Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
1984

1984

:For George Orwell's novel, see Nineteen Eighty-Four. For other uses, see 1984 (disambiguation). 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January


- January 1 - Brunei becomes a fully independent state.
- January 1 - AT&T is broken up into 24 independent units.
- January 5 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
- January 7 - Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
- January 9 - Clara Peller is featured in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's for the first time.
- January 10 - The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
- January 23 - Hollywood Hulk Hogan defeats The Iron Sheik to win the WWF Championship, thus beginning Hulkamania.
- January 23 - Pop star Michael Jackson's scalp is seriously burned by pyrotechnics during filming of a Pepsi commercial.
- January 24 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.

February


- February 1 - Medicare comes into effect in Australia.
- February 2 - Melbourne newspaper The Age publishes phone taps incriminating an unknown judge.
- February 3 - Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the tenth space shuttle mission.
- February 6 - A bomb blast wrecks the Belrose Sydney home of high court judge Richard Gee. High Court Judge, Justice Lionel Murphy is named in Parliament as the judge referred to in the Age tapes as published on February 2.
- February 7 - Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
- February 9 - Soviet leader Yuri Andropov dies.
- February 13 - Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- February 18 - Vatican and Italian government sign new concordant changing Roman Catholic as the official religion.
- February 26 - United States Marines pull out of Beirut,Lebanon.
- February 29 - Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement.

March


- March 5 - Iran accuses Iraq of the use of chemical weapons - UN condemns the use on March 30.
- March 5 - Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders an attack on the Golden Temple, the Sikh holy spot.
- March 6 - Twelve month long strike in British coal industry begins See UK Miners' Strike (1984-1985).
- March 14 - Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and three others are seriously injured in a gun attack by the UVF.
- March 16 - The CIA station chief in Beirut, William Buckley, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists Islamic Jihad and later dies in captivity.
- March 22 - Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges were later dropped as completely unfounded.
- March 23 - Sarah Tisdall, the young British civil servant who told The Guardian newspaper that cruise missiles were coming to Britain, is sentenced to six months imprisonment.
- March 24 - Wran Government re-elected in NSW for a 4th term.

April


- April 4 - President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
- April 12 - Palestinian gunmen take Israeli bus number 300 hostage. Israeli special forces storm the bus freeing the hostages (1 hostage, 2 hijackers killed). 2 other hijackers were captured and then killed in secret service interrogations, causing a major scandal and secret service upheaval (Kav 300 affair).
- April 13 - India launches Operation Meghdoot, as most of the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir comes under Indian control.
- April 17 - WPC Yvonne Fletcher is shot dead by a secluded gunman during a siege outside the Libyan Embassy in London in the event known as the 1984 Libyan Embassy Siege.
- April 19 - Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
- April 25 - End of term for Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Mustain Billah ibni Almarhum Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Riayatuddin Al-Muadzam Shah as the 7th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- April 26 - Baginda Almutawakkil Alallah Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail, Sultan of Johor becomes the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

May


- May 2 - The Liverpool International Garden Festival opens in Liverpool.
- May 8 - The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
- May 8 - Denis Lortie kills three government employees in the National Assembly of Quebec building.
- May 11 - A transit of Earth from Mars takes place.
- May 14 - The one dollar coin is introduced in Australia.
- May 19 - Game show contestant Michael Larson takes $100,000 in winnings from the game show Press Your Luck. It is later revealed he won the money by focusing exclusively on two squares of the Press Your Luck "Big Board."
- May 22 - Canadian heiress Helen Branch declared legally dead (she disappeared 1977)
- May 27 - Fluminense wins the Brazilian soccer league, against the Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama.

June


- June 5 - The Indian government begins Operation Blue Star, the planned attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
- June 6 - Indian troops storm the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the Sikh's holiest shrine, killing an estimated 1000 people.
- June 8 - A deadly F5 tornado nearly destroys the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing nine people, injuring nearly 200, and causing over $25,000,000 in damage.
- June 8 - The film Ghostbusters is released into theaters -- becoming a summer blockbuster hit with the song "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. becoming a Top 40 hit.
- June 20 - The biggest exam shake-up in the British education system in over 10 years is announced with O-level and CSE exams to be replaced by a new exam, the GCSE.
- June 22 - The official name of the Turkish city Urfa is changed into Sanliurfa.
- June 22 - Inaugural flight of Virgin Atlantic.
- June 27 - France beat Spain 2-0 to win Euro 84.
- June 30 - John Turner becomes Canada's seventeenth prime minister. Hurray!

July-August


- July 9 - Lightning sets fire to York Minster.
- July 10 - British custom officials open a wooden crate of diplomatic post due to an unpleasant smell and find the body of Alhaji Umaru Dikko, former transportation minister of Nigeria
- July 14 - New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon calls a snap election and is heavily defeated by opposition Labour leader David Lange.
- July 18 - In San Ysidro, California, 41-year-old James Oliver Huberty sprays a McDonald's restaurant with gunfire, killing 21 people before being shot dead.
- July 18 - The National Crime Authority is estabished in Australia.
- July 21 - In Jackson, Michigan, a factory robot crushes a worker against a safety bar in what is apparently the first robot-related death in the United States.
- July 23 - Vanessa Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign when she surrenders her crown, after nude photos of her appeared in "Penthouse" magazine.
- July 25 - Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
- July 28 - Opening day of the 1984 Olympics
- August 1 - Australian banks are deregulated.
- August 4 - The African republic Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
- August 16 - John De Lorean is acquitted of all eight charges of possessing and distributing cocaine.
- August 21 - Half a million people in Manila demonstrate against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
- August 21 - The federal budget is first televised in Australia.
- August 30 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

September-October


- September 2 - 7 people are shot dead and 12 are wounded in a bikie shootout between rival gangs Bandidos and Comancheros in the Sydney suburb of Milperra.
- September 4 - The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, led by Brian Mulroney wins 211 seats in the House of Commons, forming the largest majority government in Canadian history
- September 5 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
- September 5 - Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
- September 17 - Brian Mulroney becomes Canada's eighteenth prime minister.
- September 26 - United Kingdom and People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
- September 4 - The Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends television series was first broadcasted on ITV.
- October 5 - Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger (41-6).
- October 11 - Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
- October 12 - The PIRA attempts to assassinate the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing.
- October 19 - Polish secret police arrests Jerzy Popiełuszko, a Catholic priest, because of his support of the Solidarity movement. His dead body is found in a reservoir 11 days later on October 30.
- October 31 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots soon broke out in New Delhi, and some 2,700 innocent Sikhs were killed.

