Orwell: The Real Deal?

[Sodfather]

I have chosen Orwell and his most notable work 1984 as the topic of a research paper. It's aim is to uncover the truth about the revolutionariness of Orwell's opinions. Was there already talk of all the things which he predicted in the 1940's? Were feelings of dread toward utopian governments and the future they held prevalent, or was this unique to Orwell?

I've tried searching for some answers to these questions on-line, yet I've found nothing. Everything puts Orwell up on a pedestal as the sole origin of the anti-utopian views seen in 1984.

Has anyone here read otherwise? Was he really the only person who foresaw the effects of totalitarianism?

[VXerick]

Oh, no. You can find articles toward that end as far back as the middle 1800s. I'm sure philosophers in antiquity had many ideas along those same lines.

The best source of Orwellian ideas can be found in early science fiction. Let's see..... Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a good first choice to check out.

Robert Heinlein, Arthur Clarke, Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov were all masters of science fiction. Asimov, who was also a scientist, died about 1990 and remains one of my favorite authors.

Orwell spent a lot of time writing about what was wrong with socialism, not that socialism was wrong.
And if I remember correctly, in Orwell's scheme of things, capitalism of the US mould was his next biggest issue.

[GreatWyrm of Babylon]

"We pretend to work and the government pretends to pay us."

[Jet]

Well, there are several science fiction writers who depicted dystopian world - the Iron Heel (1908), for instance, talks of a capitalist dystopia in which the very rich own everyone else. Orwell, however, was AFAIK the only one in whose book the main theme was not anti-capitalistic, as with Brave New World, but also anti-communist. Huxley's world, I know, was a capitalist-consumerist world so utopic that it was dystopic; Orwell focursed on the pure dystopia and on power itself, rather than just attacked capitalism. The myth that 1984 was written only against socialism has been refuted even by Orwell himself, who explained that it was about power more than anything - a quick reading of Goldstein's book will verify that.

[GreatWyrm of Babylon]

So if you read it slow it will not work? Not that I read anything slow.

[jose]

Eric blair AKA george orwell wrote many good books incuding "down and out in paris and london" and "animal farm" while at eton he was influenced by the writers, SWIFT, STERNE and JACK LONDON
good luck with your research paper

[Catch 22]

Originally posted by Jet, Well, there are several science fiction writers who depicted dystopian world - the Iron Heel (1908), for instance, talks of a capitalist dystopia in which the very rich own everyone else. Orwell, however, was AFAIK the only one in whose book the main theme was not anti-capitalistic, as with Brave New World, but also anti-communist. Huxley's world, I know, was a capitalist-consumerist world so utopic that it was dystopic; Orwell focursed on the pure dystopia and on power itself, rather than just attacked capitalism. The myth that 1984 was written only against socialism has been refuted even by Orwell himself, who explained that it was about power more than anything - a quick reading of Goldstein's book will verify that.

Moreover orwell himself was a staunch supporter of democratic socialism in Britain. The reason he wrote the book is because of the "Stalinist dream" that he saw many fellow socialists feel when they looked at Russia. He didn’t like this fascination with fascism and began his book mainly because of it. At least that's what I remember from the foreword.

[dotcoma]

Orwell wrote for the BBC. He saw what was happening. They censored his introduction when he wrote about "The New World Order" (I think he actually had a book by that name, but it casts different light, I suppose). Apparently, his intro bashed the English establishment. Others knew what was up. Check out Anthony Sutton.

[Suburbanite]

Orwell's opinions on economies was far less important than his opinions of the people within them. As he stressed in every book, those who are educated need to speak up about it or these things will go unchecked. 1984 is what happens when it is too late. In books like Animal Farm, the character Muriel, is the most underrated and ignored. For 1984, look into Goldstien and Emma Goldman. Everyone looks at these books so ass backwards, the point isn't what people can do to you, but how to stop them from it.

[dismal]

Originally posted by Sodfather, I have chosen Orwell and his most notable work 1984 as the topic of a research paper. It's aim is to uncover the truth about the revolutionariness of Orwell's opinions. Was there already talk of all the things which he predicted in the 1940's? Were feelings of dread toward utopian governments and the future they held prevalent, or was this unique to Orwell? I've tried searching for some answers to these questions on-line, yet I've found nothing. Everything puts Orwell up on a pedestal as the sole origin of the anti-utopian views seen in 1984. Has anyone here read otherwise? Was he really the only person who foresaw the effects of totalitarianism?

"1984" was published in 1949. The post-WW2 period was an uneasy time in the UK for those who valued individual freedom because many viewed the success of the war (in the wake of the depression) as a sign that strong central planning was a superior governmental model. The UK was even dabbling with concepts such as assigning people their careers during this period.

So, I think it's fair to say that there was a lot of debate on the role of the state in the post-WW2 period.

A non-fiction book that predicted some of the issues was Hayek's "Road to Serfdom", which preceded Orwell's "1984" by about 5 years.

Then, of course, Ayn Rand was busy producing paeans to the individual long before 1949. "Anthem" came out in 1938.