Paternosterrow

Hi Mike,

 

I still can't believe I haven't read this book yet

 

This looks interesting...something that you don't see often so I will watch with intruige...

 

I like the way you have represented the structure....the sort of place you don't want to find yourself alone at midnight...

 

Pete

Hi Pete

 

Trouble is you're never alone in 1984 - Big Brother is always watching!

Road To Wigan Pier is truly one of the greatest social commentaries ever published, alongside his Down And Out In Paris And London. Orwell was a visionary of titanic proportions: his depiction of the UK becoming nothing more than a forward airstrip for the US was all but realised at the height of the cold war. Chilling in his accuracy, sometimes.

 

I really like this layout. It's different, unusual. And rather chilling, too, which I think is what you intended. I'm almost expecting the Two Minute Hate to start at any moment. I hope you continue with this and keep us posted.

Fantastic! I've actually inspired someone, I'm thrilled to see this. Keep it up and remember, I'll be watching you Comrade.

Wow, this is a really interesting post. FOr motive power you could do something similar to the Goldeneye missile train which was a dressed up class 20 with extra side skirts and the like.

 

If you want some further inspiration there is a computer game called Half Life 2 which opens on a train that pulls into a station similar to the above from about 60 seconds in:

 

Good luck and I look forward to seeing more

Wow! The second picture down of the ingsoc logo on the building is excellent. Sums it all up for me. The look and feel of the layout is very evocative of the novel. Incidentally,1984 is the best novel I've ever read, its' really like a picture in words.The writing is so vivid and rich. You've certainly done justice to it.

Looks great! It has just the right mix of futuristic and present to be realistic, I think.

 

You ask about ideas for an appropriate train. Here's a thought: How about a train that has cameras on it, which record whatever is going on in the train and can be watched by people sitting in a control room elsewhere!!? Oh, but wait....

Road To Wigan Pier is truly one of the greatest social commentaries ever published, alongside his Down And Out In Paris And London. Orwell was a visionary of titanic proportions: his depiction of the UK becoming nothing more than a forward airstrip for the US was all but realised at the height of the cold war. Chilling in his accuracy, sometimes.

 

I really like this layout. It's different, unusual. And rather chilling, too, which I think is what you intended. I'm almost expecting the Two Minute Hate to start at any moment. I hope you continue with this and keep us posted.

 

Hi David

 

Thanks for your comments. Down and Out in Paris and London made Orwell the father of modern investigative journalism in my opinion and I have returned to it many times. In many of the critical introductions to his novels there is a lot of nit picking and commentary about weak plot lines and two-dimensional characters etc, but I never see anything of this when I read - only genius and an acute political awareness. It was a great pity he died so young and had he lived longer he would have undoubtedly given us plenty to think about regarding modern social democracy. What I find startling about 1984 was his ability to perceive what was happening under the Soviet regime at the time. We had no real idea about the terror politics being used until Solzhenitsyn wrote his story ten years later!

 

I heard that they are going to do a film adaptation of Burmese Days - lets hope they don't make a hash of it as they did with Keep the Aspidistra Flying!

Fantastic! I've actually inspired someone, I'm thrilled to see this. Keep it up and remember, I'll be watching you Comrade.

 

Hi Comrade.

 

Thanks again for allowing me to pursue your original idea

 

Regards Mike

Wow, this is a really interesting post. FOr motive power you could do something similar to the Goldeneye missile train which was a dressed up class 20 with extra side skirts and the like.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing more

 

Thanks for the vid Stephen

 

Really interesting station graphics and is definitely the feel I'm aiming for.

 

Regards, Mike

Wow! The second picture down of the ingsoc logo on the building is excellent. Sums it all up for me. The look and feel of the layout is very evocative of the novel. Incidentally,1984 is the best novel I've ever read, its' really like a picture in words.The writing is so vivid and rich. You've certainly done justice to it.

 

Thanks Carl,

 

It is a great read and should be in the modern curriculum if it isn't already. If you want to write plain English then Orwell is a must.

 

Mike

Hi David

 

Thanks for your comments. Down and Out in Paris and London made Orwell the father of modern investigative journalism in my opinion and I have returned to it many times. In many of the critical introductions to his novels there is a lot of nit picking and commentary about weak plot lines and two-dimensional characters etc, but I never see anything of this when I read - only genius and an acute political awareness. It was a great pity he died so young and had he lived longer he would have undoubtedly given us plenty to think about regarding modern social democracy. What I find startling about 1984 was his ability to perceive what was happening under the Soviet regime at the time. We had no real idea about the terror politics being used until Solzhenitsyn wrote his story ten years later!

 

I heard that they are going to do a film adaptation of Burmese Days - lets hope they don't make a hash of it as they did with Keep the Aspidistra Flying!

 

Hi.

