6. It shows us aspects of ourselves we don’t want to think about.
From 1984: …practices which had long been abandoned, in some cases for hundreds of years—imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages, and the deportation of whole populations—not only become common again, but were tolerated by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive… As a society, we’ve seen this happen in times of war and political strife. No one wants to think about what becomes acceptable when we’re under immense stress and an incredible threat but Orwell shows us.
7. In 1984, Julia works for Pornosec. Does this remind anyone of 50 Shades of Grey?
From 1984: …which turned out cheap pornography for distribution among the proles ghastly rubbish…They’re boring, really. They only have six plots, but they swap them round a bit. Because this is the literature we’re reading nowadays, isn’t it?
