I really enjoyed reading these! I love the direction that your essay series took regarding magic and predictive programming and the deeper mechanisms behind propaganda. This was so interesting (and if I recall, I think Huxley mentions this type of thing in "Brave New World Revisited"). It seems I've only scratched the surface... thanks so much for sharing this.
Isn't that amazing. This seems to be one of those rare synchronicities where many isolated individuals come to the same conclusion independently. For a while now, I've been joking about how we always used to wonder whether the future held 1984 or Brave New World. None of us imagined it even could be both, at the same time. Great essay, as is that of your friend.
I actually bought a 'Make 1984 Fiction Again' T-shirt a couple of months ago from Amazon. I doubt it will do any bloody good, but it makes me feel good every time I put it on! Sometimes trivial acts of rebellion can feel like a psychic balm.
Well, when I read both essays my mind wandered to H.G. Wells The Time Machine. He may have been wrong about the mechanics of Morlocks and Eloi, but he got the division completely right! The Eloi are the vicious ones.
I'd say Brave New World & 1984 with at least a smidgen of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange tossed in, no matter if satire, prophesy, or whatever, pretty much describes, defines delimits the chaos that's today.
The year is 2024, and I own a flip phone. When people ask -- and they invariably do -- why I don't get a smart phone, my response is always the same. "I'm smart enough already."
The US is sliding into a mix of the 2 books with the college-educated running toward the "Brave New World" while the non-college-educated are rebelling from having the "1984" experience.
England is becoming overrun by Islamists which was not mentioned in either book.
Are you ready for Sharia Law to be imposed in the UK, and the Union Jack to be recolored as black, white and red with a green crescent over it like other Islamic state flags in the Middle East?
"A system of government would have a very difficult time persisting indefinitely if its people were constantly miserable". Depends where you land in the socio-economic ladder. People on the lower end are consistently miserable, but lack the means to do fuck-all about it. The system knows this, the middle-to-upper classes know this, and both quietly agree to let it continue, lest they lose their tenuous status and escape the described misery.
As soon as you quoted: “The ideal stimulant, powerful but innocuous,” which will “temporarily alter the chemistry of the brain and the associated state of the mind without doing any permanent damage to the organism as a whole.” I immediately thought "Sounds like social media", too funny.
In regards to the Orwell vs Huxley debate, I too have always thought that both are relevant today, it is almost as if the powers that be used both books as instruction manuals for authoritarianism. A multifaceted approach.
Glad we’re on the same page regarding the social media thing, haha!
Sometimes I wonder if these books really were used as instructional manuals for totalitarianism. It’s a scary thought—how do you issue a warning without also giving your opponent some great ideas?
I think you will find this video on Orwell very interesting. Alan Watt, said that Orwell was raised within the 'family" but turned on them in his late years and exposed the system for what it was, and what they had planned.
Interesting and it deserves a closer read than the skim I just gave it so have saved it for later. It is important to remember that Orwell wrote one dystopian novel. Most of his other fiction leaves you with the feeling that, after a major journey of some kind, nothing ever changes in the lives of the protagonists. His other works were non-fiction like The Road to Wigan Pier; Down and Out in Paris and London; Homage to Catalonia and even the fictional Burmese days was a story built around his time there. Animal Farm was a political allegory…ok in a way that is oddly dystopian but the characters were based on real figures in the 20th century which was in some places dystopian. If there is a common theme it is how individuals are moulded by their circumstances. I will dig into to what Huxley says in the linked letter and may come back.
These are not incompatible visions and we are proving that now. To anyone who has not ever read the appendix in Nineteen Eighty Four about Newspeak, I would urge you to go back surprise yourself with how prescient that is.
Melissa. Obliged to you for this and it was responsible for me signing up to four publications this morning. The Huxley letter is incredible and too much to unpack or do justice to in a comment. I do have a series in drafts called 'The Road to Getting Here' which is onthe themes that run through Orwell's works - many of them surfacing in Nineteen Eighty-Four. I put them on hold because I wanted to read the biography of his second wife first to get a sense of her influence, which I understand may be underestimated. This Huxley letter provides a great contemporary perspective on the work back when it was still a bit academic. I am definitely going to examine it closely. Good work.
I’m glad you enjoyed, and I hope to read your series one day!
