reality, like Black is
White, 2+2=5, War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.
George
Orwell's '1984' hits bestseller list again
25 Jan 2017
2017 has been
"doubleplusgood" for sales of George Orwell's "1984." The
famed dystopian novel of life in a totalitarian state sat at No. 6 on Amazon's
bestseller list Tuesday morning. The novel's newfound popularity comes several
days after White House press secretary Sean Spicer argued defiantly that
Trump's swearing-in Friday drew the largest-ever audience for an inauguration
"period," despite obvious photo and statistical evidence to the
contrary. Senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway later defended that argument by
saying Spicer's false claims were actually "alternative facts." That
phrasing was reminiscent of Orwell's "Ministry of Truth," which, he
wrote, concerns itself with "lies."
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