Hello, I'm David Kern.

I'm Heidi White.

And I'm Tim McIntosh.

And you were listening to Close Read, the podcast for the Incurable Reader, on which we are diving into, digging into George Orwell's 1984.

It's already hot. It's already getting hot in here.

It's already hot in here.

I'm surprised, honestly. I didn't think there was, I honestly, when I chose this book, as I've

been reading it, I thought there's no way this is controversial in any way.

That's the funny thing. So it sounds like we might have some things we need to work out

just based on our conversations pre-show before we get into that, though. This is so fun.

We need to do a little preview of the book. I got to talk about some of the big picture stuff.

But we have a very important question for each of you. The book is called 1984. What were you doing in 1984?

That's a good question. I wasn't born. I just thought I'd throw that up there.

Because then you can't ask me the question. I don't remember because I was so young that

I can't possibly remember. It was pre-memory. I wasn't born yet.

Yes, I was.

I was born in 1979.

I don't know what I was doing in 1984, but I do remember overhearing adults having a conversation

about it being 1984, having read this book. And I don't remember the

content of the conversation. I just remember kind of a vague, like adults sitting around over

dinner party talking about it being 1984. And there was a book called 1984. And I thought

that was interesting. And I remember my mom asking me what I was doing

...