1984

Last night i went to watch a play in the Arts Centre. Personally one that is close to my heart, considering I had to read and analyse it for my English Lit in Taylors college. George Orwell's 1984. If you haven't read it and you want an insight into the world of politics (or at least the academic world of politics) then it might just be your gateway. Noone claims that it is painless of course. Most dystopic novels are pretty gruelling on the brain, but the concepts raised are relevant and thought-provoking nonetheless.

I personally like this interpretation of the concepts of the book. Constant surveillance and propoganda shape society.

The play was minimalist to say the least. It involved only 6 actors (alright, 5 actors and 1 actress) and only 1 backdrop. So i'm quite glad i paid concession price instead of the full $36. The novel actually jumps a lot and there are a lot of different scenarios, but the way they did it in the play was really brilliant. The guy was being interrogated and as he related what he did (based on entries in his diary) the other actors (who are also interrogators) have to act it out. And despite them jumping characters here and there, they did it REALLY well because you could tell when they were one character from the next.
It would take a while to give you a summary of the whole story, so i won't. But it was good remembering bits and pieces from reading it a few years ago. And it actually made the concepts a lot clearer than I remember. So, to the man who brought our attention to the system. And gave birth to that phenomenon of Big Brother. There are only three things to impart from a Big Brother world:
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength