Premium Essay

Penultimate Truth 1984

Submitted By
Words 1447
Pages 6
The Penultimate Truth and 1984: Not Science Fiction Science fiction genre is a literary genre that has a wide range of styles and themes. Probably that the most popular and interesting style in science fiction novels is the one that deals with future events, where the writer tries to anticipate futuristic changes. The accuracy of an author is of course found out retroactively, when the reader realizes that the author, years before, was able to predict and depict the future. However, The Penultimate Truth (Philip K. Dick, 1964) and 1984 (George Orwell, 1949), even though classified as science fiction novels, should not be considered so because the descriptions of the future they painted has never append. Indeed, they appear to …show more content…
Thus, general feeling on those years, thoughts of nuclear launching, mass poverty increasing and army ascendancy influent peoples, as recurrent nightmares take ones concerned in spiral of pessimism. Furthermore, in techno sciences, the human factor[] can only be surrounded by “crazy guard”; fact is that the human mass comportment is not predictable. This is why predict the future cannot forejudge on the human behavior but on the technology progress. This finding is particularly obvious when those two novels are compared with pure science fiction anticipation novels like Stand on Zanzibar (John Brunner, 1968) and Paris in the Twentieth Century (Jules Verne, book written in 1863). These four novels serve as examples for this essay because although they were written a long time ago, they depict a specifically dated future that allow a contemporary reader to corroborate and witness the reality of events that occurred at the specific time anticipated by the authors. A careful review of the political context of the time The Penultimate Truth and 1984 are written and an objective comparison of the visions of the future in each novel demonstrate that they should not be considered as science fiction novels as the future is either describe more a …show more content…
At the time his novel was written, the World War II was over but still in the mind of a traumatized population in a economically exhausted Europe as The Cold War stated from two years[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War]. The World was economically and politically divided in two systems: the capitalism ruled in the Western part of the world and the communism in the Eastern part. However, a monetary crisis was lying in United Kingdom and annunciated hard times. The popular classes’ discontent was growing because of the hardships due to the bad after war economy and an apparent military and political mismanagement. The people felt that those issues kept their society from evolving. G. Orwell dreamed of a social revolution that would free the population. He was inspired by the situation and then wrote his novel 1984, depicting what he thought the world would become. According to him, a nuclear war was coming soon. His novel takes place in nineteen eighty four, thirty years after the end of this nuclear war. England became Oceania and society totalitarian, modeled on Stalinism and Fascism. The country is ruled by Big Brother – an inexistent God-like figure invented by “The Party” – and his party. Freedom of Speech no longer

Similar Documents

Free Essay

T.S Eliot and Woolf- Urban Anxieties

...Give a critical account of the approach taken by any one or two Modern writers depiction of urban life ‘Why do I dramatise London so perpetually’ Woolf wondered in the final months of her life. This essay will seek to examine Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Eliot’s The Waste Land to observe their perpetual fascination with expressing metropolis as a vision of modernity. It will attempt to scrutinize the overwhelming nature of urban life, urban life’s effect on humanity, metropolis being the forefront of society, and also the depiction of a single urban consciousness. Through examining these depictions of urban life, this essay aims to observe the effects rapid urbanisation had on the modern movement and its respective authors. Woolf presents Mrs Dalloway’s consciousness as a vessel to voice the overwhelming nature of urban life and the problem of anxiety experienced in modern metropolis. Immediately in the first paragraph Clarissa’s anxieties are voiced as she embarks to the city to prepare for her party. Clarissa’s consciousness jumps to her memory of a ‘girl of eighteen’ and the solemn and ‘feeling that something awful was about to happen’. The contrast to her feeling of excitement to a feeling of anxiety is stark. The protagonist begins by exclaiming ‘how fresh how calm’ and then to experiencing feeling threatened as her attention reverts from the natural to the ‘uproar of the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans… she loved; life; London’. Woolf plunges the reader into...