November


- November 2 - Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.
- November 6 - Ronald Reagan defeats Walter F. Mondale in the U.S. presidential election with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon's 61% victory in 1972. Reagan carries 49 states and Mondale manages to win only his home state of Minnesota by a mere 3,761 vote margin and the District of Columbia.
- November 19 - A series of explosions at the PEMEX petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City ignites a major fire and kills about 500 people.
- November 25 - 36 of Britain and Ireland's top pop musicians gathered in a Notting Hill studio to form Band Aid and recorded the song "Do They Know It's Christmas" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
- November 26 - Fmr NSW Corrective Services Minister Rex Jackson appears in court on conspiracy charges for the early release of prisoners.
- November 28 - Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.
- November 30 - The Tamil Tigers begin the purge of the Sinhalese from North and East Sri Lanka, and 127 are killed.

December


- December 1 - The first half of the Manila LRT opens from Baclaran to Central Terminal.
- December 2 - Bob Hawke's government is re-elected in Australia with a reduced majority.
- December 3 - Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, kills more than 2,000 people outright and injures anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
- December 3 - British Telecom privatised.
- December 19 - The People's Republic of China and United Kingdom signs the Sino-British Joint Declaration which concerns the future of Hong Kong.
- December 22 - Four African-American youths, Barry Allen, Troy Canty, James Ramseur, and Darrell Cabey, board an express train in The Bronx borough of New York City. They attempt to rob Bernhard Hugo Goetz, who shoots them. The event starts a national debate about urban crime, which was a plague in 1980s America.
- December 22 - In Malta, prime minister Dom Mintoff resigns. Karmenu Mifsud-Bonnici succeeds him.
- December 28 - A Soviet cruise missile plunges into Inarinjärvi lake in Finnish Lapland. Finnish authorities announce the fact in public on January 3, 1985
- December 31 - Rajiv Gandhi becomes prime minister of India.

Unknown dates


- Ethiopian famine begins.
- A peace agreement between Kenya and Somalia was signed in the Egyptian capital Cairo in December 1984. With this agreement, in which Somalia officially renounced its historical territorial claims, relations between the two countries began to improve.

Births

January-April


- January 1 - Keyra Augustina, model
- January 2 - Lauren Bush, model
- January 3 - Maya Ababadjani, actress
- January 3 - Charlotte Marshall, model
- January 4 - Mey Vidal
- January 5 - Tiffany Teen
- January 12 - Chaunte Howard
- January 13 - Eleni Ioannou, Greek martial artist (d. 2004)
- January 15 - Reena Kumari
- January 15 - Megan Quann, swimmer
- January 19 - Zakia Mrisho Mohamed
- January 25 - Ines Cudna, model
- January 26 - Rebecca Ritters, actress
- January 26 - Kelly Stables, actress
- January 26 - Luo Xuejuan, swimmer
- January 29 - Natalie du Toit, South African swimmer
- January 30 - Tan Xue
- January 31 - Ashley Blue
- February 10 - Kim Hyo Jin, Korean actress
- February 12 - Alexandra Dahlström, actress
- February 25 - Xing Huina, Chinese athlete
- February 28 - Karolina Kurkova, model
- March 20 - Christy Carlson Romano, actress
- March 20 - Marcus Vick, American football player
- March 20 - Nomura Yuka, Japanese actress
- March 28 - Nikki Sanderson, British actress
- April 3 - Allana Slater, Australian gymnast
- April 8 - Kirsten Storms, American actress
- April 10 - Mandy Moore, American singer and actress
- April 11 - Kelli Garner, American actress
- April 13 - Kris Britt, Australian cricketer
- April 17 - Rosanna Davison, Irish model
- April 18 - America Ferrera, American actress
- April 22 - Michelle Ryan, British actress
- April 23 - Alexandra Kosteniuk, Russian chess player
- April 29 - Taylor Cole, American actress and model
- April 29 - Lina Krasnoroutskaya, Russian tennis player and commentator

May-August


- May 1 - Farah Fath, American actress
- May 4 - Markus Rogan, Austrian swimmer
- May 17 - Christine Robinson, Canadian water polo player
- May 25 - Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir, Miss Iceland, crowned Miss World in 2005
- May 29 - Carmelo Anthony, American basketball player
- May 31 - Jason Smith, Australian actor
- June 11 - Vagner Love, Brazilian footballer
- June 13 - Berangere Schuh, French archer
- July 11 - Tanith Belbin, Canadian figure skater
- August 12 - Sherone Simpson, Jamaican athlete
- August 13 - Luke Thompson, American entrepreneurial failure
- August 20 - Mirai Moriyama, Japanese actor
- August 21 - Alizée Jacotey, French singer

September-December


- September 7 - Vera Zvonareva, Russian tennis player
- September 14 - Adam Lamberg, American actor
- September 15 - Prince Harry of Wales
- September 16 - Katie Melua, Georgian singer
- September 19 - Kevin Zegers actor
- September 23 - Anneliese van der Pol, Dutch actress
- September 27 - Avril Lavigne, Canadian singer and songwriter
- September 28 - Helen Oyeyemi, British novelist
- September 30 - Megan Ewing, American model
- October 3 - Ashlee Simpson, American singer and actress
- October 10 - Chiaki Kuriyama, Japanese actress
- October 14 - Santino Quaranta, American soccer player
- October 17 - Michelle Ang, Australian actress
- October 18 - Holly Dunaway, boxer
- October 26 - Sasha Cohen, American figure skater
- October 27 - Kelly Osbourne, English singer
- November 7 - Amelia Vega, Dominican beauty queen
- November 9 - Delta Goodrem, Australian actress and singer
- November 21 - Jena Malone, American actress
- November 22 - Scarlett Johansson, American actress
- November 28 - Andrew Bogut, Australian basketball player
- December 30 - LeBron James, American basketball player

Deaths

January-April


- January 7 - Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- January 20 - Johnny Weissmuller, Austrian-born swimmer and actor (b. 1904)
- January 21 - Jackie Wilson, American singer (b. 1934)
- January 30 - Luke Kelly, Irish folk singer (b. 1940)
- February 8 - Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (b. 1903)
- February 9 - Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1914)
- February 12 - Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (b. 1914)
- February 15 - Ethel Merman, American singer and actress (b. 1908)
- February 21 - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- February 22 - Jessamyn West, American writer (b. 1902)
- March 1 - Jackie Coogan, American actor (b. 1914)
- March 5 - Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (b. 1915)
- March 5 - William Powell, American actor (b. 1892)
- March 12 - Arnold Ridley, English playright and actor (b. 1896)
- March 16 - John Hoagland, American photographer (b. 1947)
- March 21 - Sir Michael Redgrave, English actor (b. 1908)
- March 24 - Sam Jaffe, American actor (b. 1891)
- April 1 - Marvin Gaye, American singer (b. 1939)
- April 8 - Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1894)
- April 15 - Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedian and magician (b. 1921)
- April 20 - Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer (b. 1943)
- April 22 - Ansel Adams, American photographer (b. 1902)
- April 26 - Count Basie, American musician and composer (b. 1904)

