Orwell 1984 facts
While investigating facts about Orwell 1984, I found out little known, but curios details like:
After the publication of 1984, George Orwell sent a copy to his high school French teacher, Aldous Huxley, who responded with a letter commending the book and contrasting it with his own Brave New World.
George Orwell's use of 2+2=5 as a catchphrase of the dystopian government in his book 1984 is based on Joseph Stalin's use of that equation in propaganda. Soviet posters declared "2 + 2 plus the enthusiasm of the workers = 5" long before Orwell wrote his novel.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 43 of the best facts about Orwell 1984 I managed to collect.
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George Orwell was painfully dying of tuberculosis when he wrote 1984, and he died very shortly after he handed it in to his publisher.
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George Orwell's 1984 was banned and burned in the U.S.S.R. under Stalin's rule for being anti-communism. Meanwhile in the USA, in 1981, it was challenged in Jackson County, Florida for being pro-communism.
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Room 101, the torture chamber in George Orwell's 1984, was named after a meeting room at the BBC where Orwell would have to sit through tortuously boring meetings.
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George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984, was an outspoken Democratic Socialist
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Before George Orwell wrote 1984, the Empire of Japan had established a political police known as the Shisō Keisatsu - which translated means "Thought Police". There also existed a "Thought Section of the Criminal Affairs Bureau". Until 1945, they arrested people for "dangerous ideologies".
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There are nearly 6 million CCTV cameras in Britain, which is 1 for every 11 people. Within 200 meters of the flat in Islington where George Orwell had the idea for 1984, there are now 32 CCTV cameras.
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After George Orwell's death, the CIA secretly bought the rights to 1984 and Animal Farm and clandestinely produced the first film version of 1984 and the critically acclaimed animated film version of Animal Farm.
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At least 1 in 4 people who say they've read George Orwell's 1984 are lying
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George Orwell worked writing propaganda during World War II, and the experience helped shape his novel 1984
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George Orwell, author of 1984 and Animal Farm among others, was a Spanish Civil War veteran. He served with the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification, an anti-Stalinist communist international brigade fighting for the Loyalist (Republican) faction.
What is true about orwell 1984?
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According to UK Copyright Law, George Orwell's 1984 will enter public domain in 2020.
A student at Harvard felt as his literature professor was giving him unfair grades. To prove it, he turned in a paper by George Orwell, the author of 1984 and Animal Farm. After the paper only received a B- he decided to study something else. Years later he would write Jurassic Park. - source
In 1949 George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. The book is also published as 1984 in later editions. This was a book about the government controlling everything, even a person's thoughts.
O'Brien, name of the Thought Police agent in 1984, is coincidentally the codename assigned to a Soviet spy to spy on George Orwell
Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell was spied on by the government to investigate his political beliefs - a striking parallel to his writing in 1984. He wrote from experience. - source
James Jones, who committed the Jonestown massacre of 900+ followers, used techniques outline in George Orwell’s 1984.
Apple's "1984" Superbowl Ad Got Them a Cease-And-Desist From The Estate Of George Orwell
George Orwell, Writer of 1984 and Animal Farm once wrote an essay discussing the craft of making a cup of tea.
"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" Takes Place in the Same Universe as George Orwell's 1984
Orwell wrote 1984 after reviewing Yevgeny Zamyatin's 'We', A dystopian novel also set in a surveillance state
George Orwell (author of 1984) fought in the Spanish Civil War