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(The Real) Big Brother turns 60 in June
blackrock
Posts: 3,873 Forum Member
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Sixty years ago, in June 1949, George Orwell published 1984, his dystopian vision of Britain's future under the thumb of Big Brother.
The Telegraph has published a nice little "A-Z" that lists some of the events in the life and times of George Orwell, creator of the real Big Brother:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/5386673/George-Orwell-from-Animal-Farm-to-Zog-an-A-Z-of-Orwell.html
In June, there will also be a theatrical celebration of some of Orwell's work at Trafalgar Studios, including extracts from 1984:
The evening concludes with Dominic Cavendish’s chilling distillation of Nineteen Eighty-Four’s ‘Ministry of Love’ interrogation scenes involving party apparatchik O'Brien and the novel’s lone hero Winston Smith, which contain some of the most famous lines in 20th Century English literature and one of its most concentrated accounts of torture.
http://www.orwellcelebration.org/index.html
The Telegraph has published a nice little "A-Z" that lists some of the events in the life and times of George Orwell, creator of the real Big Brother:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/5386673/George-Orwell-from-Animal-Farm-to-Zog-an-A-Z-of-Orwell.html
In June, there will also be a theatrical celebration of some of Orwell's work at Trafalgar Studios, including extracts from 1984:
The evening concludes with Dominic Cavendish’s chilling distillation of Nineteen Eighty-Four’s ‘Ministry of Love’ interrogation scenes involving party apparatchik O'Brien and the novel’s lone hero Winston Smith, which contain some of the most famous lines in 20th Century English literature and one of its most concentrated accounts of torture.
http://www.orwellcelebration.org/index.html
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Comments
The last film they did of it was really poor - they even altered the ending which ruined the whole point of the story.
The proles were allowed to be prostitutes because "proles and animals are free."
From the Newspeak dictionary:
prole - Proletarians. Approximately 85% of Oceania's pbopulation are in this class. Members of the party viewed them as animals. They are not as rigidly observed as members of the party, and very few (if any) have telescreens in their home. They are permitted to indulge in pornography, prostitution, and other acts considered thoughtcrime, simply because it would be impossible to observe all of them as rigidly as the party observes its own members. Plus, allowing them to indulge in these "little joys" helps to keep the masses content.
prolefeed - Rubbishy "Entertainment" and spurious news which the Party handed out to the masses. This includes written literature, movies, porn, music, and other various propaganda created for the proles. (For a modern example of prolefeed, just turn on your television or radio. With the exception of some scientific programming, everything else is prolefeed.)
http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html
So we've lost the livefeed in BB10, but we've still got the prolefeed!:D
Was it - The John Hurt one? Its so long since i saw it i cant remember! Think i'll have to watch it again - though the fact i have forgotten about it probably is a clue that it wasn't very good:o
The Richard Burton/John Hurt one? I loved Burton as O'Brien.
Didn't it end with Winston sitting in the Chestnut Tree with his glass of gin...he loves Big Brother...he is waiting to be erased.
Or am I mixing it up with the book too much? I haven't seen it in years.
"I sold you, and you sold me." Have they done a BB series where the HMs are forced to betray each other when BB threatens them with their worst nightmare in a hidden room? I haven't seen all the series yet.
:cool::cool::cool::cool::D:D:D:D
The final scene of the book and the (1984) movie were the same but the movie, I remember, was a lot more ambivalent.
And we did have a BB series (6 or 7?) with the notorious 'Room 101' where the contestants had to face a random gruesome ordeal, but unsurprisingly there were no consequences bordering on desperate betrayal.
It's a tragedy that many people just vaguely associate the book with the TV show these days when the book should be lauded for foretelling so many negative aspects of contemporary society (the surveillance society, the ongoing 'war on terror', fostering of a fear and paranoia culture, and indeed 'prolefeed' from the mass media to distract the masses).