alt Hacker NewsJust wait until you read Huxley _Brave New World_ it’ll blow your mind. 1984, Brave New World, and Animal Farm should be required reading.
Edit: and atlas shrugged, but that doesn’t go over well here.
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The four books you mentioned have very different methods of control. The primary thing they share is being dystopic.
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1984: control through fear and pain.
Brave New World: control through pleasure and distraction.
Animal Farm: control through corruption and deception.
Atlas Shrugged: control though guilt and regulation.
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Brave New World is the most prophetic.
Atlas Shrugged has horrific writing, separate from what I feel about the politics.
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers
I liked Atlas Shrugged, didn't go over well for me because I'd read all of them by 15, and I assumed 2/4 were de rigeur in at most high school.
Brave New World warns against the dangers of consumerism, hedonism and complacency.
1984 warns against fascist modes of governance, the dehumanization of individuals under totalitarian regimes.
Animal Farm warns against the danger of revolutionism, and the way ideals can be led astray.
Atlas Shrugged warns against... The way poor people steal from the rich? How rich people are the only productive members of society? How we'd be better off if we just ceded total control of our society to the oligarchy?
Yeah... One of these doesn't belong on the list. I read all four, and while I enjoyed the first three, the last one is closer to fanfiction than literature in my mind. I always think of AnCap memes and chuckle to myself when I see it mentioned.
Animal Farm was required reading at my school. They also did Fahrenheit 451 instead of 1984 though.