 

Can't disagree with your assessment of Orwell and investigative journalism. He saw the issue, experienced it for himself then wrote about it. That's the genre in a nutshell.

 

I'm afraid I learned to stop listening to critics years ago. What they say is only one man's opinion, and like you, I suspect, I prefer to make up my own mind about what I read. I love Orwell as a writer, never mind anything else. The fact that he wrote about issues that are actually quite close to my own heart is another matter. As you say, he was a genius. He saw things with a clarity the establishment probably found more than a little uncomfortable at times and, in my view, wrote about them in a style that was accessible without being simplistic and, often, with remarkable compassion. It is indeed a pity he is not alive today, I'm sure he could find a lot of material to work with! I'm sure he would have identified with the Occupy movement, might even have placed himself on the front line. And I would love to know what he would have made of the current economic mess and the part played by the banks in it. A pity indeed.

 

Burmese Days is one that I must confess I haven't read. I did, however, read A Clergyman's Daughter. A tale of a young innocent who suffers amnesia and finds herself projected into a world of poverty she probably never even knew existed - a thin plot line? Yeah, right. I saw Aspidistra, wasn't impressed, either, despite the promise of the cast.

 

I think what some people miss when searching for literary merit in these dystopian novels is that they are first and foremost a WARNING. Animal Farm and 1984 we know about, and there's Huxley's Brave New World but my favourite of the genre has to be Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I'm sure you've read it, but if by some outside chance you haven't, do make time for it. Perpetual war that no one seems to know why is being waged, news presented as info-tainment, a hijacked political process, dissent and independent thought brutally suppressed - where have we heard all that before?

 

Many thanks for the discussion. I'm enjoying this.

Looks great! It has just the right mix of futuristic and present to be realistic, I think.

 

You ask about ideas for an appropriate train. Here's a thought: How about a train that has cameras on it, which record whatever is going on in the train and can be watched by people sitting in a control room elsewhere!!? Oh, but wait....

 

Perhaps I could show Winston with a model of a personal computer device. One that had an audio visual system and also put a tracker in it so Big Brother could know where he is at any one time. Hang on a minute I just got to take this call on my I phone!!!!

 

Hi Mikkel

 

Great to hear from you again - any chance of an update at Farthing - we still don't know who dunnit yet?

 

Mike

Double plus good model.

 

Another dystopia worth a peruse was Road to Nowhere, but don't let them see you reading it....

 

Burmese Days is one that I must confess I haven't read. I did, however, read A Clergyman's Daughter. A tale of a young innocent who suffers amnesia and finds herself projected into a world of poverty she probably never even knew existed - a thin plot line? Yeah, right. I saw Aspidistra, wasn't impressed, either, despite the promise of the cast.

 

 

Hi David

 

A Clergyman's Daughter - another Orwell classic that is as pertinent today as it was when first published. A young innocent, unable to comprehend her ruined reputation, wakes up on the street's of London without a clue to her own identity - all because of the vicious lies of the village gossip (Mrs Sempril). Leveson, Hillsborough and the gutter press spring to mind - vile gossip does bad things to good people. Orwell was always worried about the politicization of the English language and so was watchful about freedom of speech, but he always understood where the boundaries lay. Again, this balanced view, always aware of the extremes.

 

Haven't read Fahrenheit 451, I was put off by the film - always a bad way to approach a book.

 

Got to go, the two minutes hate is about to start!

 

Regards,

 

Mike

Double plus good model.

 

Another dystopia worth a peruse was Road to Nowhere, but don't let them see you reading it....

 

Hi Tim,

 

Doubleplusgood comments! I'll have a gander at Road to Nowhere - thanks for the tip.

 

Mike

Haven't read Fahrenheit 451, I was put off by the film - always a bad way to approach a book.

 

Hi, Mike.

 

The film was c**p with a capital C. Seriously, do make a point of reading the book. Bradbury was another one who knew how to use prose to great effect and this novel was disturbing. There's more to the story than firemen existing to burn books, much of it discarded by the film. The thing about this novel is that it's possibly closest to today's world than we maybe care to think and that is what makes it, to me, truly frightening.

 

Do please read it. I say this to anyone who may be looking in. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

 

David

I liked Fahrenheit 451 too, like the layout very much, all quite pertinent in our surveillance society. I am also a big fan of John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids.

 

Perhaps I could show Winston with a model of a personal computer device. One that had an audio visual system and also put a tracker in it so Big Brother could know where he is at any one time. Hang on a minute I just got to take this call on my I phone!!!!

 

Hi Mikkel

 

Great to hear from you again - any chance of an update at Farthing - we still don't know who dunnit yet?

 

Mike

 

Hehe, I suppose Orwell's mistake was that he thought the surveillance would be imposed on people - rather than something we seem to want and even happily *pay* for :-)

 

Farthing update due very shortly :-)