Group Double U Topia

Three weeks ago, Game Of Thrones returned to televisions all over the globe with its premiere of season 8, shattering viewership ratings. Many have asked why so many people watch this show. The answer to this is simple: a combination of incredible cinematography and acting, and arguably the best dystopian world ever crafted. First, some background. Game of Thrones is based in a realistic world on 2 continents: Westeros and Essos. Westeros is where the real dystopia is. The continent is run by seven families, one of which is always on top. Every house is constantly vying for the throne, and as such, any given character can die at any time. The unpredictability of Thrones makes it unlike any other show. I think that the society of Westeros is very similar to that of Oceania in 1984. The Inner Party of Westeros consists of the nine ruling families (Starks, Targaryens, Lannisters, Tyrells, Baratheons, Martells, Tullys, and Greyjoys), who are all constantly being monitored by the spy m

While all of the books we have read this semester are very famous and well known, I would say that 1984 is by far the most. 1984 has had an effect on our culture unmatched by almost any other dystopian novel to date, having been bought over 30 million times since its publication. Additionally, the book has seen a large spike in sales in the last few years especially and is now possibly more relevant than ever. I think 1984 reflects our own society much closer than any other dystopian novel, and this makes the book much more impactful to us. There are two major things that i think resonate the most with modern readers of 1984: the surveillance of the population (at least the outer-Party members) and the constant manipulation of information. Firstly, the presence of the term ‘Big Brother’ in modern culture reaches much further beyond the book itself, and this is an example of how 1984 reflects our world; the fear of a totalitarian government watching over your eve

So far in 1984, the two things that have stood out most to me are how little the proles are monitored compared to those like Winston and how controlling the government in Oceania strives to be, even changing the language so that there are no words left that could incite ideas harmful to Oceania, like “rebellion.” On top of those two factors, as we know from what we’ve read so far (up to chapter VIII), some people in the proles might know the true history of the world and how it has changed since Oceania’s beginning, not the falsified stories that Winston has contributed to himself. Despite all this, the government of Oceania, as mentioned before, still fails to force the same extremes forced onto those near the upper echelon onto the proles. They believe the proles pose absolutely no threat, but even Winston has mentioned how if the proles somehow found motivation to rebel, they could take on Oceania (foreshadowing?). With all these factors considered, it makes sense that someo

In class today (Monday, April 1st), we discussed the similarities between the world of 1984, and our world in 2019. Several people mentioned that the futuristic tech (Relative to the 1930s) in the book is very similar to our modern day tech. Especially the television screen, which not only broadcasts information but also records information, similar to our computers webcams, and the amazon Alexa.  In the book, this tech is used to supervise people, and discourage them from acting against the state. People know that they are being surveilled 24/7, and this forces obedience in every aspect in life, as they have no privacy to do what they want. While this is not the case in 2019, some people are still being unwillingly recorded. I myself did not know of anything relating to this topic prior to the discussion we had in class on Monday, and I was quite surprised to see how many people covered or knew other people who covered their webcams. It for some reason had never occurred to m

     In a strike of something that could be called either unlucky or highly lucky, earlier this year I came across a TV show airing on Hulu called “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I saw that it had won many awards, so I proceeded to watch the trailer. That same night, I logged on to my account with the Champaign Public Library, and immediately requested the TV show, and after a couple of weeks of waiting, I picked it up from the library. Within five minutes, I was absolutely addicted. The show, starring Elizabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, and Joseph Fiennes had won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for a reason. The combination of a great plot, great acting, and great cinematography was unmatched (save for Game of Thrones and Vikings) compared to anything I had ever watched before in the realm of television.     When I came back to school following winter break, Dr. Majerus mentioned that we would be reading the Handmaid’s Tale. My first thought was, “Oh great, no need to do the readings!” Reluctantly,

Almost all of the books we are reading in this class are Dystopian fiction, and in general, there is just more dystopian fiction than utopian fiction. This made me think about the reasons for this, and why dystopias are so much more interesting than utopias. Firstly, I tried to determine a central theme or connection between various dystopias, and one thing that most, if not all, dystopian fiction takes one, or a few, elements of modern society, exaggerates them, and combines them to make a new type of society, a dystopia. For example, Huxley did this in Brave New World, with the increasing consumerism and industrialization, as well as the Freudian ideas, of the early 20th century. Additionally, Margaret Atwood has also said that she only drew on real events when writing The Handmaid’s Tale. After seeing this pattern in dystopian fiction, why does it make for a compelling story, and why is there a lack of utopian fiction that follows the same pattern? I think this way of drawing u