In the wake of the NSA/Snowden revelations, and the general sense of paranoia that has taken grip of the news cycle and the internet, a few pundits have assumed the roles of cultural watchdogs, taking the pulse of public taste to measure the effect of the spooky news on the hearts and minds of the people.
A number of journalists and commentators have noted that one possible side-effect of the recently-revealed government snooping on personal communications has been a spike in the sales of the George Orwell classic 1984 on the mega-book-selling-site Amazon.
But how big is the sales spike and how much of it can be attributed to Snowden’s bravery in the face of the NSA’s dubious doings? This article at Slate offers a measured interpretation:
Sales of one particular edition of George Orwell’s dystopian classic are up some 5,000 percent on Amazon.com in the past 24 hours, according to the site’s list of “movers and shakers.” The figure was as high as 7,000 earlier today.
It would be gratifying to think that millions of Americans are spontaneously flocking to the book to help them make sense of the recent revelations about the NSA’s wide-ranging digital surveillance programs. No doubt a few are.
But before you conclude that this sales spike represents some sort of national intellectual awakening, keep in mind that we’re talking percentages here.
Check out the full article at the link above and consider (re)reading the 64-year-old novel to catch up on today’s headlines.
While I’m a big fan of reading and re-reading, I’m offering the following for those of you who’d prefer to watch the movie version that was released in 1984: John Hurt plays Winston Smith – an everyman living in the totalitarian state of Oceana. Working for the Ministry of Truth, Winston literally rewrites history in accordance with the dictates of the Party lead by Big Brother. Winston falls in love with a beautiful revolutionary who offers him a glimpse of true freedom until the Thought Police intervene. 1984 is a spy story and a bitter satire, but it’s also a romance which suggests that the most subversive act of all may be loving another person.
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