i saw this tonight - free of charge, as it turned out. this was the culmination of an entire week of events put on at the university by the lied center.

it was called the crimethink symposium, and this afternoon i moderated a debate about privacy and the internet, focusing mainly on facebook and myspace and the amount of information available to the average person - not to mention the government. all in all, i think it went well.

and tonight i was reminded why i like this book so much. it's about power gone horribly wrong. it's about people blind to their own chains. it's about systematic justification for injustice. it includes a fiery romance - one of the great romances, i'd say: pure and animalistic, impulsive, devoid of structure, rebellious, forbidden, its immediacy and superficiality giving it its depth - and just a creative society.

from the language (newspeak) and the motivation behind it (by eliminating vocabulary one can eliminate thought) to the structure of the government to the three slogans and their justifications - all of it's great, so thorough.

i could go into the parallels between big brother and the united states, but i won't. what i will do is direct you to a staff editorial that ran this week. i've been looking forward to writing this one for a few weeks, and the few people that i've talked to about it (particularly those who know and enjoy the book) seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.

it's here: staff editorial: big brother a reality in our government's actions

i thought the adaptation of the play tonight was interesting, albeit unexpected. it was done through two scenes, really. maybe three. but all were using the one set, the cold empty room insided which winston smith is imprisoned. he's being questioned by an unseeable person and there are four party members reenacting his recount of his recent life.

some of it took away from the tension, and there was a bit of comedic relief to lighten things up here and there (not overdone, thankfully), but sometimes the party members' own concerns really detracted from the focus on winston. why are we worried whether they think their assignment to reenact winston's diary is but a test from big brother? extraneous, i say.

this is really my only criticism. the acting was well and the adaptation was strong. as we were discussing the play afterward, we decided that it touched on all the important aspects present in the book. it didn't skip any major developments or ideas, didn't drastically change any specifics for artistic purposes, didn't get preachy about parallels between oceania/airstrip one and the u.s.

bottom line, it was done well. and there were cool black, grey and red american flags in the lobby, as well as people in berets and uniform standing on ladders, watching the crowd in the lobbies and taking notes. they looked really ominous and one guy totally kept looking at me and scribbling something. for real, dude. let's see the notebook (i don't even have dreads anymore!).

on the way out i perused the merch table. t-shirts and posters for sale. i didn't have $10 on me, but was interested in the posters. they depicted the slogans from the book - WAR IS PEACE. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. - and had an image of an administration official on it (guess who was on 'ignorance is strength.' and now guess who's on 'war is peace.')



it was quite the experience, quite the friday night. it reminded me exactly what i like about good literature. it penetrates the consciousness. if anything, orwell did that.