May-August


- May 2 - Jack Barry, American television host and producer (b. 1918)
- May 16 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
- May 16 - Irwin Shaw, American author (b. 1913)
- May 19 - John Betjeman, English poet (b. 1906)
- May 28 - Eric Morecambe, British comedian (d. 1926)
- June 26 - Michel Foucault, French philosopher (d. 1926)
- July 1 - Moshé Feldenkrais, Ukrainain founder of the Feldenkrais Method (b. 1904)
- July 8 - Brassaï, Hungarian-born photographer (b. 1899)
- July 14 - Philippe Wynne, American musician (b. 1941)
- July 26 - Ed Gein, American serial killer (b. 1906)
- August 2 - Quirino Cristiani, Argentine animated film director (b. 1896)
- August 5 - Richard Burton, Welsh actor (b. 1925)
- August 11 - Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher (b. 1892)
- August 13 - Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player (b. 1929)
- August 14 - J. B. Priestley, English novelist and playwright (b. 1894)
- August 25 - Waite Hoyt, baseball player (b. 1899)

September-December


- September 25 - Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (b. 1897)
- October 5 - Leonard Rossiter, British actor (b. 1926)
- October 12 - Sir Anthony Berry, British politician (bombing) (b. 1925)
- October 14 - Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1918)
- October 20 - Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
- October 20 - Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- October 21 - François Truffaut, French film director (b. 1932)
- October 31 - Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (assassinated) (b. 1917)
- November 6 - Gastón Suárez, Bolivian novelist and dramatist (b. 1929)
- November 16 - Leonard Rose, American cellist (leukemia) (b. 1918)
- December 8 - Luther Adler, American actor (b. 1903)
- December 14 - Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
- December 15 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904)
- December 20 - Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1946)
- December 28 - Sam Peckinpah, American film director (b. 1926)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer
- Chemistry - Robert Bruce Merrifield
- Medicine - Niels Kaj Jerne, Georges J.F. Köhler, César Milstein
- Literature - Jaroslav Seifert
- Peace - Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel


- Richard Stone

Templeton Prize


- Michael Bourdeaux

Right Livelihood Award


- Imane Khalifeh, SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association) / Ela Bhatt, Winefreda Geonzon / FREE LAVA (Free Legal Assistance Volunteers' Association) and Wangari Maathai / Green Belt Movement

Fictional references


- The novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, written by George Orwell in the 1940's, presents a dystopian view of how life might be in the year the protagonist believes to be 1984.
- In the movie The Terminator both the title character and Kyle Reese are sent back through time from 2029 to May 12, 1984. Category:1984 als:1984 ko:1984년 ms:1984 ja:1984年 simple:1984 th:พ.ศ. 2527

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes referred to as 1984) is a satirical political novel written by George Orwell. The story takes place in a nightmarish dystopia where the omnipresent State enforces perfect conformity among members of a totalitarian Party through indoctrination, propaganda, fear, and ruthless punishment. The novel introduced the concepts of the ever-present, all-seeing Big Brother, the notorious Room 101, the ubiquitous Thought Police, and the bureaucrats' and politicians' language Newspeak. Some commentators have drawn parallels between today's society and the world of 1984, suggesting that we are starting to live in what has become known as Orwellian society. The novel was successful in terms of sales, and has remained one of the most influential books of the 20th century. Along with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the first and most cited works of dystopian fiction to have appeared in English literature. The book has been translated into many languages. Nineteen Eighty-Four has become a byword in discussions of privacy issues. The term "Orwellian" has come to describe actions or organizations that are thought to be reminiscent of the society depicted in the novel.

Novel history

Title

The novel was written by George Orwell under the working title of The Last Man in Europe. However, the book's publishers in both the United Kingdom and the United States, where it was simultaneously released, moved to change its title for marketing purposes to Nineteen Eighty-Four. First published on June 8, 1949, the bulk of the novel was written by Orwell on the island of Jura, Scotland in 1948, although Orwell had been writing small parts of it since 1945. The book begins approximately on April 4th, 1984 (the first entry in Winston Smith's diary) at 13:00 ("It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen...").

Theories

The original working title of The Last Man in Europe was a natural evolution of the theme of the novel itself. When the publishers requested a new title Orwell did not object. It has been suggested that Orwell had originally chosen to call it Nineteen Eighty, but as his writing dragged on due to the advance of his tuberculosis, Orwell changed it to Nineteen Eighty-Two and then to Nineteen Eighty-Four. From this beginning of speculation a number of competing theories have also arisen regarding the meaning of the title. Some have suggested that Orwell simply switched the last two digits of the year in which he wrote the book (1948), but others have suggested that it may also have been an allusion to the centenary of the Fabian Society, a socialist organization founded in 1884. Alternatively, still other theories link it to Jack London's novel The Iron Heel, in which the power of a political movement reaches its height in 1984, or even to G. K. Chesterton's The Napoleon of Notting Hill, also set in that year. Even further suggestions are that it refers to a poem that his wife, Eileen O'Shaughnessy, had written called End of the Century, 1984. The only real knowledge that we have is that the working name was The Last Man in Europe because it related to the storyline of the book, and that the publishers wanted to change the name for purposes of mass marketing. It might also be noted, again, that the first entry in the main character's diary, near the start of the book, is "April 4, 1984."

Orwell's inspiration

The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four also reflects various aspects of the social and political life of both the United Kingdom and the United States of America. There have been suggestions that the primary character was named Winston after Winston Churchill, who had been British Prime Minister during the Second World War. Orwell is reported to have said that the book described what he saw as the actual situation in the United Kingdom in 1948, where rationing was still in place, the British Empire was dissolving at the same time as newspapers were reporting its triumphs, and wartime allies such as the USSR were rapidly becoming peacetime foes ('Eurasia is the enemy. Eurasia has always been the enemy'). His work for the overseas service of the BBC, which at the time was under the control of the Ministry of Information, also played a significant role as the basis for his Ministry of Truth (as he later admitted to Malcolm Muggeridge). Orwell did base certain aspects on the Soviet Union and Communist Party (the "Two Minutes' Hate", for instance, being based on Communism's habitual demonization of their enemies and rivals), though as many reviewers/critics have correctly pointed out, it should not be read as an attack solely on Communism, but totalitarianism (and potential totalitarianism) in general. Nineteen Eighty-Four can be seen as a cautionary tale against totalitarianism. Orwell had already set forth his distrust of totalitarianism and the betrayal of revolutions in Homage to Catalonia and Animal Farm. Coming Up For Air, at points, celebrates the individual freedom that is lost in Nineteen Eighty-Four. His essay Why I Write explains clearly that all the "serious work" he had written since the Spanish Civil War in 1936 was "written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism". ([http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/whywrite.html Why I Write]) Orwell acknowledged the influence on Nineteen Eighty Four of Yevgeny Zamyatin's Russian novel We, published in 1921

