1984, by George Orwell

I was surfing the net, and I found this link by chance, George Orwell se cuela en 'Second Life'

(sorry the article is in Spanish,  but I think all of you can read Spanish ;-) )

We have been talking about second life this these days in classroom, so I think this is the moment for talking to talk about this book.

George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948, and he described how the world would be what the worls would be like in the future 1984. In this future world, everything is under control, the phrase "Big Brother is watching you" is written in the walls of the cities, and the protagonist, Winston Smith, begins to questionate the way things are under control, and eventually he is capturated by the "Members of the Party" and then interrogated, torturated and re-educated.

This book is still present in our lives, an obvious case is the popular tv program "Gran Hermano", a competition program where 10 strangers are isolated in a house, and then we can spy on them, as in 1984 "Big Brother is watching you".

But we have more examples, the way the big companies study our way of life, thinking, dressing, eating, in order to conquest conquer only one thing, more profit and power. You can also watch this video:

I think there are some problems with the video. I can't see it myself. Can you?

About the book, did you read it? I did, and actually I found it a little bit of a paranoid at first!!! It had been strongly recommended to me, so I think I had great expectations. Anyway, I think now that it was quite a strange book at the time it came out and it makes you reflect on the changes that have been taking place lately. Somehow, everything he said and was afraid of, came true, (with those reality shows on tv), although some more years later than 1984. Hopefully, what he foresaw won't go on any further... because I am afraid all of us would be new Winstons in life.

(Sorry the video is in Spanish)

 Links:

1984, The movie

1984, The book

1984, Audio book