Winston Smith

So the past is basically very recent memory.

So in 1984, you've got characters like Winston Smith who have childhood memories of before the change happened, the revolution.

But here, the narrator actually seems to know a lot about the previous world.

And as we read the novel...

That's not a great idea either.

I almost feel like I hallucinated this like Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984.

But I seem to remember, and you might remember too, just a few years ago, all of these tech guys like Zuckerberg and Sam Altman and Elon Musk, Didn't they all sign a letter to President Biden asking for federal regulation of the AI industry because they themselves were so deeply concerned about the direction that it was going and they wanted to tap the brakes a little bit and have some kind of, you know, the role that government should play, which is to step in as like, you know, big daddy and say, all right, kids, let's figure out how we want to do this.

Let's not be in such a rush to run outside.

That's not a great idea either.

I almost feel like I hallucinated this like Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984.

But I seem to remember, and you might remember too, just a few years ago, all of these tech guys like Zuckerberg and Sam Altman and Elon Musk, didn't they all sign a letter to president biden asking for federal regulation of the ai industry because they themselves were so deeply concerned about the direction that it was going and they wanted to you know hit the break tap the brakes a little bit and and and have a some kind of you know the role that government should play which is to step in as like you know, big daddy and say, all right, kids, let's figure out how we want to do this.

Let's not be in such a rush to run outside.

Again, it's outstate.

And when I say outstate, I always feel like Winston Smith and Julia in 1984 looking out the window in their little room and saying, the proles will be the salvation eventually.

Yes, I mean...

For all I know, the people in outstate are just as peeved about the tariffs and the soybeans and the boundary waters and everything as the people in the metro, too, and that they'll peel away and probably go Democrat.

After Absolution, Richard Burton's career never really returned to the dizzying heights of his earlier days, though he did put in some very impressive performances.

In 1983, he starred as the composer Richard Wagner in a US miniseries of the same name, alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Laurence Olivier, and in 1984, appeared in 1984, playing O'Brien opposite John Hurt as Winston Smith.

His final released work was a TV miniseries which followed the struggles of immigrants on Ellis Island in the US, in which he appeared with his daughter Kate, the offspring of his marriage to his first wife Sybil.

Shortly before his death in 1984, he wrote a final and unmailed letter to Elizabeth Taylor.

It's kind of like 1984, though.

I mean, you know, Winston Smith doesn't need to be destroying old records.

They just make new ones with

AI.

for me and i think i chose the scarlet letter ah well i can see you wanting to do that one too that's a great great novel

uh as is this one yes i mean i should read it i guess of all the dystopian novels in english this is probably the most famous um yeah and most acclaimed i suppose um so i mean it's about it's the protagonist winston smith uh Works for the ironically named Ministry of Truth, which is all propaganda for Big Brother.

But he has a girlfriend, and that gets him into trouble.

All

Ben says it reminds me of the George Orwell quote, he who controls the past controls the future, he who controls the present controls the past.

Yes, in the book 1984, the main protagonist, Winston Smith, his job is to constantly update the historical record, as in, remove people from photos and rewrite articles and things because as the present changes, they change the past to reflect the present and that's his job.

On this same issue, Ian says, our nation's data will make no difference to the overall climate.

So why do we worry if the Bureau is fudging it? Well, it matters, Ian, because policy here in Australia is dictated by Australia's climate data.

If you haven't, I don't want to say shame on you, but please let me remind you that you should.

And in Orwell's 1984, Winston sits there for two minutes of hate from the government every single day.

Time for some more hate.

Here you go.

He won praise for his performances in Pride and Prejudice in 1952 and Anastasia in 1953, for which he won the Daily Mail National Television Award for Best Actor.

A year later in 1954, he starred as Winston Smith in the BBC production of George Orwell's 1984, and this was adapted by Nigel Kneale and directed by a man called Rudolph Cartier, who would go on to direct Kneale's story The Creature one year later.

1984 was highly successful, but it was also highly controversial, and it even prompted questions in the Houses of Parliament.

One of these complained about, quote, "The tendency evident in recent British Broadcasting Corporation television programs, notably on Sunday evenings, to pander to sexual and sadistic tastes." End quote.