The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four

1921 as Syme in the 1954 BBC television adaptation of the novel.]] The novel focuses upon one man named Winston Smith who ultimately gives up at the end of the novel: hence its original working name of The Last Man in Europe. Although the storyline is unified, it could be described as having three parts: The first part deals with the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four as seen through the eyes of Winston; the second part deals with Winston's forbidden sexual relationship with Julia and his eagerness to rebel against the Party, and the third part deals with Winston's capture and torture by O'Brien. The world described in Nineteen Eighty-Four contains striking and deliberate parallels with the Stalinist Soviet Union and Hitler's Nazi Germany. There are thematic similarities; the betrayed revolution - with which Orwell famously dealt in Animal Farm; the subordination of individuals to "the Party"; the rigorous class structure mirrors that of Nazi Germany, inner party, outer party and everyone else. There are also direct parallels of the activities within the society; leader worship whether it be Big Brother, Hitler or Stalin; Joycamps, concentration camps or gulags; Thought police, NKVD or Gestapo; daily exercise reminiscent of Nazi propaganda movies; Youth League, Hitler Youth or Octobrists/Pioneers. There is also an extensive and institutional use of propaganda; again, this was found in the totalitarian regimes of Hitler and Stalin. Orwell may have drawn inspiration from the greatest propagandists of the time, the Nazis; compare the following quotes to how propaganda is used in Nineteen Eighty-Four: Nazis
- “The broad mass of the nation ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.” - Adolf Hitler, in his 1925 book Mein Kampf
- “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” - Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
- “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” - Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, before committing suicide at the Nuremberg Trials Nineteen Eighty-Four
- “Remember our boys on the Malabar front! And the sailors in the Floating Fortresses! Just think what they have to put up with.”
- “The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the government of Oceania itself, 'just to keep the people frightened'.”
- “The key-word here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts.”
- “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed.” Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party, lives in the ruins of London, the chief city of Airstrip One — a front-line province of the totalitarian superstate Oceania. Winston grew up in post-Second World War Britain, during the revolution and civil war. When his parents died during the civil war, he was picked up by the growing Ingsoc movement and given a job in the Outer Party. Like the rest of the population, Winston lives a squalid and materially deprived existence. He lives in a filthy one-room apartment in "Victory Mansions", and is forced to live on a diet of hard bread, synthetic meals served at his workplace, and vast amounts of industrial-grade "Victory Gin". He is deeply unhappy in his life and keeps a secret diary of his illegal thoughts about the Party. Winston is employed by the Ministry of Truth, which exercises complete control over all media in Oceania: his job in the Ministry's Records Department involves doctoring historical records in order to comply with the Party's version of the past. Since the perception of the past is constantly shaped by the events of the present, the task is a never-ending one. However, Winston is fascinated by the real past, and eagerly tries to find out more about the forbidden truth. At the Ministry of Truth, he encounters Julia, a mechanic on the novel-writing machines, and the two begin an illegal relationship, regularly meeting up in the countryside (away from surveillance) or in a room above an antique shop in a proletarian area of the city. As the relationship progresses, Winston's views begin to change, and he finds himself relentlessly questioning Ingsoc. Unknown to him, he and Julia are under surveillance by the Thought Police, and when he is approached by Inner Party member O'Brien, he believes that he has made contact with the Resistance. O'Brien gives Winston a copy of "the book", a searing criticism of Ingsoc that Smith believes was written by the dissident Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are apprehended by the Thought Police and interrogated separately in the Ministry of Love, where opponents of the regime are tortured and executed. O'Brien reveals to Winston that he has been brought to "be cured" of his hatred for the Party, and subjects Winston to numerous torture sessions. During one of these sessions, he explains to Winston the nature of the endless world war, and that the purpose of the torture is not to extract a fake confession, but to actually change the way Winston thinks. This is achieved through a combination of torture and electroshock therapy, until O'Brien decides that Winston is "cured". However, Winston unconsciously utters Julia's name in his sleep, proving that he has not been completely brainwashed. Winston is terrified of rats, and in Room 101, O'Brien uses these to destroy Winston's feelings for Julia. At the end of the novel, Winston and Julia meet, but their feelings for each other no longer exist. Winston has become an alcoholic and we know that eventually he will be shot, but the last sentence of the novel reveals that the torture and 'reprogramming' have been successful: 'He loved Big Brother'. In the closing pages he writes the equation 2+2=5, which he was forced to believe in his captivity, and is symbolic of Big Brother's control over what he thinks, regardless of his own reason. At the end of the novel there is an appendix on Newspeak (the artificial language invented and, by degrees, imposed by the Party to limit the capacity to express or even think "unorthodox" thoughts), in the style of an academic essay.

History according to 1984

The novel does not give a full history of how the world of 1984 came into being. Winston's recollections, and what he reads from "the book" (i.e., Emmanuel Goldstein's book) reveal that at some point after the Second World War, the United Kingdom descended into civil war, eventually being absorbed by the United States to form the new world power of Oceania; at roughly the same time, the Soviet Union expanded into mainland Europe to form Eurasia; and the third world power, Eastasia, emerged some time later. There was a period of nuclear war during which some hundreds of atomic bombs were dropped, mainly on Europe, western Russia, and North America. (The only city that is explicitly stated to have suffered a nuclear attack is Colchester.) As "the book" explains, the three powers eventually realized that continuous stalemate war was preferable to conquest, as war allowed them to spend their surplus labour manufacturing products that would be wasted during fighting, rather than improving people's standards of living (an impoverished population being easier to control than a rich one). By the time the novel is set, the three powers have taken over most of the world, but a large area is still disputed between them. This area, containing the northern half of Africa, the Middle East, southern India, Indonesia, and northern Australia, provides slaves, or low-paid workers who are effectively slaves, for all three powers. The powers rarely fight on their own territory — Airstrip One (the official name of Great Britain) has become the target of Eurasian rocket bombs, but it is hinted that the Oceanian government itself may launch these weapons in order to convince the population that it is under constant attack. The revolution in Oceania was eventually betrayed by the rising figure of Big Brother, who turned it into a pretext for creating a terror state. By the year 1984, the citizens of Oceania had been separated into three distinct, isolated classes - the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the proles.

Ministries of Oceania

Oceania's four ministries are housed in huge pyramidal structures displaying the three slogans of the party (see below) on their sides. ; The Ministry of Peace : Newspeak: Minipax.
Concerns itself with conducting and perpetuating Oceania's peace through continuous wars. ; The Ministry of Plenty : Newspeak: Miniplenty.
Responsible for rationing and controlling food and goods. ; The Ministry of Truth : Newspeak: Minitrue.
The propaganda arm of Oceania's regime. Minitrue controls political literature, the Party organization, and the telescreens. Winston Smith works for Minitrue, "rectifying" historical records and newspaper articles to make them conform to IngSoc's most recent pronouncements, thus making everything that the Party says true. ; The Ministry of Love : Newspeak: Miniluv.
The agency responsible for the identification, monitoring, arrest, and torture of dissidents, real or imagined. Based on Winston's experience there at the hands of O'Brien, the basic procedure is to pair the subject with his or her worst fear for an extended period of time, eventually breaking down the person's mental faculties and ending with an embrace of the Party, since only the Party can stop the torture. The ministries' names are, of course, paradoxical — the Ministry of Peace engages in war, the Ministry of Plenty administers over shortages, the Ministry of Truth spreads propaganda and lies, and the Ministry of Love inflicts human misery for its own sake.

The Party

In his novel Orwell created a world in which citizens have no right to a personal life or to personal thought. Leisure and other activities are controlled through a system of strict mores. Sexual pleasure is discouraged; sex is retained only for the purpose of procreation, although artificial insemination (ARTSEM) is more encouraged. artificial insemination The mysterious head of government is the omniscient, omnipotent, beloved Big Brother, or "B.B.", usually displayed on posters with the slogan "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU". However, it is never quite clear whether Big Brother truly exists or not, or whether he is a fictitious leader created as a focus for the love of the Party which the Thought Police and others are there to engender. It is perfectly possible that the conflict between Big Brother and Goldstein is in fact a conflict either between two fictitious or two dead leaders, whose true purpose is to personify both the Party and its opponents. His political opponent is the hated Emmanuel Goldstein, a Party member who had been in league with Big Brother and the Party during the revolution. Goldstein is said to be a major part of the Brotherhood, a vast underground anti-Party fellowship. The reader never truly finds out whether the Brotherhood exists or not, but the implication is that Goldstein is either entirely fictitious or was eliminated long ago. Party members are expected to vilify Goldstein and the Brotherhood via the daily "two minutes hate." During this ritual citizens are expected to ridicule and shout at a video of the hated "bleating" Goldstein expounding his alternative philosophy (indeed, the image ultimately morphed into a bleating sheep). The three slogans of the Party, on display everywhere, are:
- WAR IS PEACE
- FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
- IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH Each of these is of course either contradictory or the opposite of what we normally believe, and in 1984 the world is in a state of constant war, no one is free, and everyone is ignorant. The slogans are analysed in Goldstein's book. Through their constant repetition, the terms become meaningless, and the slogans become axiomatic. This type of misuse of language, and the deliberate self-deception with which the citizens are encouraged to accept it, is called doublethink. One essential consequence of doublethink is that the Party can rewrite history with impunity, for "The Party is never wrong." The ultimate aim of the Party is, according to O'Brien, to gain and retain full power over all the people of Oceania; he sums this up with perhaps the most distressing prophecy of the entire novel: If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever. Perhaps the most frightening thing about the nature of power in Orwell's society is its irrefutability. The Ministry of Truth can literally erase an individual from existence, while the Ministry of Love and its Thought Police can break one's soul. As we close on the broken Winston, utterly devoted to Big Brother, we see that there is no hope for the individual, as the Party is so infinitely secure.

Political geography

doublethink The world is controlled by three functionally similar totalitarian superstates engaged in perpetual war with each other: Oceania (ideology: Ingsoc or English Socialism), Eurasia (ideology: Neo-Bolshevism), and Eastasia (ideology: Death Worship or Obliteration of the Self). In terms of the political map of the late 1940s when the book was written, Oceania covers the greater part of the British Empire (or the Commonwealth), and the Americas,.Eastasia corresponds to China, Japan, Korea, and northern India. Eurasia corresponds to the Soviet Union and Continental Europe. That Great Britain is in Oceania rather than in Eurasia is commented upon in the book as a historical anomaly. North Africa, the Middle East, southern India, and South East Asia form a disputed zone which is used as a battlefield and source of slaves by the three powers. Goldstein's book explains that the ideologies of the three states are basically the same, but it is imperative to keep the public ignorant of that. The population is led to believe that the other two ideologies are detestable. London, the novel's setting, is the capital of the Oceanian province of Airstrip One, the renamed Great Britain.

The war

The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is built around an endless war involving the three global superstates, with two allied powers fighting against the third. The allied states occasionally split with each other and new alliances are formed, but as Goldstein's book explains, this does not matter, as each superstate is so strong it cannot be defeated even when faced with the combined forces of the other two powers. The war rarely takes place on the territory of the three powers, and actual fighting is conducted in the disputed zone stretching from Morocco to Australia, and in the unpopulated Arctic wastes. Throughout the first half of the novel, Oceania is allied with Eastasia, and Oceania's forces are engaged with fighting Eurasian troops in northern Africa. Mid-way through the novel, the alliance breaks apart and Oceania, newly allied with Eurasia, begins a campaign against Eastasian forces in India. When Winston is released from the Ministry of Love at the end of the novel, Oceania and Eurasia are enemies once again. The public is quite blind to the change, and when a speaker, midsentence, changes the enemy from Eurasia to Eastasia (speaking as if nothing had changed) the people are shocked as they notice all the flags and banners are wrong (they blame Goldstein and the Brotherhood) and quite effectively tear them down. The book which Winston receives explains that the war cannot be won, and that its only purpose is to destroy the produce of human labour and maintain a constant death toll, thus keeping the totalitarian society intact. The book also details an Oceanian strategy to attack enemy cities with atomic-tipped rocket bombs prior to a full-scale invasion, but quickly dismisses this plan as both infeasible and contrary to the purpose of the war. Although, according to Goldstein's book, hundreds of atomic bombs were dropped on cities during the 1950s, they are no longer used by the three powers as they would upset the balance of power. Conventional military technology is little different from that used in the Second World War. Some advances have been made, such as replacing bomber aircraft with "rocket bombs", and using immense "floating fortresses" instead of battleships, but such advances appear to be few and far between. As the purpose of the war is to destroy manufactured products and thus keep the workers busy, obsolete and wasteful technology is deliberately used in order to perpetuate useless fighting. It is indeed possible that neither Eurasia nor Eastasia actually exist as independent entities, and that the entire war is a creation of a Party which has achieved global domination and is now attemping to mantain that domination.

