Feeling more relevant than ever before, 1984 has risen towards the top of Amazon’s bestseller list, sitting at the No. 5 spot as of post-inaugural Tuesday morning. George Orwell’s classic was published nearly seven decades ago. However, the story speaks to this generation, a generation fearful of government manipulation of information. 1984 is a dystopian novel which follows Winston, a man trying to avoid the thought control patterns of the government. The spoken language of “newspeak” is implemented by the government in an attempt to repress freedom of thought within the population. After Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway defended press secretary …
Banned books are still a problem in school as teachers and administrations censor students’ reading material. One student at a private school watched as books that could be opposed to the school’s Catholic leanings were banned – from Animal Farm to The Godfather to The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The student decided to do something about it. Using an empty locker room to store over 60 books is quite remarkable. Besides finding the space for all of those books, this student is literally running a fully functional library at school every day. A cursory search leads to the discovery that there …
It happens every day. You’re at a cocktail party with a bunch of work colleagues and one asks you, “What did you think of The Kite Runner?” You freeze, not sure if they’re referencing a book, a movie, or someone you two walked past in the park the other day. “It was really amazing.” We’ve all done it. Whether we’re trying to impress someone or simply feel like we’re part of a cultural phenomenon, we claim to have read or seen or heard things that we simply haven’t. The tendency to tell that little white lie is everywhere. According to …
