4 ms·

What about this is specifically Orwellian?

freehunter 9y ago
People have no idea what Orwellian actually means. When someone says "1984" I automatically assume they mean "Brave New World", and that they've never read either of them.
- musage 9y ago
  I think the devaluation of the actually existing people and the putting on a pedestal of images (not just in the literal sense) are two sides of the same coin really. People turn themselves into machines and worship machines. Nobody wins, because nobody remains. The End. > The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator. But the woman sang so tunefully as to turn the dreadful rubbish into an almost pleasant sound. [..] > She knew the whole drivelling song by heart, it seemed. Her voice floated upward with the sweet summer air, very tuneful, charged with a sort of happy melancholy. One had the feeling that she would have been perfectly content, if the June evening had been endless and the supply of clothes inexhaustible, to remain there for a thousand years, pegging out diapers and singing rubbish. It struck him as a curious fact that he had never heard a member of the Party singing alone and spontaneously. It would even have seemed slightly unorthodox, a dangerous eccentricity, like talking to oneself. Perhaps it was only when people were somewhere near the starvation level that they had anything to sing about. -- George Orwell, "Nineteen-Eightyfour"
crispyporkbites 9y ago
George Orwell was a fictional person
- ravenstine 9y ago
  I see you might have gotten a downvote or two, but for those who don't know, George Orwell is a pen-name. The author's real name was Eric Blair.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  No, George Orwell was a professional name for a real person; there's no fictional character. There are fictional characters that are listed as authors of actual books (Richard Castle comes to mind) but a mere pen name is not a fictional person.

People have no idea what Orwellian actually means. When someone says "1984" I automatically assume they mean "Brave New World", and that they've never read either of them.

musage 9y ago
I think the devaluation of the actually existing people and the putting on a pedestal of images (not just in the literal sense) are two sides of the same coin really. People turn themselves into machines and worship machines. Nobody wins, because nobody remains. The End. > The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator. But the woman sang so tunefully as to turn the dreadful rubbish into an almost pleasant sound. [..] > She knew the whole drivelling song by heart, it seemed. Her voice floated upward with the sweet summer air, very tuneful, charged with a sort of happy melancholy. One had the feeling that she would have been perfectly content, if the June evening had been endless and the supply of clothes inexhaustible, to remain there for a thousand years, pegging out diapers and singing rubbish. It struck him as a curious fact that he had never heard a member of the Party singing alone and spontaneously. It would even have seemed slightly unorthodox, a dangerous eccentricity, like talking to oneself. Perhaps it was only when people were somewhere near the starvation level that they had anything to sing about. -- George Orwell, "Nineteen-Eightyfour"

crispyporkbites 9y ago

George Orwell was a fictional person

ravenstine 9y ago
I see you might have gotten a downvote or two, but for those who don't know, George Orwell is a pen-name. The author's real name was Eric Blair.
dragonwriter 9y ago
No, George Orwell was a professional name for a real person; there's no fictional character. There are fictional characters that are listed as authors of actual books (Richard Castle comes to mind) but a mere pen name is not a fictional person.