Nineteen Eighty-Four: Encyclopedia II - Nineteen Eighty-Four - Related works

Nineteen Eighty-Four - Related works

Nineteen Eighty-Four - Literature

• Kallocain by Karin Boye
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
• Anthem by Ayn Rand
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• This Perfect Day by Ira Levin
• James Burnham, whose book The Managerial Revolution was a major influence on the development of Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• The Iron Heel by Jack London, a dystopian novel about a proto-fascist state, cited by Orwell biographers as an influence
• Jennifer Government by Max Barry
• 1985 by Gyogy Dalos, a "sequel" to 1984 beginning at the death of Big Brother
• 1985 by Anthony Burgess, a sequel-critique of 1984
• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin - another influence on 1984
• Fatherland by Robert Harris
• V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
• Assignment in Utopia by Eugene Lyons
• Justice Machine, a comic book series created by Mike Gustovich and published by several different publishers about a group of superheroes from the world "Georwell". They begin as soldiers for their totalitarian planet until they learn that the government has used them to oppress the people. They then fight for true justice against their version of Big Brother.

Nineteen Eighty-Four - Television

• "1984", an Apple Macintosh commercial depicting an Orwellian dystopia
• Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski's science fiction epic which features an intentionally Orwellian Earth government, as well as many homages to Nineteen Eighty-Four
• "Chain of Command", a famous episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Jean-Luc Picard is tortured in a fashion similar to that of Winston Smith. Just as Smith is repeatedly shown a hand with four fingers and tortured until he will agree that he actually sees five, Picard is tortured by a Cardassian sadist and is as much told, as asked to see five lights when there are only four.
• The Simpsons a Halloween episode segment where Homer, builds a time machine, alters the past and creates a dystopic future where Ned Flanders is the totalitarian lord of the world.
• Big Brother, the world-wide reality television show takes its name from the novel.
• Room 101, a British television programme loosely inspired by the novel.

Nineteen Eighty-Four - Video games

• Half-Life 2 take places in a near future where an alien empire known as the Combine is in control of Earth, with Wallace Breen, the head of the Black Mesa Research Facility from the original game, acting as a Big Brother-like figure.

• The Command and Conquer series has a leader similar to Big Brother, called Kane, who also takes part of a line from 1984. ("He who controls the past, commands the future. He who commands the future, conquers the past.")

Nineteen Eighty-Four - Recordings

• David Bowie released the album Diamond Dogs which contains the songs: "Rebel Rebel", "1984", "We Are The Dead", "Sweet Thing/Sweet Thing (Reprise)", "Candidate", and "Big Brother". The project was originally conceived as a full length theatrical production but he was denied the rights.

• Subhumans released the album The Day The Country Died in 1982, which appears to be influenced by Nineteen Eighty-Four. One of the songs is called "Big Brother", with lyrics like "There's a TV in my front room and it's screwing up my head", referring to the telescreen of the novel. Much like the novel, the album is largely dystopian, with songs like "Dying World" and "All Gone Dead", the latter of which contains lyrics like "It's 1984 and it's gonna be a war". According to Dick Lucas, the song "Subvert City" is based on the ideas of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley

• "Nineteen Eighty Bore" is a song from the anarcho-punk band Crass, focusing on the alleged mind-numbing affects of television.

• 1984 (For The Love of Big Brother) is the title of an album by the Eurythmics which was originally released in November 1984 as a partial soundtrack for the film adaptation. It contains the following tracks:

• Oingo Boingo released a song called "Wake up (It's 1984)" on their 1983 album Good For Your Soul. Taking heavily from the movie as well as the book, it serves as commentary to current society.

• Manic Street Preachers released the album The Holy Bible in 1994 which contains the song "Faster". At the beginning of the song a voice (John Hurt, sampled from the movie version of 1984) quotes a line from the book, although not word for word: "I hate purity. I hate goodness. I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt."

• Benzene Jag, an obscure punk band formed in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada released a 45 rpm single called "Fuck off 1984" in 1983.

• Rage Against the Machine released the album called The Battle of Los Angeles in 1999 featuring the track "Testify" containing the phrase "Who Controls the Past Now, Controls the Future, Who controls the Present Now, Controls the Past...", a slogan used by the Party in the Nineteen Eighty-Four novel. Also on the same album, the song "Voice of the Voiceless" contains the lyrics "Orwell's hell a terror era coming through, but this little brother is watching you too".

• Bad Religion released the album called The Empire Strikes First in 2004 featuring the track "Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever" with the title of the song being a direct reference to the Nineteen Eighty-Four novel. In the novel, O'Brien suggests the image of a boot stamping on a human face forever as a picture of the future. The song seems to be referring to the hopelessness of rebellion against the Party.

