Nineteen Eighty-Four

Written by Robert Harris Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in London on Wednesday, June 8, 1949, and in New York five days later. The world was eager for it. Within 12 months, it had sold around 50,000 hardbacks in the UK; in the U.S. sales were more than one-third of a million. It became a phenomenon. Sixty years later, no one can say how many millions of copies are in print, both in legitimate editions and samizdat versions. It has been adapted for radio, stage, television and cinema, has been studied, copied and parodied and, above all, ransacked for its ideas and images. Chilling: The ... Read Full Story

The Class of ’84 Blogathon Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) Director/Screenwriter : Michael Radford By Marilyn Ferdinand This entry is part of the Class of ’84 Blogathon being hosted by Joe Valdez at This Distracted Globe . Big Brother is watching you. Whether you’ve ever read a word, or even heard of George Orwell’s seminal dystopian tale 1984 , the above iconic quote is certain to have chilled your heart at some time or another. I’m not even sure this quote occurs in the book. It certainly doesn’t in Michael Radford’s evocative interpretation. Instead, in true cinematic fashion, the ever-present image of the carnivorous face of ... Read Full Story

ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE IS ONE MORE MOVE TOWARDS BIG BROTHER CONTROL NEW YORK, June 21st, 2008, Rupee News: FISA was passed as a way to control the Nixonite eavesdropping of political opponents. It has now been demolished. In many ways, the Republicans are better than the Democrats. At least with the Republicans we know where they stand. The Democrats on the other hand regurgitate a lot of rubescent grandiloquence but in the end they vote the same as the Republicans, which re-enforces the age old adage “ there’s not a dimes worth of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats”. The obsequious servile Democrats that ... Read Full Story

Amazon fended off Saturday accusations of Big Brother-like behavior after it quietly erased two George Orwell books from customers' electronic book readers this week. From Thursday, customers on Amazon's web forums said copies of the British author's dystopian classics "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" were mysteriously wiped from their Kindle devices. The online retailer later told CNET the books were uploaded by a publisher who did not have reproduction rights and so they were deleted. "We removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers," spokesman Drew Herdener said. The move drew unfavorable comparisons to events in Orwell's "Nineteen ... Read Full Story

The dystopian writings of George Orwell , most notably Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm (not to be confused with Animal House ), are pretty popular. It should come as no surprise, then, that there are some t-shirts that have been inspired by George Orwell’s work. What’s so amazing about these tees, however, is that I’ve only seen good ones . That’s right, no shoddy t-shirt knockoffs for George Orwell. Know of any (good or bad) that I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments. Without further ado, two by two, I give you t-shirts directly inspired by two of George Orwell’s masterpieces. 1984 1984 ... Read Full Story