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Radio Reccs
Feb. 11th, 2013 12:57 pmI have never read 1984. I know this is a gaping hole in my education and/or cultural awareness. So when Radio 4 announced they were dramatising it, I thought: Hurrah! Gap somewhat filled in a cheating sort of way.
I was under the impression 1984 was about the perils and everyday realities of living in an omniscient, omnipresent authoritarian state, NOT about sneaking off to have secret sex as a big 'up yours' to a father figure. You can dress it up in political clothes and hyperbolise it into something that looks mythic and abstract, Mr Orwell, but I know teenage rebellion when I see it and I'm not even a trained Freudian psychoanalyst. You're a grown man and an intelligent one, but you're not past this? I am a little disappointed in just how thinly veiled the lack of philosophical maturity is – but not too much, because it makes me love Fahrenheit 451 all the more, and makes me grateful we studied Brave New World in high school instead of 1984, even though I didn't like it much. For once the American writer beats the Brits at plot and character development, in my estimation! The world truly has turned upside down!
... Or else Radio 4/Jonathan Holloway completely missed the mark and turned what was a lofty exploration of abstracts with a compelling plot and engaging characters into a pretentious but ultimately hollow bit of titillation to fill a Saturday afternoon.
You decide! Episode 1 is Here
In happier(?) news, it's Rocks Fall Everyone Dies week on Les Misérables! This is how you write a noble, idealistic, but ultimately futile stand against an overpowering establishment! TAKE NOTES.
Note: Carl Prekopp is in the latter but not in the former. Coincidence? I am becoming ever more convinced it is not.
Note 2: I am leaning towards blaming John Holloway, but of course I won't know till I read the book. Why must adapters always try to make something their own? Why can't they try to find what it is that makes the original great and prune the source material to bring that to the fore?
I was under the impression 1984 was about the perils and everyday realities of living in an omniscient, omnipresent authoritarian state, NOT about sneaking off to have secret sex as a big 'up yours' to a father figure. You can dress it up in political clothes and hyperbolise it into something that looks mythic and abstract, Mr Orwell, but I know teenage rebellion when I see it and I'm not even a trained Freudian psychoanalyst. You're a grown man and an intelligent one, but you're not past this? I am a little disappointed in just how thinly veiled the lack of philosophical maturity is – but not too much, because it makes me love Fahrenheit 451 all the more, and makes me grateful we studied Brave New World in high school instead of 1984, even though I didn't like it much. For once the American writer beats the Brits at plot and character development, in my estimation! The world truly has turned upside down!
... Or else Radio 4/Jonathan Holloway completely missed the mark and turned what was a lofty exploration of abstracts with a compelling plot and engaging characters into a pretentious but ultimately hollow bit of titillation to fill a Saturday afternoon.
You decide! Episode 1 is Here
In happier(?) news, it's Rocks Fall Everyone Dies week on Les Misérables! This is how you write a noble, idealistic, but ultimately futile stand against an overpowering establishment! TAKE NOTES.
Note: Carl Prekopp is in the latter but not in the former. Coincidence? I am becoming ever more convinced it is not.
Note 2: I am leaning towards blaming John Holloway, but of course I won't know till I read the book. Why must adapters always try to make something their own? Why can't they try to find what it is that makes the original great and prune the source material to bring that to the fore?
