George Orwell remains an iconic figure today even though he died in 1950. His dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts a Big Brother society in which the state intrudes into the most intimate details of peoples lives and, not surprisingly, it became a constant reference point after Edward Snowdens revelations. The word «Orwellian» is constantly in the media used either as a pejorative adjective to evoke totalitarian terror or as a complimentary adjective to mean «displaying outspoken intellectual honesty». Interest in Orwells life and writings globally continues unabated.
Beginning with a preface by Richard Blair, Orwells son, George Orwell Now! brings together thirteen chapters by leading international scholars in four thematic sections:
Peter Marks on Orwell and the history of surveillance studies; Florian Zollmann on Nineteen Eighty-Four in 2014; Henk Vynckier on Orwells collecting project; and Adam Stock on Big Brothers Literary Offspring
Paul Anderson «In Defence of Bernard Crick»; Luke Seaber on the «London Section of Down and Out in Paris and London»; John Newsinger on «Orwells Socialism»; and Philip Bounds on «Orwell and the Anti-Austerity Left in Britain»
Marina Remy on the «Writing of Otherness in Burmese Days and Keep the Aspidistra Flying»; Sreya Mallika Datta and Utsa Mukherjee on «Reassessing Ambivalence in Orwells Burma»; and Shu-chu Wei on Orwells Animal Farm alongside Chen Jo-hiss Mayor Yin
Tim Crook on «Orwell and the Radio Imagination»; and editor Richard Lance Keeble on «Orwell and the War Reporters Imagination»
Peter Stansky, in an afterword, argues that Orwell is now more relevant than ever before.