Orwell's 1984. A Landmark of Culture.

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2019

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Peter Pomerantsev, Joanna Kavenna, New Generation Thinker Lisa Mullen and Dorian Lynskey join Matthew Sweet to debate George Orwell's vision of a world of surveillance, war and propaganda published in June 1949. How far does his vision of the future chime with our times and what predictions might we make of our own future ?

Dorian Lynskey has written The Ministry of Truth Joanna Kavenna's new novel Zed - a dystopian absurdist thriller is published in early July. Peter Pomerantsev's new book This Is NOT Propaganda: Adventures in the war against reality is published in August. Lisa Mullen has published a book of criticism mid-century Gothic and is continuing her research on George Orwell. You can hear her Free Thinking Festival Essay about the role of Orwell's wife Eileen asking Who Wrote Animal Farm? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000413q

Part of a week long focus Free Thinking the Future. You can find more interviews and discussions to download and catch up with on the playlist on our website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zwn4d

You can find more Landmarks of Culture from 2001 Space Odyssey to Zamyatin's We in our playlist https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jwn44

Producer: Zahid Warley

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's
0:27.5	out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:36.9	So, you've succumbed.
0:38.9	You heard the Arts and Ideas podcast calling to you, like that pie in the fridge.
0:44.3	Well, my name's Matthew Sweet, and I'm here to tell you that really there's no need to feel guilty.
0:50.0	Give in to your desires.
0:51.6	We all need ideas.
0:53.0	We all need the arts.
0:54.5	And you're going to get them right here, right now, after this short message.
1:00.1	Hello, I'm Jess Gillum.
1:01.6	I play the saxophone and I really think you should subscribe to my new podcast, This Classical Life.
1:06.6	If you're like me and always listening to music, this is a great new way of discovering sounds for your playlists.
1:11.8	It's when I want something really groovy and really funky.
1:17.2	Every week I'm joined by a special guest and we share the latest tracks we just can't stop playing.
1:21.8	I also have this playlist on my phone called 5am and it's full of classical music.
1:26.2	Just head to BBC Sounds and subscribe to this classical
1:28.9	life. Please stand up during the following announcement. This is free thinking and it has always
1:38.6	been free thinking. You will love this broadcast because you will always have loved it.
1:56.7	Just listen to the fanfare, the rising notes, the patriotic anthem that summons images of Insock and Big Brother and the ceaseless rise of the chocolate ration and our brave boys on the Malabar front.
	...

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