There’s definitely a lot about his second wife that I still don’t know, although I’ve always found her situation to be kind of weird (he seemed to have been romantically involved with another woman, at the time: Celia Kirwan, who was involved with his famed list of names that he sent to the British government, and who allegedly denied a marriage proposal from Orwell before he decided to marry Sonia). Plus, I’ve always found it odd that she goes by the name ‘Orwell,’ despite the fact that it was her husband’s pen name.
Strange stuff, and I’m probably butchering it here. You’ve definitely inspired me to read her biography.
Oh and I forgot to mention the Hitchens' essay 'On Animal Farm' which describes how it was rescued from obscurity by Ukrainian refugees who recognised their own story in it. Also how American troops were instructed to destroy the book if they found it because it was offensive to the Russian allies in WW2. Remarkable it survived.
I just saw your other articles and you are doing an excellent job with this. I like the fact you go into his essays and are getting a good handle on his politics - which most other people seem to get wrong. Recently I bristled when someone referred to him as a poverty tourist. As for my series, it will be a while before I get back to that one and by that time, I will probably be citing you. I assume you have read 'Why Orwell Matters' by Christopher Hitchens but if not I think you will find it interesting. More later. Will read comment etc...
I haven’t read “Why Orwell Matters” or “On Animal Farm.” I’ll definitely give Christopher Hitchens a read.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad I’m getting it right—I did all this reading on my own, and went into this project grimly aware of the possibility of getting everything wrong.
I hope you continue to follow along! Recommendations are always appreciated, and if you have anything to add, I’m all ears.
Brave New World = carrot
1984 = stick
2 sides, same coin
Exactly! :)
OMG! I wrote the same thing a couple years ago! Huxley got it right! Here’s my analysis: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-brave-new-world-of-1984-part
I really enjoyed reading these! I love the direction that your essay series took regarding magic and predictive programming and the deeper mechanisms behind propaganda. This was so interesting (and if I recall, I think Huxley mentions this type of thing in "Brave New World Revisited"). It seems I've only scratched the surface... thanks so much for sharing this.
I agree, I think both. Brave New World was the cheese luring us to the mousetrap that is 1984.
Fun fact: Huxely was actually Orwell’s high school french teacher!
Both
Isn't that amazing. This seems to be one of those rare synchronicities where many isolated individuals come to the same conclusion independently. For a while now, I've been joking about how we always used to wonder whether the future held 1984 or Brave New World. None of us imagined it even could be both, at the same time. Great essay, as is that of your friend.
I actually bought a 'Make 1984 Fiction Again' T-shirt a couple of months ago from Amazon. I doubt it will do any bloody good, but it makes me feel good every time I put it on! Sometimes trivial acts of rebellion can feel like a psychic balm.
Totally agreed about the little acts of rebellion.
It’s so weird how all these dystopian authors manage to be right in different ways.
Well, when I read both essays my mind wandered to H.G. Wells The Time Machine. He may have been wrong about the mechanics of Morlocks and Eloi, but he got the division completely right! The Eloi are the vicious ones.
Good un, Melissa!
I'd say Brave New World & 1984 with at least a smidgen of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange tossed in, no matter if satire, prophesy, or whatever, pretty much describes, defines delimits the chaos that's today.
Interesting times.
Yes, definitely A Clockwork Orange! It’s a shame that it’s rarely brought up in the discussion (probably because of the awful Kubrick movie).
Yep but hey, I thought the movie was Хорошо!
The year is 2024, and I own a flip phone. When people ask -- and they invariably do -- why I don't get a smart phone, my response is always the same. "I'm smart enough already."
Well Done!
Thank you, Albert! :)
They BOTH got it right. Different perspectives from different countries on the same results. Huxsley was seeing the US. Orwell was seeing England.
Hm, interesting perspective. Do you think that’s still true (that England looks more like Orwell’s vision today)?
No.
The US is sliding into a mix of the 2 books with the college-educated running toward the "Brave New World" while the non-college-educated are rebelling from having the "1984" experience.
England is becoming overrun by Islamists which was not mentioned in either book.
Are you ready for Sharia Law to be imposed in the UK, and the Union Jack to be recolored as black, white and red with a green crescent over it like other Islamic state flags in the Middle East?
"A system of government would have a very difficult time persisting indefinitely if its people were constantly miserable". Depends where you land in the socio-economic ladder. People on the lower end are consistently miserable, but lack the means to do fuck-all about it. The system knows this, the middle-to-upper classes know this, and both quietly agree to let it continue, lest they lose their tenuous status and escape the described misery.
