non-gravity on 28 July 2012
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
I consider this novel so important for a young person to understand, I read the entire thing out loud to my dyslexic teenage son a few years ago. Orwell had a unique understanding of the political future planned for the world by powers we're not supposed to know about. He put this picture together in his horrifying novel about a society gone mad with control. The characters want to live normal lives, but are prevented at every turn by "Big Brother" - the eye of the government.
Orwell also wrote Animal Farm - a much shorter novel about how power corrupts. The characters are all animals - a strange thing in a novel intended for adults. I consider both his books to be VITAL reading for informed citizens.