Living standards

By the year 1984, the society of Airstrip One lives in abject squalor and poverty. Hunger, disease, and filth have become the social norm. As a result of the civil war, atomic wars, and Eurasian rocket bombs, the urban areas of Airstrip One lie in ruins. When travelling around London, Winston is surrounded by rubble, decay, and the crumbling shells of wrecked buildings. Apart from the gargantuan bombproof Ministries, very little seems to have been done to rebuild London, and it is assumed that all towns and cities across Airstrip One are in the same desperate condition. Living standards for the population are generally very low — everything is in short supply and those goods that are available are of very poor quality. The Party claims that this is due to the immense sacrifices that must be made for the war effort, but in fact, living standards are deliberately kept low so as to keep people's minds on the most basic of needs and avoid questioning the Party. The Inner Party, at the top level of Oceanian society, enjoys the highest standard of living. O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party, lives in a relatively clean and comfortable apartment, and has access to a variety of quality foodstuffs such as wine, coffee, and sugar, none of which is available to the rest of the population. Members of the Inner Party also seem to be waited on by slaves captured from the disputed zone. Although the Inner Party enjoys the highest standard of living, Goldstein's book points out that, despite being at the top of society, their living standards are far, far below those of society's elite before the revolution. The proletariat, treated by the Party as animals, lives in squalor and poverty. They are kept sedate with vast quantities of cheap beer, widespread pornography, and a national lottery, but these do not mask the fact that their lives are dangerous and deprived — proletarian areas of the cities, for example, are ridden with disease and vermin. As Winston is a member of the Outer Party, we discover more about the Outer Party's living standards than any other group. Despite being the middle class of Oceanian society, the Outer Party's standard of living is very poor. Foodstuffs are low-quality or even synthetic, and the main alcoholic beverage available to the Outer Party — Victory Gin — is industrial-grade, whilst the cigarettes smoked by Outer Party members are of very shoddy quality. Smith, like many other members of the Outer Party, lives in a filthy one-room apartment with no comforts. All members of the Outer Party are required to wear scruffy overalls, and clothes in general seem to be of very low quality. Members of the Outer Party are subject to a rigid timetable, being awoken each morning by the telescreens, and are required to participate in group "leisure" activities. Apart from Victory Gin, everything from artificial foods to badly-made razor blades is in very short supply, and living standards as a whole appear to be declining further.

Newspeak

Newspeak, the "official language" of Oceania, is extraordinary in that its vocabulary decreases every year; the state of Oceania sees no purpose in maintaining a complex language, and so Newspeak is a language dedicated to the "destruction of words". As the character Syme puts it: :Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well... If you have a word like 'good', what need is there for a word like 'bad'? 'Ungood' will do just as well... Or again, if you want a stronger version of 'good', what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like 'excellent' and 'splendid' and all the rest of them? 'Plusgood' covers the meaning, or 'doubleplusgood' if you want something stronger still.... In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words; in reality, only one word. (Part One, Chapter Five) The true goal of Newspeak is to take away the ability to conceptualize revolution adequately, or even to dissent, by removing words that could be used to that end. Syme openly discusses this aim, this indiscretion being the presumed reason for his disappearance later on. Since the thought police had yet to develop a method of reading people's minds to catch dissent, Newspeak was created. (This concept has been examined — and widely disputed — in linguistics: see the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.) See also: [http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/index-man.html The Complete Newspeak Dictionary (newspeakdictionary.com)]

Technology

The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is first and foremost a political, not a technological, dystopia. The technological level of the society in the novel is mostly crude and less advanced than in the real 1980s. Apart from the telescreens, speech-recognizing typewriters, and novel-writing machines (the credibility of which is stated to be dubious), technology is barely more advanced than in wartime Britain. Orwell explains that, in the latter part of the twentieth century, technology has been driven by only two things: "war, and the desire to determine against his will what another human being is thinking." Living standards are low and declining, with rationing and unpalatable ersatz products; in that regard, Orwell's vision is diametrically opposed to the technologically advanced hedonism of Brave New World. None of the three blocs has much genuine interest in technological progress, since it could destabilize their grip on power. Some scientific advance is conducted in the field of interrogation, developing techniques against thought criminals through advanced torture, drugs, and hypnosis, but in other fields, technology is stagnant. Atomic weapons are avoided in the perpetual war, since the whole point of the conflict is to be indecisive and wasteful. The technologies employed are obsolete and deliberately wasteful. This stagnation is related to what is perhaps the most frightening aspect of the novel: for all their brutality, the regimes are not going to burn themselves out in strategically significant conquests or technological arms races. Rather, they have reached a stable equilibrium which could theoretically last forever.

The themes of Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nationalism

Nineteen Eighty Four expands upon the themes summarised in Orwell’s preparatory essay, Notes on Nationalism (1945): [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwelnat.htm]. In it, Orwell expresses frustration at the lack of vocabulary needed to explain an unrecognised phenomenon that he felt was behind certain forces. He addresses this problem in Nineteen Eighty-Four by inventing the jargon of Newspeak. A fictional society, to which the readers have no preconceived bias, was a tool in illustrating why Orwell thought the below examples were different manifestations of the same forces at work, despite them being ideologically incompatible.

Positive nationalism

This is apparent in the novel, in the Oceanians’ undying love for Big Brother, whose physical existence is doubtful. Orwell lists Celtic Nationalism, Zionism and Neo-Toryism as examples of positive nationalism.

Negative nationalism

This is apparent in the novel, in the Oceanians’ undying hatred for Goldstein, whose continued existence is doubtful. Orwell lists Trotskyism, Anti-Semitism and Anglophobia as examples of negative nationalism.

Transferred nationalism

In the novel, an orator, mid-sentence, alters the alleged enemy of Oceania, and the crowd instantly transfer their same feelings of hatred toward the new alleged enemy. In Notes on Nationalism, Orwell describes transferred nationalism as swiftly redirecting emotions from one power unit to another, as if not by reasoned change in opinion, but as if one’s beliefs are serving one’s loyalties, which can be altered, but with the original fanaticism intact. Orwell lists Communism, Political Catholicism, Pacifism, Colour Feeling, and Class Feeling as examples of transferred nationalism. Nationalism for its own sake is described by O'Brien in one of his most conclusive statements: “The object of power is power; The object of torture is torture.”

