“THE OBJECT OF PERSECUTION IS PERSECUTION.
THE OBJECT OF TORTURE IS TORTURE.
THE OBJECT OF POWER IS POWER.”
A figure born out of time
Bernard Crick wrote the standard biography of Orwell’s life. Here is his brief introduction for a BBC history website.
A timeline of important events in his life is here.
On your telescreen
On 12 December 1954 the BBC broadcasted its famous and controversial version. This was written by Nigel Kneale (creator of Quatermass) and starred Peter Cushing. It was broadcast live (with some pre-recorded scenes) but following the immediate negative and positive reaction, which included discussion in by MPs, the performance was repeated on 16 December and filmed. Kneale adapted his script and a new version starring David Buck was broadcast on 28 November 1965 on BBC2 as part of ‘The World of George Orwell’. The tape was wiped so it was never seen again, until a copy was found in 2010 in the American Library of Congress. The first version of 1984 to be broadcast on television though was actually an American production. In 1953 Lorne Greene and Eddie Albert starred in a 50 minute long adaptation broadcast by CBS as part of its Studio One series. The BBC version can be seen here.
“The four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided. The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv and Miniplenty”.
Orwellian
The adjective ‘Orwellian’ has entered the language. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as describing a repressive state. Orwell’s work has also entered the visual lexicon. Amazingly this poster “Secure Beneath Watchful Eyes’ is real and was used in 2002 to advertise CCTV used by Transport For London. It was designed by the Central Illustration Agency, who were paid £2,000 for the work. The style is very post-war (i.e. the time 1984 was being written) and to many eyes quite sinister.
However London Transport seemed quite happy to use it and didn’t see any parody in it. The London Transport Museum blog did.
Your Council is Watching You
Britain has more CCTV cameras than any other country. The language of Orwell’s 1984 is often used to describe the country as a ‘surveillance state’. This anti-CCTV poster is from the London Borough of Wandsworth – the image of Big Brother (looking like Hitler rather than Stalin) and the whole design of the poster is taken from the unfinished 1984 comic book project.
What do you know?
Do the quiz on 1984:
Orwell v Kafka
In 1984, one of Orwell’s themes was the alienation of an individual; Winston Smith. Alienation was central to many of Franz Kafka’s works. This selection of covers feature the eye motif – a staple of 1984 covers.
Life in 1949
Legendary magazine Life devoted much of its 4 July 1949 edition to Orwell’s new book. The article featured original cartoons by New Yorker illustrator Abner Dean which seem very curious to our eyes (a bit like Donald McGill illustrating Newsweek’s Libya Special – Nineteen-Eighty-Four wasn’t yet “Nineteen-Eighty-Four”. The tone of the article and that issue’s editorial is typical of Life. The magazine is remembered as the classic organ of concerned photojournalism, but the politics of the photographers were sometimes at odds with the leader writers. In this issue they predict: “Many readers in England [that's near London–DD] will find that his book reinforces a growing suspicion that some of the British Laborites revel in austerity and would love to preserve it… “
They couldn’t let the opportunity of using the book to bash supporters of an American welfare system: “Some of the most dedicated of the U.S. proponents of the welfare state… have appeared almost as remote from their followers, and as determined to remake mankind into a new pattern regardless of man’s own wishes, as Oceania’s Big Brother”.
Orwell was not best pleased with the angle his American publishers were trying to put on the book. He wrote to them stating; “My recent novel is NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or the British Labour Party (of which I am a supporter)…”
