Orwellian Warning: "Who controls the past controls the future."

Does technology help break down barriers of sex and class?
Or has it developed in a way to exploit the disenfranchised?  

Dystopian literature:
As opposed to utopian literature, dystopian literature presents a nightmarish version of the future, criticizing the current state of affairs, government, and power. 

How do dystopian novels portray the family unit?
To what extent is technology harmful to human condition?
Why do some choose to write a dystopian novel?
Why does our society eagerly consume futuristic, dystopian narratives?  

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair, 1902-1950)
Born in British India
Schooled at Eton College, England
His early experience as an imperial policeman, school teacher, and soldier during the Spanish civil war compelled him to become a political prophet against totalitarianism 

A staunch anti-fascist, anti-Stalinist, anti-totalitarian activist and a proponent for democratic socialism

his writings resonate with the post WWII climate and the fear of governmental dictatorship.

1984 pdf: 1984_pdf.pdf

UTOPIA          DYSTOPIA          POLITICAL SATIRE         
TOTALITARIANISM    REALITY CONTROL         SURVEILLANCE   
CASTE and CLASS      STATUS QUO and INSTITUTIONAL TYRANNY    
PROPAGANDA     HISTORICAL REVISION     LANGUAGE and DISSENT
READING as an act of REBELLION   WRITING as an act of RESISTANCE       
SPATIALIZING FREEDOM   CULT of PERSONALITY       
​TECHNOCRATS and POWERMONGERS    
 INDIVIDUALISM and COLLECTIVISM      RESISTANCE and CONFORMITY 

Book 1
Winston Smith & Thoughtcrime

1. W.S. writes a diary entry on the Two Minute Hate
2. The Parsons family and the Junior Spies 
3. The dream of Winston's mother and the Golden Country; the Physical Jerks 
4. "Unpersoning" Comrade Withers; Comrade Ogilvy is invented 
5. Syme works on revised Newspeak dictionary; the dark-haired girl in the canteen 
6. Recalling the past encounter with a Prole prostitute 
7. The memory of a photo that debunks the authorized version of history
8. Mr. Charrington’s antiques shop; a glass paperweight; a painting of St. Clement's Church

Book 2
Sex and Rebellion 

1. The note says "I love you"; Victory Square
2. Winston begins a relationship with Julia in the Golden Country
3. Julia and Winston, strange bedfellows
4. A hideout above Charrington's shop 
5. Syme is vaporized; Julia voices her skepticism of the Party 
6. O'Brien contacts Winston
7. Dreams: return of the repressed 
8. Initiation into the order of rebellion 
9. Reading as an act of rebellion: Goldstein's manifesto 
​10. Arrested by the Thought Police 

Book 3
​Torture and Rehabilitation 

1. "Where there is no darkness" 
2. Torture and punishment 
3. Winston's loyalty to Julia 
4. Winston's final gestures of disobedience
5. Room 101 and psychological torture 
​6. Released from the Miniluv, broken and insentient

George Orwell on Writing
1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Primary Source: "Why I Write": orwell_why_i_write.docx
​
Secondary Source: 
Packer, George. “Doublethink Is Stronger Than Orwell Imagined: What 1984 means today.” The Atlantic.                      www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/1984-george-orwell/590638/. Accessed 26 February,                2020.
        Link: george_packer_on_1984.docx