Why, more than 70 years after its publication, "1984" still fascinates

Copies of George Orwell's 1984 book, at the Hong Kong Book Fair, July 15, 2015. -

• George Orwell makes his debut in La Pléiade this Thursday, with the publication of the first volume of his complete works in the prestigious collection of Gallimard editions. 

  1984

  is included in a new translation. 

• Jean Seaton, director of the Orwell Foundation, and Olivier Esteves, professor at the University of Lille, explain why this novel is always so successful.

“An explanation of the need for reality.

This is surely what makes 

, more than seventy years after its publication, so popular, argues Jean Seaton, director of the Orwell Foundation, based in London.

George Orwell's novel reappears this Thursday in the prestigious La Pléiade collection, at Gallimard.

Beyond the academic work on this work, references to the book are omnipresent in popular culture in 2020, quotes on social networks ("

is watching you") to the t-shirt of a British Conservative MP, supporter of the Brexit ("2020 is the new

").

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Poco a poco se va viendo la naturaleza del Gobierno que tenemos: sin independencia entre poderes y obcecado en la usurpación paulatina de libertades that the hagan perpetuar in el poder.

Nunca el mundo se pareció tanto a la obra de #georgeorwell como ahora.

Solo el conocimiento y acción individual puede librarnos a nosotros y nuestras familias de este Estado criminal.

Liberty or Death.

#libertarian #libertyordeath #donttreadonme #liberal # gobiernodeespaña # 1984 # 1984georgeorwell #freedom # covid1984 #sanchezdimision

A post shared by Iván (@ivanportas) on Sep 15, 2020 at 9:47 am PDT

The novel follows the route of Winston Smith, who lives in London under a totalitarian regime, where words are devoid of their meaning and where a police force of thought prevails.

He will develop a story with Julia, before being arrested and tortured.

“Winston Smith and Julia, despite all the propaganda [to which they are exposed], despite all the violence, have an interior life which tells them that this unreality which is imposed on them is not true, develops Jean Seaton with

.

Winston's job is to remake history.

Some form of postmodernist Marxism has claimed that reality does not exist.

Winston works in a postmodern reality.

"

Another sequence of the book, "the two minutes of hate", during which an "enemy of the people" is publicly vilified, is similar to the functioning of social networks, says the specialist: "Before even realizing it, you have decided that you hate these people.

"

"Very polarized political groups are all found in Orwell"

The appropriation of the novel by members of a broad political spectrum also contributed to its posterity.

George Orwell was a socialist, he had fought in the Spanish Civil War.

“ 

was written in the most intimate way against communism,” emphasizes Jean Seaton.

“He is absolutely a man of the left.

He's not anti-government, he's anti bad government.

"

"In

, and at Orwell in a more general way, very polarized political groups all found themselves, analyzes Olivier Esteves, linguist and professor at the University of Lille.

This is nothing new.

The conservative right, already at the time of the Cold War, brandished Orwell as a kind of intellectual guarantee and, on the other side of the political spectrum, groups of the left, even of the radical left, took hold of Orwell.

His work is a kind of supermarket of ideas, where very different people will find their account.

Him, he died young, in 1950 [a year after the publication of the novel] and therefore he did not have time to specify a certain number of ideas which are articulated in

.

"

Quotes ... which are not

In the United States and in the Nordic countries, the extreme right takes quotes from Orwell, adds Jean Seato, who specifies: “They are often wrong when they quote him.

"

An adaptation of the novel by the BBC in 1954, as well as its inclusion, with

, in the American school curriculum, also helped the notoriety of

, recalls the researcher.

Beyond the text, Orwell's stature contributes to the influence of his works.

"He was, in a manner so typical of the upper echelons of England, distant," says Jean Seaton.

He had that distance, but he was exceptionally kind, he had exceptional integrity, which everyone who met him recognized.

He fought in the Spanish Civil War, he found himself in trouble in London and Paris, he went to Wigan Pier [telling the daily life of the miners].

"

Olivier Esteves does not say anything else: “We must not lose sight of the fact that Orwell is an almost unsurpassable figure of intellectual honesty.

It is also a moral conscience of journalism.

He is someone whose honesty, intellectual probity is almost universally welcomed.

"

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