Vagina Dentata,
what a wonderful phrase
30,106 posts
To be fair guys, a lot of kids who are younger do not remember the cold war. It was apparent when I was in ninth grade b/c the USSR and the US were still hostile and we grew up with a fear of nuclear war. Someone who is 15 or 16 years old today isn't going to be affected as powerfully as I was, for example, b/c I didn't have to pull from recent history but rather it was reflected in the way the world was. The story doesn't have the same emotional resonance for people in their adolescence now.
This type of story was definitely a political message from Orwell, who was a fairly interesting guy. I think that it gets lost on people who only read this and 1984. I suggest reading Homage to Catalonia, one of the relatively few first hand accounts of the fierce factionalist Spanish Civil War and the Road to Wigan Pier, which is an account of industrialized England and a plea for economic reform.
I don't know if kids are generally interested in reading about recent history. The lessons of the cold war shouldn't be lost on people who see this current era of fear as something brand new--a threat we haven't seen before. In fact, it's really the new Cold War Era and most of the administration are Cold Warrior who transport the same old imagery on a new Enemy.
Edited, Feb 12th 2007 12:43am by annabellaonalexander
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Turin wrote:
Seriously, what the f*ck nature?