UNESCO
On this day in 1950, famed author George Orwell passed away. Just the year before his death, he published one of his most famous works – 1984 – a fictional story that took readers into a dystopian future of government control and surveillance.
Orwell, whose birth name was Eric Arthur Blair, was convinced from a young age that he would be a famous author. Much like his peers, Orwell considered Lenin one of the most significant men of his time, but his refusal to conform often led him to be deeply critical of imperialism and capitalism. Later in life, Orwell vehemently criticised communism, as evidenced in his book 'Animal Farm'.
Today, we take the opportunity to remember Orwell’s contributions to literature and for his critical eye on social norms. Just shy of 1984, UNESCO published two special issues in The Unesco Courier and the review 'The Impact of Science in Society', exploring the intersection of fiction and reality and focused on Orwell's work. How does today compare to Orwell’s predictions for the future?
Check out here some of the articles dedicated to Orwell. Enjoy the read!
1- George Orwell, a ‘Tory anarchist’ https://on.unesco.org/2MjZl98
2-Nineteen Eighty-four: from fiction to reality https://on.unesco.org/2ttfvpP
3- Orwell's vision: the world in 1984 https://on.unesco.org/2K5ydhz
#UnescoCourier #OnThisDay #GeorgeOrwell #Culture #Literature #History #ShareCulture
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"George Orwell’s dystopian classic cost its author dear but is arguably the best-known novel in English of the 20th century"
1984那一年，我們說，George Orwell的這本小說，終於到期了。太匆匆，20年之後，才知道那年也有一新字。
fashion victim (noun [C] someone who always wears very fashionable clothes even if the clothes sometimes make them look silly)
大哥Big Brother在fashion這工商界。
之後，還有oh-so-fashionable的表達方式？（我）多時髦，那時候，開始進入外商當經理，才發現我們「差遠了」……他們穿好，自己感覺好。
那時，常去日本，他們最膨脹的世代…..
30幾年之後，有本小說叫 1Q84
哈哈
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. 1949.
A satirical novel set in London in the fictional future year 1984; published in 1949.
by George Orwell
Synopsis
Winston Smith lives in a society in which "the Party" keeps a ruthless stranglehold on power through total control over the thoughts and actions of its members. When Winston and his lover Julia defy the Thought Police and join an underground resistance movement, they soon discover the powerlessness of the individual in the face of absolute political oppression.
The Noxel in Focus
Events in History at the Time of the Novel
Eric Arthur Blair was born in Motihari, Bengal, India on June 25,1903, to English parents. Though offered a university scholarship, Blair instead opted to serve in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. On leave in England in 1927, he dropped out and decided against returning to Burma. Troubled by the caste and racial barriers that had prevented him from getting to know a wider cross-section of the populace there, he began mixing with the downtrodden of Europe, gathering material for Down and Out in Paris and London. He changed his name upon the publication of this first book (1933) to George Orwell after the Orwell River in Suffolk, England. In his fiction and essays, Orwell stresses the importance of intellectual and human liberty, attacking imperialism, totalitarianism, and left-wing hypocrisy as its enemies. These convictions found perhaps their ultimate literary expression in his last novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
For More Information
Esslin, Martin. "Television and Telescreen." In On Nineteen Eighty-four. Edited by Peter Stansky. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Alumni Association, 1983.
Orwell, George. A Collection of Essays. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1946.
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. 1949. Reprint. New York: Signet, 1981.
Poupard, Dennis, and James E. Person Jr., eds. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale Research, 1985.
Reilly, Patrick. Nineteen Eighty-Four: Past, Present, and Future. Boston: Twayne, 1989.
Schorer, Mark. "An Indignant and Prophetic Novel." The New York Times Book Review (June 12, 1949): 1.
Sheldon, Michael. Orwell: The Authorized Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Sillen, Samuel. "Maggot of the Month." Masses and Mainstream 2, no. 8 (August 1949): 79-81.
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