“The dystopia described in George Orwell’s nearly 70-year-old novel 1984 suddenly feels all too familiar. A world in which Big Brother (or maybe the National Security Agency) is always listening in, and high-tech devices can eavesdrop in people’s homes. (Hey, Alexa, what’s up?) A world in which the government insists that reality is not “something objective, external, existing in its own right” — but rather, “whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth.” The perfect storm of 2020 is a tense presidential election, a pandemic that sees no end in sight and social upheaval that permeates every corner of the country. It may seem that reading this novel at this time may be counter-productive to one’s mental health. Perhaps it is paramount that we try to understand the past to find solutions to the future. “Today, 1984 reads more than a novel; it’s a prophecy that will sting you with parallels that still hold true some seven decades later.”
Sign into the MVCC Hoopla app and check out a 1984 e-book or a 1984 audio book by George Orwell. Or, perhaps you may want to watch a streaming video of 1984 also on Hoopla. I also plan to read the e-book On 1984. This book discusses the division in America and the similarities of 1984 to our present world.
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