I remember back in 2008-09, during the election of Barack Obama, Ayn Rand's book, Atlas Shrugged, gained a resurgence in popularity. An enormous novel about the vast expansion of government and the fight for individual freedom certainly echoed the concerns of a growing portion of the American populace. Literature's presence as a signpost for the broader political and cultural ethos is at the forefront once again, as we begin a new presidential administration.
Currently, Amazon's number-one bestseller is George Orwell's 1984, most likely due to the emergence of lingo that sounds eerily familiar to the novel's depiction of hyper-surveillance, as well as concepts of "doublethink" and "newspeak," in which language and ideas are controlled by authoritarians. The fact that the media and the government are two of the nation's most distrusted institutions makes the resurrection of Orwell's fiction seem not so fictional after all.
1984 is a valuable piece of cultural art and history, and it gets better with the age and wisdom of its reader. If you struggled with it high school, you'll appreciate it much more as an adult. So jump on Amazon and join the crowd by reading a great book today!
Currently, Amazon's number-one bestseller is George Orwell's 1984, most likely due to the emergence of lingo that sounds eerily familiar to the novel's depiction of hyper-surveillance, as well as concepts of "doublethink" and "newspeak," in which language and ideas are controlled by authoritarians. The fact that the media and the government are two of the nation's most distrusted institutions makes the resurrection of Orwell's fiction seem not so fictional after all.
1984 is a valuable piece of cultural art and history, and it gets better with the age and wisdom of its reader. If you struggled with it high school, you'll appreciate it much more as an adult. So jump on Amazon and join the crowd by reading a great book today!