In high school, was Orwell's "1984" on your required reading list?

[RandomKoolzip]

I have a flimsy theory that the people who become progressives later in life read this book early in life. I've talked to liberal friends who told me that their teachers requied them to read 1984 in high school, and I know conservatives who've never read it. Is there any connection, do you think? To experience Orwell's world vision is to be changed; I can't imagine not becoming a liberal after reading it. I read 1984 when I was 10 years old of my own volition, and it wasn't required reading for our high school, and it definitely helped me locate where I stood in the political spectrum...The conservatives in this country don't seem to have taken Orwell's lessons to heart. Am I really high or do I have a point?

What are your thoughts?




Jesus, I'm bored............

[goobergunch]

1. No

but I read it on my own in middle school.

[Dudley_DUright]

19. I read 1984 and Animal Farm in 6th grade

but I had an excellent teacher that really challenged us. I have read both many times since then, but I still remember the first time reading both.

[jono]

2. No.

I didn't read it until recently. My older brother read it in high school, though, and he's a hard-core fundie.

P.S. No reason you can't be really high AND have a point. :smoke:

[RandomKoolzip]

7. Hard core fundie?

I take it HE thinks it's about socialism....Oops!

Usually the only point I have when I'm high is the knife I use to cut my sandwiches in half....

[jono]

11. Yes.

That's my assumption, too. (We don't talk much.)

I admire your ability to cut your munchies into sensible bites when you're high. Personally, I can't get food in my mouth fast enough.

[Noordam]

3. Yes Rome NY

in 66.

[Pale_Rider]

4. Yep ...

... in English advanced placement in high school.

[david_vincent]

5. Yes

We had to read it in, I think, 11th grade English class. Mr. Rose also made us read Brave New World, Romeo & Juliet and Great Expectations.

[haele]

6. Yup, that and Animal Farm....

Also, The Once and Future King to balance them. (shrug)

Yup, I went to a librul Seattle university-feeder back in the 1970's...dam' place was determined to make us students think!

Haele

[RandomKoolzip]

8. Hmm, sounds like a good school.

I get the feeling that we're going to see more and more "balanced" required reading lists by the time Bush is done ripping this country a new assh&le....

[eyesroll]

9. Yep.

Chicago suburbs, early 1990s.

But plenty of conservatives graduated from my high school.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Yes, we read it. I think I read it in two classes,

and watched the film.

But, I also graduated in 1984. I never thought to ask, but I would be interested to see how often it was read before and after 1984. Of course, there was more hype about "1984" in 1983-4 than in previous years on TV and in the media, but knowing my humanities teachers (rabid liberals; one of them even gave a memorable and astute lecture on how the JFK and MLK assassinations were linked and likely done by the government), i wouldn't be surprised if they had been assigning 1984 for a number of years, and continue to do so.

[Zomby Woof]

12. yes

In my senior year. But I had already read it voluntarily, and loved it so much I eagerly read it again when that time came. Can't say that about everything I had to read in high school (Thomas Hardy's "Return Of The Native" comes to mind), but I certainly STILL recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it.

[Nlighten1]

13. Yes

But it wasn't really explained to us.

[Political_Junkie]

14. Yep,

8th grade reading list (somewhere around 1978-79). I've heard an awful lot of conservatives quote the book though. Maybe they just didn't get it?

[RandomKoolzip]

15. Conservatives quote the bible, too. It doesn't mean they understand it.

They think 1984 is anti-communist. Conservatives probly used it as a template for undrstanding Soviet society and the gradual danger of the red peril. Too bad soviet-led communism turned out to be a paper tiger!

They also use it as a way to discredit the "PC Police;" everytime someone who isn't a rich white male complains about being mistreated, the conservatives somehow imagine that that person suddenly is Big Brother. However they make this leap, I dunno...

[mrfrapp]

16. No

I didn't read 1984 until October 2001. I was drawn to it for some reason. I do wish though that I had read it earlier.

On a side note I have loved Brazil for many years -- a film which I consider a satirical rendition of 1984 and also the film which Zappa (you're avatar) has gone on record as saying is his favourite film.

I don't know why I said that.

[sweetheart]

17. yes

and huxley's brave new world... but i cheated and read somebody's notes as i was pressed for studying on some other thingie... as i vaguely remember from 1977.

In all honesty, the most awakening schooling experiences i've ever had were with enlightened buddhist tulku's and at oxford university in england.

Is not school where one experiences those awakenings... and who is to say when that is... certainly fundie thinking is not awakening... just how they can sleep through a fog horn alarm clock... leads me to wonder...

[Character Assassin]

18. Freshman year, along with Richard the 3rd, Brave New World, etc...

Isn't it sort of a perennial?