• Marilyn Manson's album Holy Wood includes a song called "Disposable Teens" in which he sings that he's "a rebel from the waist down". This is a direct reference to Orwell's book, when Winston accuses Julia of being "only a rebel from the waist downwards".

• Anaal Nathrakh's album Domine Non Es Dignus includes a song called "Do Not Spear" that opens with a sample of "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot, stamping on a human face, for ever." Due to Anaal Nathrakh's lyrics being unpublished, the exact influence of 1984 is unknown. However the words "pain, frustration, faded memories" are intelligible, and 1984 certainly fits with the apocalyptic, despairing, anti human themes of the band.

• Jimi Hendrix's album Electric Ladyland includes a song titled "1983 ... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)" in which the narrator flees a war torn world to live in the ocean with his lover. The lyrics include, "Oh say, can you see it's really such a mess, every inch of Earth is a fighting nest. Giant pencil and lipstick tube shaped things, continue to rain and cause screaming pain, and the arctic stains from silver blue to bloody red as our feet find the sand." The song is rather abstract, but it is difficult not to view the title as a hint at the subject matter.

• Radiohead's album Hail to the Thief contains the song "2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm)", where not only the title refers to Nineteen Eighty-Four but the first lines of the song seem to be referring to the hopelessness of Winston's struggle:

• In the song "George Orwell Must Be Laughing His Ass Off" by Mea Culpa, the second verse begins with "If 2 plus 2 don't equal 5 I guess I'm just no fun".

• Singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke published a song called "When Two and Two are Five" with Jennifer Kimball (as The Story).

• The Pet Shop Boys have a song called "one and one make five" on their 1993 album Very.

• The song "The Panama Deception" by Anti-Flag begins with the text "Their two plus two does not equal four. Their two plus two equals whatever they want us to die for".

• Incubus's album A Crow Left of the Murder includes the song "Talk Show On Mute", about how one day, the television might be watching us instead of us watching them, showing a world where humans are monitored at all times. Among its lyrics is the line

• Open Hand released a song called "Newspeak" on their 2005 album You and Me. The song title and lyrics deal heavily with the ideas of newspeak and being thought controlled.

• The Rare Earth hit single "Hey Big Brother", released in 1971, sings of the future arrival of Big Brother, first addressing this future Big Brother directly and then finishing by expressing a rebellious defiance against his arrival.

• The Dead Kennedys' 1979 single "California Über Alles" contains the lyrics "Big Bro on white horse is near", and also "Now it is 1984 / Knock knock at your front door / It's the suede-denim secret police / They've come for your uncool niece" in reference to the thought police of the novel.

• The album Vistoron, released in 2004 by Japanese electronic musician Susumu Hirasawa under the name KAKU P-MODEL, contains a track titled "Big Brother". Hirasawa has offered Big Brother as a free download in MP3 file format.

• Pink Floyd pay a clear homage to George Orwell in their album Animals. The album cover has an image of Battersea Power Station which is also an image used in the film of 1984. The songs are all deeply linked with Orwell's Animal Farm.

• New Zealand band Shihad start off their debut album Churn with the quote "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever" on the song "Factory".
• Sage Francis references "Big Brotherly love" and declares "don't forget what two plus two equals" in the political song "Hey Bobby".

• Anti-Flag released a new song called "1984".

• German band de:BAP referred to George Orwell and 1984 in their live recording of the song "Ne schöne Jrooß" on their 1983 live album "Bess demnähx": "Leven Orwell, vierunachzig ess noh, ess mittlerweile nur noch een läppsch Johr" (Cologne dialect for: "Dear Orwell, '84 is near, meanwhile it's only one more shabby year to go"). In concerts after 1984, they replaced the second verse with: "Ess mittlerweile leider vill ze vill wohr" ("Unfortunately, much too much has meanwhile beome reality").

• Five for Fighting has a song called 2+2 makes five on the bonus CD to his album The Battle for Everything.

Nineteen Eighty-Four - Film

• Equilibrium starring Christian Bale bears more than a passing resemblence to Nineteen Eighty Four. The movie tells the story of "Libria" after being ravaged by the Third World War and therefore suppresses all human feelings in order to stop the outbreak of war again. Cleric Preston (Bale) is the leader of a police force who draw comparison to the Thought Police from the book. Also, all people in the movie are forced to take vials of a liquid drug known as Prozium - called intervals - to stop themselves from succumbing to thoughts. Libria is also controlled by the "Father", another comparison to "Big Brother" from the novel which can be drawn here.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Related works", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki