George Orwell Now!

George Orwell remains an iconic figure today even though he died in 1950. His dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts a Big Brother society in which the state intrudes into the most intimate details of peoples lives and, not surprisingly, it became a constant reference point after Edward Snowdens revelations. The word Orwellian is constantly in the media used either as a pejorative adjective to evoke totalitarian terror or as a complimentary adjective to mean displaying outspoken intellectual honesty. Interest in Orwells life and writings globally continues unabated. Beginning with a preface by Richard Blair, Orwells son, George Orwell Now! brings together thirteen chapters by leading international scholars in four thematic sections: Peter Marks on Orwell and the history of surveillance studies; Florian Zollmann on Nineteen Eighty-Four in 2014; Henk Vynckier on Orwells collecting project; and Adam Stock on Big Brothers Literary Offspring Paul Anderson In Defence of Bernard Crick; Luke Seaber on the London Section of Down and Out in Paris and London; John Newsinger on Orwells Socialism; and Philip Bounds on Orwell and the Anti-Austerity Left in Britain Marina Remy on the Writing of Otherness in Burmese Days and Keep the Aspidistra Flying; Sreya Mallika Datta and Utsa Mukherjee on Reassessing Ambivalence in Orwells Burma; and Shu-chu Wei on Orwells Animal Farm alongside Chen Jo-hiss Mayor Yin Tim Crook on Orwell and the Radio Imagination; and editor Richard Lance Keeble on Orwell and the War Reporters Imagination Peter Stansky, in an afterword, argues that Orwell is now more relevant than ever before.