In George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, the telescreen-which spies on its captive audience members and fills their minds with propaganda-is the instrument that makes possible the totalitarian state's absolute control. Huber (Galileo's Revenge) believes Orwell was fundamentally wrong in assuming that electronic media would facilitate mind control. On the contrary, he argues, today's telecommunications world-spanning cable television, personal computer networks, cellular phones and so forth-offers a multiplicity of choices in information and fosters the exchange of ideas. In alternating chapters, Huber splices a belabored critique of Orwell's prophecies with an experimental fiction, closely based on 1984, but with Eric Blair (i.e., Orwell under his real name) as the protagonist. The fictional chapters interpolate real-life figures such as spy Guy Burgess, Orwell's colleague at the BBC, and Vaughan Wilkes, Orwell's sadistic schoolmaster. Concluding with a handy capsule history of telecommunications, Huber provocatively predicts the convergence of computing, television and the telephone in a myriad of mixed-media networks.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In his preface, Huber discusses the grim and compelling vision of Orwell's 1984. However, as Huber (Galileo's Revenge, LJ 8/91) points out, and as is evident by the passage of time, Orwell's vision of the future and of the uses of technology was fundamentally wrong. To explore the central themes of Orwell's work, as well as his essays and letters, Huber rewrites 1984; each chapter of this novel-within-a-book is followed by commentary on the major themes in 1984. Entitled "1994 and After," the work features the main character, Blair, who is modeled on Orwell (whose given name was Eric Blair). Blair's story roughly parallels Winston Smith's experiences in 1984. In the final section, Huber recapitulates the developments of the telecommunications and computer industries to demonstrate more precisely why Orwell's predictions were so off the mark. Recommended as a companion to the study of 1984.
Cheryl L. Conway, Univ. of Arkansas Lib., Fayetteville
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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