That’s a good point. I guess a population can be miserable, so long as they don’t have too much free time to think about it.
As soon as you quoted: “The ideal stimulant, powerful but innocuous,” which will “temporarily alter the chemistry of the brain and the associated state of the mind without doing any permanent damage to the organism as a whole.” I immediately thought "Sounds like social media", too funny.
In regards to the Orwell vs Huxley debate, I too have always thought that both are relevant today, it is almost as if the powers that be used both books as instruction manuals for authoritarianism. A multifaceted approach.
Glad we’re on the same page regarding the social media thing, haha!
Sometimes I wonder if these books really were used as instructional manuals for totalitarianism. It’s a scary thought—how do you issue a warning without also giving your opponent some great ideas?
I think you will find this video on Orwell very interesting. Alan Watt, said that Orwell was raised within the 'family" but turned on them in his late years and exposed the system for what it was, and what they had planned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG-Lfk4GSPU
Thanks so much for sharing this, @Karafree! Can’t wait to watch—this might be the information I’ve been looking for about Orwell’s background.
at about 15:25 in he discusses Huxley and Orwell and their differences, relationship.
Look at the Slot Machine Effect as applied to social media.
This is a very good article. Thank you!
Interesting and it deserves a closer read than the skim I just gave it so have saved it for later. It is important to remember that Orwell wrote one dystopian novel. Most of his other fiction leaves you with the feeling that, after a major journey of some kind, nothing ever changes in the lives of the protagonists. His other works were non-fiction like The Road to Wigan Pier; Down and Out in Paris and London; Homage to Catalonia and even the fictional Burmese days was a story built around his time there. Animal Farm was a political allegory…ok in a way that is oddly dystopian but the characters were based on real figures in the 20th century which was in some places dystopian. If there is a common theme it is how individuals are moulded by their circumstances. I will dig into to what Huxley says in the linked letter and may come back.
These are not incompatible visions and we are proving that now. To anyone who has not ever read the appendix in Nineteen Eighty Four about Newspeak, I would urge you to go back surprise yourself with how prescient that is.
Melissa. Obliged to you for this and it was responsible for me signing up to four publications this morning. The Huxley letter is incredible and too much to unpack or do justice to in a comment. I do have a series in drafts called 'The Road to Getting Here' which is onthe themes that run through Orwell's works - many of them surfacing in Nineteen Eighty-Four. I put them on hold because I wanted to read the biography of his second wife first to get a sense of her influence, which I understand may be underestimated. This Huxley letter provides a great contemporary perspective on the work back when it was still a bit academic. I am definitely going to examine it closely. Good work.
I’m glad you enjoyed, and I hope to read your series one day!
There’s definitely a lot about his second wife that I still don’t know, although I’ve always found her situation to be kind of weird (he seemed to have been romantically involved with another woman, at the time: Celia Kirwan, who was involved with his famed list of names that he sent to the British government, and who allegedly denied a marriage proposal from Orwell before he decided to marry Sonia). Plus, I’ve always found it odd that she goes by the name ‘Orwell,’ despite the fact that it was her husband’s pen name.
Strange stuff, and I’m probably butchering it here. You’ve definitely inspired me to read her biography.
Oh and I forgot to mention the Hitchens' essay 'On Animal Farm' which describes how it was rescued from obscurity by Ukrainian refugees who recognised their own story in it. Also how American troops were instructed to destroy the book if they found it because it was offensive to the Russian allies in WW2. Remarkable it survived.
I just saw your other articles and you are doing an excellent job with this. I like the fact you go into his essays and are getting a good handle on his politics - which most other people seem to get wrong. Recently I bristled when someone referred to him as a poverty tourist. As for my series, it will be a while before I get back to that one and by that time, I will probably be citing you. I assume you have read 'Why Orwell Matters' by Christopher Hitchens but if not I think you will find it interesting. More later. Will read comment etc...
Poverty tourist, ugh…
I haven’t read “Why Orwell Matters” or “On Animal Farm.” I’ll definitely give Christopher Hitchens a read.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad I’m getting it right—I did all this reading on my own, and went into this project grimly aware of the possibility of getting everything wrong.
I hope you continue to follow along! Recommendations are always appreciated, and if you have anything to add, I’m all ears.
I wouldn't worry. Your attention to detail will steer you.