My 2015 Reading Wrap-Up

Over the past couple of years, I have documented every film that I have watched and reviewed them all using Letterboxd. As a way to motivate myself to read more, I thought I would do the same for what books I have been reading, using Goodreads as a way to set myself a reading challenge.

So, this year I set myself a challenge of reading 15 books. Here’s how my 2015 challenge went, with a short review and rating for each of the books:

1984 Remake Is In Motion

(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)

You may remember that I mentioned the possibility of a new remake of the classic novel 1984 a couple of months ago; well now Imagine Entertainment are moving forward with the idea, and have attached writer Noah Oppenheim to the project to begin the adaptation.

Written by George Orwell in 1948, 1984 is a dystopian look at a totalitarian future set in the world of Oceania in the year of 1984. Focusing on the issues of propaganda, surveillance, and mind control, the influential look at politics and the cult of personality that is Big Brother is a literary classic.

Big Brother Is Watching A Remake for George Orwell’s ‘1984’

(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)

George Orwell’s 1984 could be getting a new big screen adaptation, it has been announced this week.

Written by Orwell in 1948, 1984 is a dystopian look at a totalitarian future set in the world of Oceania in the year of 1984. Focusing on the issues of propaganda, surveillance, and mind control, the influential look at politics and the cult of personality that is Big Brother is a literary classic.

Critical Analysis: Jan Moir’s ‘A Strange, Lonely and Troubling Death’

George Orwell, in his article The Politics of English Language, discusses why he believes that language should be used in its simplest form. He believed language was beautiful enough without having to burden it with layers of explanation. He argued that you should never use a metaphor, simile or other figures of speech.

Jan Moir’s ‘A Strange, Lonely and Troubling Death‘ is one of the most memorable and controversial articles of 2009, written shortly after Stephen Gately’s death in October. In her article, Moir used such language to hide the defamatory meanings of her article.

Compare and contrast the ways in which George Orwell and Margaret Atwood use a central character to portray a dystopian society. Which of these is the more compelling character and why?

(This essay was written for my English Literature A Level in 2009, but I wanted to upload it just as something to look back on.)

The two novels that I have been studying are Nineteen-Eighty Four by George Orwell and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Both novels are dystopias showing a corrupted society in which conditions of life are extremely bad. Dystopian literature investigates how the human desire to create a perfect world can go wrong. Authors create dystopias to comment on and criticise features of their own society. George Orwell and Margaret Atwood both use a central character to convey these dystopian societies in which their novels are set in. Nineteen-Eighty Four is narrated in third-person to tell the story of Orwell’s main character, Winston Smith, whilst The Handmaid’s Tale is narrated in first-person by Atwood’s main character, Offred. These protagonists are given many similarities and differences in the ways in which they are presented to help portray the dystopian societies in which they live. I am going to compare and contrast these techniques to evaluate who is the most compelling character and why.