On Nineteen Eighty-Four
Orwell and Our Future
1st Edition
Published on 28. July 2010
328 pages
978-1-4008-2664-3 (ISBN)
Description
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is among the most widely read books in the world. For more than 50 years, it has been regarded as a morality tale for the possible future of modern society, a future involving nothing less than extinction of humanity itself. Does Nineteen Eighty-Four remain relevant in our new century? The editors of this book assembled a distinguished group of philosophers, literary specialists, political commentators, historians, and lawyers and asked them to take a wide-ranging and uninhibited look at that question. The editors deliberately avoided Orwell scholars in an effort to call forth a fresh and diverse range of responses to the major work of one of the most durable literary figures among twentieth-century English writers.
As Nineteen Eighty-Four protagonist Winston Smith has admirers on the right, in the center, and on the left, the contributors similarly represent a wide range of political, literary, and moral viewpoints. The Cold War that has so often been linked to Orwell's novel ended with more of a whimper than a bang, but most of the issues of concern to him remain alive in some form today: censorship, scientific surveillance, power worship, the autonomy of art, the meaning of democracy, relations between men and women, and many others. The contributors bring a variety of insightful and contemporary perspectives to bear on these questions.
As Nineteen Eighty-Four protagonist Winston Smith has admirers on the right, in the center, and on the left, the contributors similarly represent a wide range of political, literary, and moral viewpoints. The Cold War that has so often been linked to Orwell's novel ended with more of a whimper than a bang, but most of the issues of concern to him remain alive in some form today: censorship, scientific surveillance, power worship, the autonomy of art, the meaning of democracy, relations between men and women, and many others. The contributors bring a variety of insightful and contemporary perspectives to bear on these questions.
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Persons
Abbott Gleason is Barnaby Conrad & Mary Critchfield Keeney Professor of History at Brown University. He is the author of Totalitarianism: The Inner History of the Cold War. Jack Goldsmith is Professor of Law at Harvard University. He is the author, with Eric Posner, of The Limits of International Law. Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics in the Philosophy Department, Law School, and Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Her books include Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions (Cambridge) and Hiding from Humanity (Princeton).
Content
Dedicatory Foreword by Barbara S. Kirschner, M.D. ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction by Abbott Gleason and Martha C. Nussbaum 1
PART I: POLITICS AND THE LITERARY IMAGINATION 11
A Defense of Poesy (The Treatise of Julia) by Elaine Scarry 13
Doublespeak and the Minority of One by Homi K. Bhabha 29
Of Beasts and Men: Orwell on Beastliness by Margaret Drabble 38
Does Literature Work as Social Science? by The Case of George Orwell by Richard A. Epstein 49
PART II: TRUTH, OBJECTIVITY, AND PROPAGANDA 71
Puritanism and Power Politics during the Cold War: George Orwell and Historical Objectivity by Abbott Gleason 73
Rorty and Orwell on Truth by James Conant 86
From Ingsoc and Newspeak to Amcap, Amerigood, and Marketspeak by Edward S. Herman 112
PART III: POLITICAL COERCION 125
Mind Control in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: Fictional Concepts Become Operational Realities in Jim Jones's Jungle Experiment by Philip G. Zimbardo 127
Whom Do You Trust? What Do You Count On? by Darius Rejali 155
PART IV: TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY 181
Orwell versus Huxley: Economics, Technology, Privacy, and Satire by Richard A. Posner 183
On the Internet and the Benign Invasions of Nineteen Eighty-Four by Lawrence Lessig 212
The Self-Preventing Prophecy; or, How a Dose of Nightmare Can Help Tame Tomorrow's Perils by David Brin 222
PART V: SEX AND POLITICS 231
Sexual Freedom and Political Freedom by Cass R. Sunstein 233
Sex, Law, Power, and Community by Robin West 242
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Catholicism, and the Meaning of Human Sexuality by John Haldane 261
CONCLUSION 277
The Death of Pity: Orwell and American Political Life by Martha C. Nussbaum 279
Contributors 301
Index 305
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction by Abbott Gleason and Martha C. Nussbaum 1
PART I: POLITICS AND THE LITERARY IMAGINATION 11
A Defense of Poesy (The Treatise of Julia) by Elaine Scarry 13
Doublespeak and the Minority of One by Homi K. Bhabha 29
Of Beasts and Men: Orwell on Beastliness by Margaret Drabble 38
Does Literature Work as Social Science? by The Case of George Orwell by Richard A. Epstein 49
PART II: TRUTH, OBJECTIVITY, AND PROPAGANDA 71
Puritanism and Power Politics during the Cold War: George Orwell and Historical Objectivity by Abbott Gleason 73
Rorty and Orwell on Truth by James Conant 86
From Ingsoc and Newspeak to Amcap, Amerigood, and Marketspeak by Edward S. Herman 112
PART III: POLITICAL COERCION 125
Mind Control in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: Fictional Concepts Become Operational Realities in Jim Jones's Jungle Experiment by Philip G. Zimbardo 127
Whom Do You Trust? What Do You Count On? by Darius Rejali 155
PART IV: TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY 181
Orwell versus Huxley: Economics, Technology, Privacy, and Satire by Richard A. Posner 183
On the Internet and the Benign Invasions of Nineteen Eighty-Four by Lawrence Lessig 212
The Self-Preventing Prophecy; or, How a Dose of Nightmare Can Help Tame Tomorrow's Perils by David Brin 222
PART V: SEX AND POLITICS 231
Sexual Freedom and Political Freedom by Cass R. Sunstein 233
Sex, Law, Power, and Community by Robin West 242
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Catholicism, and the Meaning of Human Sexuality by John Haldane 261
CONCLUSION 277
The Death of Pity: Orwell and American Political Life by Martha C. Nussbaum 279
Contributors 301
Index 305