Words: 2946 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Irony

..."Jane Austen: Irony and Authority" Critic: Rachel M. Brownstein Source: Women's Studies 15, nos. 1-3 (1988): 57-70. Criticism about: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1775-1817) Nationality:  British; English [(essay date 1988) _In the following essay, Brownstein focuses on several of Austen's novels, including Pride and Prejudice, to support her argument that Austen uses irony to convey a "discursive authority" from which women can derive pleasure in a patriarchal society.] It is a truth universally acknowledged, right now, that language is involved in giving and taking both power and pleasure. Whether we begin by asking if the pen is a substitute for the penis, or think about why we read stories of love and adventure, or consider, from any point of view, pornography or psychoanalysis, we end by analyzing ways people please themselves and assert authority over others by using words. (To observe that critics writing about pleasure and power have managed to get what measure of the good stuff they can is to state the merely inevitable.) Claiming that women writers are powerful--i.e. effective and influential--has been a focus of feminist critics concerned to dispute the canon, to rehabilitate forgotten writers, and to revise women's relation to the languages of power. That Jane Austen, unforgotten, canonized, and stunningly authoritative, has been a problem for feminists is not surprising: in the struggle for power between politically radical and conservative critics...

Words: 5571 - Pages: 23

Premium Essay

Re-Thinking the Relevance of Philosophy of Education for Educational Policy Making

...How do these different meanings affect the possibility of philosophy (of education) influencing policy? The question is addressed using both philosophical methods and also some empirical evidence from conversations and conversational interviews with some philosophers of education and other educational researchers. The argument begins with an investigation of different ways of understanding philosophy and philosophy of education in relation to education and educational policy. It then examines first the current policy context and secondly some evidence about the practices of policy makers in relation to ideas and to research. It goes on to present some of the findings from the conversational evidence. The paper is drawn together in the penultimate section where I make some suggestions about possible fruitful relationships between philosophy and policy making. Finally, in the concluding section, I point out some further – thorny – questions that are raised by my analysis, especially in relationship to ethics and social justice. I Introduction: Questions and themes in the paper Philosophers of education rightly want to influence educational policy makers (among others). But are they doing so? And, if so, how? The overall question addressed in the paper considers what kind of ‘philosophy of...

Words: 7350 - Pages: 30

Premium Essay

Human Resource Management

...Business strategies and human resource management: uneasy bedfellows or strategic partners? John Purcell University of Bath Bath BA2 7AY 01225 386567 J.Purcell@bath.ac.uk 1 Business strategies and human resource management: uneasy bedfellows or strategic partners? One of the assignment questions for this year’s class studying ‘Strategy and Human Resource Management’ (a very popular course) was: Does, and should, competitive strategy determine the design of a firm’s HR system? Give illustrations to support your answer. One of the great advantages in working in a university which has top students is that you can ask them questions you are not quite sure how to answer yourself! The best students gave clear examples of such a link and then got stuck in to the ‘should’ part of the question often noting the critical difference between competitive strategy and business strategy. Some even went further into corporate strategy, the resource based, and knowledge based view as well as ethics, culture and institutional setting. Surprisingly none of them questioned what was meant by a firm’s HR system. I will follow the same line of argument in this paper with thanks to the students, very few of whom have any intention of becoming HR professionals. We start with some of the classics in strategy and HRM, go on to look briefly at some major studies, or the ones that have influenced my thinking. Thereafter the paper notes the problems with the assumed link with competitive strategy as a dominant...

Words: 6146 - Pages: 25

Free Essay

Sssssss

...DIVINATION SYSTEMS  Written by Nicole Yalsovac  Additional sections contributed by Sean Michael Smith and Christine Breese, D.D. Ph.D.  Introduction  Nichole Yalsovac  Prophetic revelation, or Divination, dates back to the earliest known times of human existence. The oldest  of  all  Chinese  texts,  the  I  Ching,  is  a  divination  system  older  than  recorded  history.  James  Legge  says  in  his  translation of I Ching: Book Of Changes (1996), “The desire to seek answers and to predict the future is as old as  civilization  itself.”  Mankind  has  always  had  a  desire  to  know  what  the  future  holds.  Evidence  shows  that  methods of divination, also known as fortune telling, were used by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Babylonians  and the Sumerians (who resided in what is now Iraq) as early as six‐thousand years ago.  Divination  was  originally  a  device  of  royalty  and  has  often  been  an  essential  part  of  religion  and  medicine. Significant leaders and royalty often employed priests, doctors, soothsayers and astrologers as advisers  and consultants on what the future held. Every civilization has held a belief in at least some type of divination.  The point of divination in the ancient world was to ascertain the will of the gods. In fact, divination is so  called because it is assumed to be a gift of the divine, a gift from the gods. This gift of obtaining knowledge of the  unknown  uses  a  wide  range  of  tools  and  an  enormous  variety  of ...

Words: 45715 - Pages: 183

Premium Essay

Business Performance Measurement

...This page intentionally left blank Business Performance Measurement Drawing together contributions from leading thinkers around the world, this book reviews recent developments in the theory and practice of performance measurement and management. Significantly updated and modified from the first edition, the book includes ten new chapters that provide a comprehensive review of performance measurement from the perspectives of accounting, marketing, operations, public services and supply chain management. In addition to these functional analyses the book explores performance measurement frameworks and methodologies, practicalities and challenges, and enduring questions and issues. Edited by one of the world’s leading experts on performance measurement and management, Business Performance Measurement will be of interest to graduate students, managers and researchers who wish to understand more about the latest developments in this rapidly changing field. Andy Neely is Deputy Director of the ESRC/EPSRC AIM Research initiative, Professor of Operations Strategy and Performance at Cranfield School of Management, and Visiting Professor of Operations Management at London Business School. Business Performance Measurement Unifying theories and integrating practice Second edition Edited by Andy Neely CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge...

Words: 191452 - Pages: 766

Premium Essay

Tfhufn Vgnjbn Fudrfvnj

...ExpAQAPoetryClusters4Relationships_pp125-156_FINAL_Layout 1 28/05/2010 13:32 Page 125 Cluster 4 Relationships Different types of relationship are the focus of this cluster. Some poems, such as ‘Quickdraw’ and ‘Hour’, deal with the positive and/or negative emotions inherent in romantic relationships. Some deal with family relationships and the complex feelings that can be experienced by parents and children, or brothers and sisters, as in ‘Nettles’ and ‘Harmonium’ or ‘Brothers’ and ‘Sister Maude’ respectively. Some of the recurrent themes include conflict between couples, and the emotional vulnerability and pain that love can cause, whether it is between a father and his son or a couple at the start of a romantic love affair. When studying this cluster, it might be useful for students to focus on some of the following considerations: • What form of relationship is the focus of this poem? Is it a romantic or familial relationship? Is the poet drawing attention to any universal experiences as they portray this relationship in particular? • From whose perspective is the poem written? Is it first, second or third person address, and how does this affect meaning? Who does the poem address? Or is it about, rather than directed to, someone? Does the form of communication affect the meaning? Is the poet speaking directly, or does the poet use a persona to communicate their ideas? • Consider the mood / tone of the poem. Is it light-hearted or serious in tone? Is it making a serious...

Words: 14603 - Pages: 59

Free Essay

Football, Violence and Social Identity

...Downloaded by [University of Ottawa] at 14:44 24 March 2014 Football, Violence and Social Identity Downloaded by [University of Ottawa] at 14:44 24 March 2014 As the 1994 World Cup competition in the USA again demonstrates, football is one of the most popular participant and spectator sports around the world. The fortunes of teams can have great significance for the communities they represent at both local and national levels. Social and cultural analysts have only recently started to investigate the wide variety of customs, values and social patterns that surround the game in different societies. This volume contributes to the widening focus of research by presenting new data and explanations of football-related violence. Episodes of violence associated with football are relatively infrequent, but the occasional violent events which attract great media attention have their roots in the rituals of the matches, the loyalties and identities of players and crowds and the wider cultures and politics of the host societies. This book provides a unique cross-national examination of patterns of order and conflict surrounding football matches from this perspective with examples provided by expert contributors from Scotland, England, Norway, the Netherlands, Italy, Argentina and the USA. This book will be of interest to an international readership of informed soccer and sport enthusiasts and students of sport, leisure, society, deviance and culture. Richard Giulianotti, Norman...

