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What's your thoughts on the retelling of 1984?: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/ ... lls-estate

Apparently this has caused a bit of a stir.

Personally, I don't mind it. Of all the pressing issues facing the world, this doesn't rank on my list as one that needs immediate attention. However, I realize the irony and understand there's fear classic books might go through the grinder of revisionism.

However, this isn't new. Societies have constantly reinterpreted the past for better or worse. That's why historians exist.

From what I've gleaned from life, a move to rewrite or retell any story often leads to new readers of the original.

Until the originals go into the memory hole.

You make a point, and ever since I made the post, I been thinking about it.

From what I take from the article, the book's seen as a companion not replacement for the original.

However, this sentence, from the article, I don't agree with, "Publisher Granta said that Julia understands the world of Oceania “far better than Winston and is essentially happy with her life”. To me that's subjective. How do we know she understands it better? It's like saying only the guards know what it's like in the prison. Of course, to be fair, the publisher's opinion is drawn from a passage in the book where Winston speaks of Julia. The article make's note of the passage.

Still, it would seem if she's better aware, then it means she's either a) okay with authoritarianism or b) lost all hope and tolerant of it. If she's lost all hope, it's hard to argue Winston has. The simple fact he hides a book to write in for future generations shows he's not lost hope.

Brooks127 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 30, 2021 10:37 am What's your thoughts on the retelling of 1984?:

Some of the fiction from this era tends to be male-centric or even misogynistic anyway. And, yet, 1984 remains a relevant and important work. I like to think informed readers will understand the context from when it was written.

A "feminist retelling"—from the POV of Winston's lover—seems like an interesting concept. But I don't see it as a retelling or replacement of Orwell's classic work so much as a kind of spinoff that pays homage to the book it is based on. Sandra Newman may depict the patriarchal structure of the future as an aspect of totalitarianism. Maybe that's what Orwell had in mind too?

It'll be interesting to see how the story's received. In one article I found, there's artwork that reminds me of a bookstore promo poster. Not sure if that's going to be the book's cover.

Speaking of female authors, Ida Lupino co-wrote and directed one of the most suspenseful film noir movies of all time, The Hitch-Hiker. It's one of the best movies I've seen, and that's compared to current films too. It's a movie that if remade I feel would do very well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Lupino
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitch-Hiker