Abstract :
`Nineteen Eighty-Four?? is one of those books that is so famous we??ve almost forgotten what it??s about. We happily use the adjective `Orwellian?? for anything we find mildly oppressive and we think `Big Brother?? is a television programme. This classic novel is often described as a satire on life under unremitting surveillance, sometimes as a work of futurology or science fiction. It is shocking for its apocalyptical images of a post-nuclear London overrun by a feral proletariat drip-fed Victory gin and pornography. It is also one of the most starkly realised descriptions of the culture of fear in the English language. The fear is total, manufactured by a corporation for whom control is everything: control of its message, product, image, people and even its past. Many of you will be drawing comparisons with where you work.
