We Are (Still) Living in an Orwellian World
Surveillance, drones, and never-ending wars have given new global resonance to the works of George Orwell.
SOME CRITICS SPECULATED that George Orwell’s relevance would fade after the year 1984. Harold Bloom wrote in 1987 that Orwell’s great novel of totalitarianism, 1984, threatened to become a period piece, such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Even the literary critic Irving Howe, a longtime supporter of Orwell, had thought it possible that 1984 would have “little more than ‘historic interest” for future generations.
Yet instead of fading away, Orwell has enjoyed a new surge of global popularity. The passing of the historical context of 1984 seems to have liberated the novel, its message speaking to a universal problem of modern humankind.
In recent
