1984

Share a Book at Lunchtime
Always popular with teenagers, dystopic fiction was on the menu with Eda Ateş (Grade11) sharing her opinions of '1984.' Some of the words/catch phrases in that book have a permanent place in the English language, such as 'Big Brother', 'Doublethink' and 'Newspeak'. I pointed out that when I read '1984' it was 20 years in the future and for audiences today it is 'old hat', set in a time some 30 years ago! After discussing the book we wnet on to recommend other books which might interest a young audience, going back as far as H.G. Wells'"The Time Machine"(1895), Kafka's "Metamorphosis"(1915), Ayn Rand's "Anthem"(1938)up to the present time of Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games." We also came to the conclusion that as there were so many books written in this genre, that negative situations created a richer source than positive ones. How about a succession of utopic novels?