Words: 73490 - Pages: 294

Premium Essay

Researching and Writing

.... ReseaRching and WRiting a disseRtation a guidebook foR business students Colin Fisher second edition . Researching and Writing a Dissertation: A Guidebook for Business Students . We work with leading authors to develop the strongest educational materials in management, bringing cutting-edge thinking and best learning practice to a global market. Under a range of well-known imprints, including Financial Times Prentice Hall, we craft high-quality print and electronic publications which help readers to understand and apply their content, whether studying or at work. To find out more about the complete range of our publishing, please visit us on the World Wide Web at: www.pearsoned.co.uk . Researching and Writing a Dissertation: A Guidebook for Business Students Second edition Colin Fisher with John Buglear Diannah Lowry Alistair Mutch Carole Tansley . Pearson Education Limited Edinburgh Gate Harlow Essex CM20 2JE England and Associated Companies throughout the world Visit us on the World Wide Web at: www.pearsoned.co.uk First published 2004 Second edition 2007 © Pearson Education Limited 2004 © Pearson Education Limited 2007 The right of Colin Fisher to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical...

Words: 142971 - Pages: 572

Premium Essay

Learning Style

...LSRC reference Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning A systematic and critical review This report critically reviews the literature on learning styles and examines in detail 13 of the most influential models. The report concludes that it matters fundamentally which instrument is chosen. The implications for teaching and learning in post-16 learning are serious and should be of concern to learners, teachers and trainers, managers, researchers and inspectors. Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning A systematic and critical review LSRC reference Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning A systematic and critical review LSRC reference LSRC reference Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning A systematic and critical review Frank Coffield Institute of Education University of London David Moseley University of Newcastle Elaine Hall University of Newcastle Kathryn Ecclestone University of Exeter The Learning and Skills Research Centre is supported by the Learning and Skills Council and the Department for Education and Skills The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Learning and Skills Research Centre or the Learning and Skills Development Agency Published by the Learning and Skills Research Centre www.LSRC.ac.uk Feedback should be sent to: Sally Faraday Research Manager Learning and Skills Development Agency Regent Arcade House 19–25 Argyll Street London...

Words: 108874 - Pages: 436

Free Essay

Advanced Algorithms

...Vijay V. Vazirani College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Copyright c 2001 Approximation Algorithms Springer Berlin Heidelberg NewYork Barcelona Hong Kong London Milan Paris Singapore Tokyo To my parents Preface Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) Most natural optimization problems, including those arising in important application areas, are NP-hard. Therefore, under the widely believed conjecture that P = NP, their exact solution is prohibitively time consuming. Charting the landscape of approximability of these problems, via polynomial time algorithms, therefore becomes a compelling subject of scientific inquiry in computer science and mathematics. This book presents the theory of approximation algorithms as it stands today. It is reasonable to expect the picture to change with time. The book is divided into three parts. In Part I we cover a combinatorial algorithms for a number of important problems, using a wide variety of algorithm design techniques. The latter may give Part I a non-cohesive appearance. However, this is to be expected – nature is very rich, and we cannot expect a few tricks to help solve the diverse collection of NP-hard problems. Indeed, in this part, we have purposely refrained from tightly categorizing algorithmic techniques so as not to trivialize matters. Instead, we have attempted to capture, as accurately as possible, the individual character...

Words: 140657 - Pages: 563

Premium Essay

Phil 235 Course Notes

...Chapter 1: Ethical Theory Meta-ethical positions include: * Ethical non-cognitivism (concept that ethics is a matter of feelings) * Ethical relativism (concept that ethics is relative to a particular point of view) * Ethical objectivism (notion that ethics is objective in nature). Meta-Ethical Positions Ethical Non-cognitivism The basis of ethical non-cognitivism is that ethical disagreement can be a highly emotional affair where no amount of reasoning is likely to convince the other party. * Example: “Let’s just agree to disagree” Ethical Relativism * Ethical relativism says that while ethical statements are cognitively meaningful, they do not hold in any objective sense because they depend on our point of view. * If we accept ethical relativism, then ethical disagreement among people who do not share the same perspective becomes impossible. * It assumes that if people agree on something, then it must be true. * Ethical relativism is suspect for a pragmatic reason: it is fundamentally at variance with our social practice. * Example: “To each his own”, or the belief that what’s right for one group isn’t necessarily right for another Ethical Objectivism * Ethical objectivism holds that right and wrong are objective phenomena. * Example: “I’m right and you’re wrong” What is Ethics? * As a discipline, ethics is a branch of philosophy. * It deals with questions of right and wrong conduct, and with what we ought to do and what...

