Orwell was a brilliant mimic of a certain kind of bureaucratic language. He's fascinated by the way language conditions thought and can recondition it. I think we're still drawn to terms like Double Think because it captures, in many respects, the pervasive hypocrisy of modern political life. If you give them cheap pornography and beer, his view is that they will be totally happy. But to anything else, it's totally untrue.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell's (1903-1950) final novel, published in 1949, set in a dystopian London which is now found in Airstrip One, part of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania which is always at war and where the protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth as a rewriter of history: 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' The influence of Orwell's novel is immeasurable, highlighting threats to personal freedom with concepts he named such as doublespeak, thoughtcrime, Room 101, Big Brother, memory hole and thought police.
With
David Dwan
Professor of English Literature and Intellectual History at the University of Oxford
Lisa Mullen
Teaching Associate in Modern Contemporary Literature at the University of Cambridge
And
John Bowen
Professor of English Literature at the University of York
Producer: Simon Tillotson