Sexual repression

In the novel, Julia describes party fanaticism as "sex gone sour". Orwell supposed that the sufficient mental energy for prolonged worship requires the repression of a vital instinct, such as the sex instinct. This possibly alludes to the restrictions on sexuality imposed by religious authorities, be it consciously or by selective pressures on doctrine.

Futurology

It is not clear to what extent Orwell believed his work was prophetic. He describes what he believed was the future of England in his essay England, Your England: :"The intellectuals who hope to see it Russianised or Germanised will be disappointed. The gentleness, the hypocrisy, the thoughtlessness, the reverence for law and the hatred of uniforms will remain, along with the suet puddings and the misty skies. It needs some very great disaster, such as prolonged subjugation by a foreign enemy, to destroy a national culture. The Stock Exchange will be pulled down, the horse plough will give way to the tractor, the country houses will be turned into children's holiday camps, the Eton and Harrow match will be forgotten, but England will still be England, an everlasting animal stretching into the future and the past, and, like all living things, having the power to change out of recognition and yet remain the same." This is in stark contrast to O'Brien's forecast: :"There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always -- do not forget this, Winston -- always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever."

Religiosity

Nineteen Eighty-Four's world appears to reflect some modern views on organised religion. Consider, for example, Big Brother's messianic, watchful eye, supposed infallibility, the worship afforded him, the evangelical fervor of the "Two Minute Hate", the lurid rallies, the conservative principles of Ingsoc, the "Junior Anti-Sex League", the discouragement of independent thought in the face of revealed (and often re-revealed) truth, and the selective observation of all things bad as originating from a chief heretical "satanic" hate figure: Goldstein (described as goat-like, as is the devil in Christian tradition). Room 101: An underground torture chamber containing the victims' worst fears, is an apt description of Hades and Hell. :"We are the priests of power; God is power." -- O'Brien, Nineteen Eighty-Four :"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears white is really black, if the hierarchy of the Church so decides." --St. Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises :"Since in reality Big Brother is not omnipotent and the party is not infallible, there is need for an unwearying, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts. The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary." ~Goldstein (Forged by O'Brien), Nineteen Eighty-Four

Appendix on Newspeak

The novel includes an appendix, The Principles of Newspeak [http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/~smf7/175/chapp.html], written in the style of an academic essay. The appendix describes the development of Newspeak, and explains how the language is designed to standardise thought to reflect the ideology of Ingsoc; that is, by making "all other modes of thought impossible". The fact that the appendix is written in the past tense, as well as other grammatical and non-grammatical features, has led some to argue that it can be seen to be describing Newspeak, and by extension Ingsoc, as a thing of the past, possibly implying a more ambiguous ending for the novel than is commonly thought (Atwood [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,978474,00.html], Benstead [http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-hopebegins.htm]). However, there is no explicit statement in the appendix to suggest that it existed or was written in the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four, and it could simply be a part of the third person narrative that is deployed throughout the rest of the novel. Furthermore, it could be argued that Orwell, as an advocate of plain English, would be unlikely to underpin such a significant plot detail with such a subtle clue.

Adaptations

Films

Nineteen Eighty-Four has been made into a cinema film twice — in [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048918/ 1956] and in [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087803/ 1984]. The 1984 cinematic film 1984 is a reasonably faithful adaptation of the novel, and was critically acclaimed. The film's soundtrack was performed by the band Eurythmics, and a single taken from this, "Sexcrime (1984)", was a hit in several countries. The film is notable for containing Richard Burton's last performance. The Terry Gilliam film Brazil can be understood as a 'tribute' to the novel.

Radio

The first radio broadcast of Nineteen Eighty-Four was a one-hour adaptation transmitted by the NBC radio network at 9.00 p.m. on August 27, 1949 as number 55 in the series N.B.C. University Theater, which adapted the world's great novels for broadcast. Another broadcast on the NBC radio network was made by the Theater Guild on Sunday April 26, 1953 for the United States Steel Hour. In the United Kingdom, the BBC Home Service produced a 90-minute version with Patrick Troughton and Sylvia Syms in the lead roles, first broadcast on October 11, 1965. In April and May 2005, BBC Radio 2 broadcast a reading of the novel in eight weekly parts.

Television

Nineteen Eighty-Four was adapted for television by the BBC in 1954, and again in 1965. It was voted No. 7 in the ABC's television special, My Favourite Book, which sought to find Australia's favourite book.

Opera

Lorin Maazel, better known as a conductor, has composed the opera, 1984. The libretto is by Tom Meehan, who worked on The Producers and JD McClatchy, professor of poetry at Yale University. The opera directed by Canadian director Robert Lepage premiered on May 3 2005 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. See Science-fiction operas.

Related works

Literature


- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
- Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
- Anthem by Ayn Rand
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- This Perfect Day by Ira Levin
- James Burnham, whose book The Managerial Revolution was a major influence on the development of Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Iron Heel by Jack London, a dystopian novel about a protofascist state, cited by Orwell biographers as an influence
- Jennifer Government by Max Barry
- 1985 by Gyogy Dalos, a "sequel" to 1984 beginning at the death of Big Brother
- 1985 by Anthony Burgess, a sequel-critique of 1984
- We by Yevgeny Zamyatin - another influence on 1984
- Fatherland by Robert Harris
- V for Vendetta by Alan Moore

Film and television


- "1984", an Apple Macintosh commercial depicting an Orwellian dystopia
- Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski's science fiction epic which features an intentionally Orwellian Earth government, as well as many homages to Nineteen Eighty-Four
- "Chain of Command", a famous episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Jean-Luc Picard is tortured in a fashion similar to that of Winston Smith. Just as Smith is repeatedly shown a hand with four fingers and tortured until he will agree that he actually sees five, Picard is tortured by a Cardassian sadist and is as much told, as asked to see five lights when there are only four.
- The Simpsons Halloween special segment where Homer builds a time machine, alters the past and creates a dystopic future where Ned Flanders is the totalitarian lord of the world.
- Half-Life 2 take places in a near future where an alien empire known as theCombine(Half-Life 2) is in control of Earth, with Wallace Breen(Half-Life 2), the head of the Black Mesa Research Facility from the original game, acting as a Big Brother-like figure.
- Big Brother, the world-wide reality television show takes its name from the novel

