Why are so many people buying ‘1984’? – Mrs Rogers
So as I was driving home from school today I heard an article on the news about the sudden increase in purchases of George Orwell’s epic novel “1984”. Since the recent American election it has become the best selling book on Amazon. A book written about the year 1984, yet written in the year 1948. It was written by George Orwell following his own experience of two world wars, he predicted the distopian world which included “Oceania”, “Eurasia” and “Eastasia”- each representing parts of our current world. There was reference to iconic objects in popular culture that we take for granted today such as “Big Brother”; would that awful programme exist had Mr Orwell not mentioned it? Or perhaps it would have had a very different name, “Who’s watching you”, or “Let’s make unknown, slightly crazy people very rich”, the list could go on!
Another popular programme as a result of George Orwell’s novel is Room 101, where celebrities select items of their life that annoy them and place them in Room 101, never to be seen again. Again, both of these programmes seem bizarrely named if it wasn’t for the creative ability of Mr Orwell. Sadly he died shortly after the publication of his novel. He would not have seen his legacy in popular culture and GCSE specification for over 50 years.
But why the sudden rise in popularity in early 2017? Are we now entering the dystopia that Orwell predicted? What about the three separate cultures of the West, Russia and Asia? The possible control of the media occurring in USA, where Trump is cracking down on journalists who reported the number of marches covering America in protest of his inauguration? He has started to vilify CNN who always portrayed his rise to power in a negative light. Is this the freedom of the press that we are used to? Winston Smith, the main protagonist in 1984, wanted to be human and live a free and happy life. Did George Orwell predict he would have a best selling novel with so many parallels in modern life in 2017. Now for the confession, I have never read this novel, so I am off to amazon, or my local independent bookshop, to get my copy of this best selling novel. Feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts on Orwell’s predictions.
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