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1985 Anthony Burgess 9780091360801 Books

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1985 Anthony Burgess 9780091360801 Books

Essentially, two books in one: (1) A thought-provoking and intellectually-stimulating critique & analysis of George Orwell's "1984"and (2) a mini-novel that's not so much a sequel as a re-write of "1984" (again using the benefot of 30 years of hindsight that Orwell did not have).

In the fiction segment, while there is no Big Brother or Thought Police per se, nor are there superstates like Oceania, Euarasia, and Eastasia, i.e. the UK, USA, Australia, etc. still exist as independent countries, the unions have totally seized power (the cynical joke goes "TUK = TUC," in other words, The United Kingdom is the Trades Union Congress, and Englad is often informally referred to as Tucland), the State is the employer for something like 99% of the workforce, and the unions basically hold governments and individuals alike by the bollocks. The unions (or Syndicates, as they're also called in the novella) don't have quite the total physical and mental control of the people that Big Brother's Ingsoc does, but it's plenty nightmarish. Instead of Orwell's "Newspeak," there is "Worker's English (WE)," which is also a highly dumbed-down version of the language. The only groups with any sense of intellectual and economic freedom are gangs of thugs and petty thieves....or, dare I say, landlocked pirates?

The novella portion starts off with the protagonist's wife dying in a hospital fire due to the firefighters being on strike and refusing to attempt to put out the fire.* An ominous start to an even more ominous story. (*Later on in the novel, there is a reference to an incident where thousands freeze to death in the American Midwestern winter, specifically Minnesota, because the public utility workers are on strike and thus refusing to turn on the heat.)

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
While "1985" doesn't exactly have a "happy" ending, at least the protagonist, Bev Jones, doesn't go down without a fight, and while he is tortured at a re-education camp,the tortures aren't quite as horrific as The Ministry of Love or Room 101 from Orwell's "1984," and at least Jones doesn't go out like a totally brainwashed meek little wussy the way Winston Smith does in Orwell's book, i.e. Jones dies, but he doesn't die loving the State or the unions.


Tags : 1985 [Anthony Burgess] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This two-part response to 1984 minutely analyzes the original novel, and, after Burgess decides that 1984 will not resemble Orwell's fantasy,Anthony Burgess,1985,Hutchinson,0091360803,Nineteen eighty-four,Orwell, George

1985 Anthony Burgess 9780091360801 Books Reviews

It is always interesting to see one good author's take on another. In this case Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange and The Wanting Seed, evaluates and criticizes George Orwell's 1985. After extensive interviews and essays on the nature of Orwell's seminal work, Burgess pens his own short novella, entitled 1985 (to avoid plagiarism, so he says.) Burgess's view of the cacotopian future is much closer to his own vantage point in strike plagued late 70's Britain, than was Orwell's in the immediate post WWII era. Orwell had originally envisioned calling his novel Nineteen Forty Eight such was the perceived similarity between his own environment and that of Winston Smith's, but the publisher persuaded him to set it in the future. Burgess, living through that era as well remembers clearly the chronic shortages of razor blades and soap, the pervasive smell of boiled cabbage, the ubiquitous rubble and the slogans emblazoned on walls and billboards. Burgess even suggests that 1984, rather than a dark forecast of a dystopian future is actually a satirical stab at socialist England in 1948. In his essays, Burgess addresses questions such as these As a devoted lifelong Socialist, what made Orwell cast INGSOC in such horrific terms? Why does an author and novelist distrust words so much that he would create Newspeak? How does the rise of the Labour Party and the British trade unions foreshadow the real loss of personal freedom that underscored the horror of the totalitarian Big Brother? What is it about revolutions that are inherently progressive? If you loved 1984, read this and find out one man's answers to these and many other questions.
This is two books in one
Part I contains Burgess's view of Orwell's 1948 political parody of English socialism, '1984'.
Part II is a Burgess try for a similar effect called '1985'. It's more like 'Clockwork Orange' than Orwellian.

Orwell was an egalitarian socialist who believed there was room for individualism, while warning about the Stalinist form of socialism. He hated central planning and oligarchical privilege. He recognized that collectivism compounds bondage and government power. He found hope in the proletariat, rather than the bourgeoisie. His parody is based on the realism of what he saw developing in 1948.

Burgess supports Orwell in emphasizing the declining role of freedom of choice. His version involves more violence and leans to anarchism rather than socialism. For the USA he coins Unhappy Syndicated America. We met Bill, the symbolic worker, He points out that our education fetish is not beneficial to workers. The government is a machine for printing money. It always gives in to unions for government workers. Any social cause needs martyrs.
this book the first time I read it completely blew my mind, its since then been my favorite book ever and I've read it a few more times
Half of this book is Burgess' essays about _1984,_ with disquistions on Ingsoc, Newspeak and doublethink, among other things. The other half was his tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a future Britain dominated utterly by the Trades Union Councils. I found it utterly dystopian, with echoes of _A Clockwork Orange_, but Labour voters would likely think it was heavenly.
The book itself is worth reading for any hardcore 1984 fans. The copy I received was a little more beat up than I expected, but I am happy to have it due to it's rarity.
The author's presumption that George Orwell's title '1984' was an inversion of the year of its publication in 1948, and that its projections were characteristic of its publication era and could not be realized in the future, has proven to be inaccurate. He may have been more accurate about the impermanence of re-education.
Essentially, two books in one (1) A thought-provoking and intellectually-stimulating critique & analysis of George Orwell's "1984"and (2) a mini-novel that's not so much a sequel as a re-write of "1984" (again using the benefot of 30 years of hindsight that Orwell did not have).

In the fiction segment, while there is no Big Brother or Thought Police per se, nor are there superstates like Oceania, Euarasia, and Eastasia, i.e. the UK, USA, Australia, etc. still exist as independent countries, the unions have totally seized power (the cynical joke goes "TUK = TUC," in other words, The United Kingdom is the Trades Union Congress, and Englad is often informally referred to as Tucland), the State is the employer for something like 99% of the workforce, and the unions basically hold governments and individuals alike by the bollocks. The unions (or Syndicates, as they're also called in the novella) don't have quite the total physical and mental control of the people that Big Brother's Ingsoc does, but it's plenty nightmarish. Instead of Orwell's "Newspeak," there is "Worker's English (WE)," which is also a highly dumbed-down version of the language. The only groups with any sense of intellectual and economic freedom are gangs of thugs and petty thieves....or, dare I say, landlocked pirates?

The novella portion starts off with the protagonist's wife dying in a hospital fire due to the firefighters being on strike and refusing to attempt to put out the fire.* An ominous start to an even more ominous story. (*Later on in the novel, there is a reference to an incident where thousands freeze to death in the American Midwestern winter, specifically Minnesota, because the public utility workers are on strike and thus refusing to turn on the heat.)

WARNING SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
While "1985" doesn't exactly have a "happy" ending, at least the protagonist, Bev Jones, doesn't go down without a fight, and while he is tortured at a re-education camp,the tortures aren't quite as horrific as The Ministry of Love or Room 101 from Orwell's "1984," and at least Jones doesn't go out like a totally brainwashed meek little wussy the way Winston Smith does in Orwell's book, i.e. Jones dies, but he doesn't die loving the State or the unions.