The Ministry of Truth
CBC Books | | Posted: September 5, 2019 9:46 PM | Last Updated: September 5, 2019
Dorian Lynskey
1984 isn't just a novel; it's a key to understanding the modern world. George Orwell's final work is a treasure chest of ideas and memes--Big Brother, the Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, 2+2=5--that gain potency with every year.
Particularly in 2016, when the election of Donald Trump made it a bestseller ("Ministry of Alternative Facts," anyone?). Its influence has morphed endlessly into novels (The Handmaid's Tale), films (Brazil), television shows (V for Vendetta), rock albums (Diamond Dogs), commercials (Apple), even reality TV (Big Brother). The Ministry of Truth is the first book that fully examines the epochal and cultural event that is 1984 in all its aspects: its roots in the utopian and dystopian literature that preceded it; the personal experiences in wartime Great Britain that Orwell drew on as he struggled to finish his masterpiece in his dying days; and the political and cultural phenomena that the novel ignited at once upon publication and that far from subsiding, have only grown over the decades. It explains how fiction history informs fiction and how fiction explains history. (From Doubleday)
From the book
December 1948. A man sits at typewriter, in bed, on a remote island, fighting to complete the book that means more to him than any other. He is terribly ill. The book will be finished and, a year or so later, so will the man.
January 2017. Another man stands before a crowd, which is not as large as he would like, in Washington, DC, taking the oath of office as the forty-fifth president of the United States of America. His press secretary later says that it was the "largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe." Asked to justify such a preposterous lie, the president's adviser describes the statement as "alternative facts." Over the next four days, US sales of the dead man's book will rocket by almost 10,000 per cent, making it a number-one bestseller.
From The Ministry of Truth by Dorian Lynskey ©2019. Published by Doubleday.