75,000 New Copies to be Printed
Penguin, the publisher of classic dystopian novel 1984 has ordered a 75,000 copy reprint of the book this week in demand of a surge in sales since President Trump’s inauguration. 1984 has been long compared with political movements, but in the world of alternative facts, it seems commentators believe we have finally descended in a world of ‘newspeak’ and sales of the novel are the highest for years and it’s the Number 1 bestseller on Amazon right now.
In the novel it’s believed that he who controls the future controls the present and by changing the facts of the past using ‘newspeak’ ‘doublespeak’ and propaganda, you take power on the present and the future. Amazon reviewers have been keen to point out that terms like post-truth, alternative facts and alt-right have a definite Orwellian theme to them, new words for new truths, or as they called them in the old days, lies.
Across the Internet commentators are drawing parallels between the Orwell novel and the current US political situation with Internet propaganda and alternative news sites being compared to the Ministry of Truth and the Daily Hate. Today a BBC radio presenter today even compared Trump’s Twitter diatribe to the telescreens spewing out nonsense and propaganda in the novel.
Here’s a taste of Twitter today:
Reading List:
Parable of the Sower
1984
Animal Farm
Handmaid’s Tale
Fahrenheit 451
The Children of Men
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep— District 11 Tribute (@FeministaJones) January 25, 2017
More from Orwell’s “1984,” now No. 1 bestseller on Amazon.
On why “The Ministry of Truth” alters facts: pic.twitter.com/wOA2Usd58P
— Michiko Kakutani (@michikokakutani) January 25, 2017
This is Animal Farm, 1984, and The Handmaid’s Tale all rolled up in one and IT’S NOT OK
— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) January 25, 2017
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
— George Orwell, “1984” pic.twitter.com/YoK5DcRtgo
— Bryan Dawson (@BryanDawsonUSA) January 25, 2017
#MagaMyAss#Maga is a farce
#1984 #GeorgeOrwell
It has arrived….. Please Retweet pic.twitter.com/g3SGt4IJtC— LeftisRight (@TheLeftsRight) January 24, 2017
While in the past parallels have been drawn to 1984 during times of political instability, it’s never forced an urgent reprint of the novel. Thank goodness our governments don’t ban books… Yet (We have always banned books, and we’ve always been at war with Eastasia)
Joining 1984 in the bestseller list is Huxley’s Brave New World, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and It Can’t Happen Here, and if you haven’t read them all, you should do so anyway, whatever the political climate!
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Thanks for sharing this. I can only hope that people read these books and realize that this is what we’re heading for in the United States in 2017. I fear we may wind up not like Nazi Germany, but like North Korea with its isolationism. I want to live in a world of truth, not in a fantasy world concocted by the US government.
Seriously that’s absurd.
Sad that people have ignored the Orwellian reality we’ve been living in since 9/11
– continuous war
– panopticon surveillance
– torture
– persecution of whistle blowers
– suspension of habeas corpus
– “news” outlets that are willing propaganda machines
Yeah but now that Trump is President people are all concerned. Very sad.