Words: 23725 - Pages: 95

Premium Essay

Psychological Assessment

...How can I as an educator and Professional Development Manager working with teachers, support and enhance the learning and achievement of pupils in a whole school improvement process? Submitted by Michael Anthony Bosher For The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Bath 2001 May 2002 Vol 1.1 Copyright ‘Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with the author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author’. This thesis may be made available for consultation within the University Library and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation. …………………………… Contents Tables and Figures 2 Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 Preface 5 Introduction 13 Chapter 1 A Cultural Context 18 Chapter 2 An Autobiography 25 Chapter 3 Methodology 40 Chapter 4 The School's Action Research Cycles 89 Chapter 5 School Effectiveness and School Improvement 107 Chapter 6 Vignette 1 Alan Shelton a Teacher 'Par Excellence' 120 Chapter 7 Some More Vignettes 158 Chapter 8 A Personal Development Review 184 Chapter 9 The Circle is Completed 190 References ...

Words: 170109 - Pages: 681

Free Essay

Globalisation

...Critical Theories of Globalization Chamsy el-Ojeili and Patrick Hayden Critical Theories of Globalization Also by Chamsy el-Ojeili CONFRONTING GLOBALIZATION: Humanity, Justice and the Renewal of Politics FROM LEFT COMMUNISM TO POSTMODERNISM: Reconsidering Emancipatory Discourse Also by Patrick Hayden AMERICA’S WAR ON TERROR CONFRONTING GLOBALIZATION: Humanity, Justice and the Renewal of Politics COSMOPOLITAN GLOBAL POLITICS JOHN RAWLS: Towards a Just World Order THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN RIGHTS Critical Theories of Globalization Chamsy el-Ojeili Department of Sociology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Patrick Hayden School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, UK © Patrick Hayden and Chamsy el-Ojeili 2006 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents...

Words: 100030 - Pages: 401

Premium Essay

Game Change

...GAME CHANGE OBAMA AND THE CLINTONS, MCCAIN AND PALIN, AND THE RACE OF A LIFETIME JOHN HEILEMANN AND MARK HALPERIN FOR DIANA AND KAREN Contents Cover Title Page Prologue Part I Chapter One – Her Time Chapter Two – The Alternative Chapter Three – The Ground Beneath Her Feet Chapter Four – Getting to Yes Chapter Five – The Inevitables Chapter Six – Barack in a Box Chapter Seven – “They Looooove Me!” Chapter Eight – The Turning Point Chapter Nine – The Fun Part Chapter Ten – Two For the Price of One Chapter Eleven – Fear and Loathing in the Lizard’s Thicket Chapter Twelve – Pulling Away and Falling Apart Chapter Thirteen – Obama Agonistes Chapter Fourteen – The Bitter End Game Part II Chapter Fifteen – The Maverick and His Meltdown Chapter Sixteen – Running Unopposed Chapter Seventeen – Slipping Nooses, Slaying Demons Part III Chapter Eighteen – Paris and Berlin Chapter Nineteen – The Mile-High Club Chapter Twenty – Sarahcuda Chapter Twenty-One – September Surprise Chapter Twenty-Two – Seconds in Command Chapter Twenty-Three – The Finish Line Epilogue – Together at Last Index Author’s Notes About the Authors Copyright About the Publisher Prologue BARACK OBAMA JERKED BOLT upright in bed at three o’clock in the morning. Darkness enveloped his low-rent room at the Des Moines Hampton Inn; the airport across the street was quiet in the hours before dawn. It was very late December 2007, a few days ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Obama had been sprinting flat out...

Words: 160589 - Pages: 643