Recordings


- Subhumans released the album The Day The Country Died in 1982, which appears to be influenced by Nineteen Eighty-Four. One of the songs is called "Big Brother", with lyrics like "There's a TV in my front room and it's screwing up my head", referring to the telescreen of the novel. Much like the novel, the album is largely dystopian, with songs like "Dying World" and "All Gone Dead", the latter of which contains lyrics like "It's 1984 and it's gonna be a war".
- 1984 (For The Love of Big Brother) is the title of an album by the Eurythmics which was originally released in November 1984 as a partial soundtrack for the film adaptation. It contains the following tracks: :(3:28) "I did it just the same"; (3:59) "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)"; (5:05) "For the love of big brother"; (1:22) "Winston's diary"; (6:13) "Greetings from a dead man"; (6:40) "Julia" (4:40) "Doubleplusgood"; (3:48) "Ministry of love"; (3:50) "Room 101".
- Oingo Boingo released a song called "Wake up (It's 1984)" on their 1983 album Good For Your Soul. Taking heavily from the movie as well as the book, it serves as commentary to current society.
- David Bowie released the album Diamond Dogs which contains the songs: "Rebel Rebel", "1984", "We Are The Dead", "Sweet Thing/Sweet Thing (Reprise)", "Candidate", and "Big Brother". The project was originally conceived as a full length theatrical production but he was denied the rights.
- Manic Street Preachers released the album The Holy Bible in 1994 which contains the song "Faster". At the beginning of the song a voice quotes a line from the book, although not word for word: "I hate purity. I hate goodness. I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt."
- [http://www.punkhistorycanada.ca/noise/view.php?cat_id=31&id=30 Benzene Jag], an obscure punk band formed in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada released a 45 rpm single called "Fuck off 1984" in 1983.
- Rage Against the Machine released the album called The Battle of Los Angeles in 1999 featuring the track "Testify" containing the phrase "Who Controls the Past Now, Controls the Future, Who controls the Present Now, Controls the Past...", a slogan used by the Party in the Nineteen Eighty-Four novel. Also on the same album, the song "Voice of the Voicless" contains the lyrics "Orwell's hell a terror era comming through, but this little brother is watching you too".
- Bad Religion released the album called The Empire Strikes First in 2004 featuring the track "Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever" with the title of the song being a direct reference to the Nineteen Eighty-Four novel. In the novel, O'Brien suggests the image of a boot stamping on a human face forever as a picture of the future. The song seems to be referring to the hopelessness of rebellion against the Party.
- Marilyn Manson's album Holy Wood includes a song called "Disposable Teens" in which he sings that he's "a rebel from the waist down". This is a direct reference to Orwell's book, when Winston accuses Julia of being "only a rebel from the waist downwards".
- Anaal Nathrakh's album Domine Non Es Dignus includes a song called "Do Not Spear" that opens with a sample of "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot, stamping on a human face, for ever." Due to Anaal Nathrakh's lyrics being unpublished, the exact influence of 1984 is unknown. However the words "pain, frustration, faded memories" are intelligible, and 1984 certainly fits with the apocalyptic, despairing, anti human themes of the band.
- Jimi Hendrix's album Electric Ladyland includes a song titled "1983 ... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)" in which the narrator flees a war torn world to live in the ocean with his lover. The lyrics include, "Oh say, can you see it's really such a mess, every inch of Earth is a fighting nest. Giant pencil and lipstick tube shaped things, continue to rain and cause screaming pain, and the arctic stains from silver blue to bloody red as our feet find the sand." The song is rather abstract, but it is difficult not to view the title as a hint at the subject matter.
- Radiohead's album Hail to the Thief contains the song "2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm)", where not only the title refers to Nineteen Eighty-Four but the first lines of the song seem to be referring to the hopelessness of Winston's struggle: :"Are you such a dreamer :to put the world to right?"
- In the song "George Orwell Must Be Laughing His Ass Off" by Mea Culpa, the second verse begins with "If 2 plus 2 don't equal 5 I guess I'm just no fun".
- Singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke published a song called "When Two and Two are Five" with Jennifer Kimball (as The Story).
- The Pet Shop Boys have a song called "one and one make five" on their 1993 album Very.
- The song "The Panama Deception" by Anti-Flag begins with the text "Their two plus two does not equal four. Their two plus two equals whatever they want us to die for".
- Incubus's album A Crow Left of the Murder includes the song "Talkshow on Mute", about how one day, the television might be watching us instead of us watching them, showing a world where humans are monitored at all times. Among its lyrics is the line :"Come one, come all, into 1984"
- Open Hand released a song called "Newspeak" on their 2005 album You and Me. The song title and lyrics deal heavily with the ideas of newspeak and being thought controlled.
- The Rare Earth hit single "Hey Big Brother", released in 1971, sings of the future arrival of Big Brother, first addressing this future Big Brother directly and then finishing by expressing a rebellious defiance against his arrival.
- The Dead Kennedys' 1979 single "California Über Alles" contains the lyrics "Now it is 1984, Knock knock at your front door." The band's 1981 album In God We Trust, Inc. includes the song "We've got a Bigger Problem Now", which contains the line "Welcome to 1984, Are you ready for the Third World War?!?!"
- The album Vistoron, released in 2004 by Japanese electronic musician Susumu Hirasawa under the name KAKU P-MODEL, contains a track titled "Big Brother". Hirasawa has [http://www.teslakite.com/freemp3s/e/ offered Big Brother as a free download] in MP3 file format.
- Pink Floyd pay a clear homage to George Orwell in their album Animals. The album cover has an image of Battersea Power Station which is also an image used in the film of 1984. The songs are all deeply linked with Orwell's Animal Farm.
- New Zealand band Shihad start off their debut album Churn with the quote "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever" on the song "Factory".
- Sage Francis references "Big Brotherly love" and declares "don't forget what two plus two equals" in the political song "Hey Bobby".
- Anti-Flag released a new song called "1984".
- German band :de:BAP referred to George Orwell and 1984 in their live recording of the song "Ne schöne Jrooß" on their 1983 live album "Bess demnähx": "Leven Orwell, vierunachzig ess noh, ess mittlerweile nur noch een läppsch Johr" (Cologne dialect for: "Dear Orwell, '84 is near, meanwhile it's only one more shabby year to go"). In concerts after 1984, they replaced the second verse with: "Ess mittlerweile leider vill ze vill wohr" ("Unfortunately, much too much has meanwhile beome reality").
- Five for Fighting has a song called 2+2 makes five on the bonus CD to his album The Battle for Everything.

See also


- Asch conformity experiments
- Dystopia
- Language and thought
- Memory hole
- Mass surveillance
- imaginary antecedent

Big Brother Awards

Each year, the national members and affiliated organ

1984 (disambiguation)

1984 may refer to:
- 1984, the year.
- 1984 (number).
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, a 1949 novel by George Orwell about a dystopian future set in the year 1984. The title is often given in numeric form as 1984.
  - Works based on or inspired by the Orwell novel:
    - Nineteen Eighty-Four