George Orwell and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Description

One of the most powerful novels of all time, published fifty years ago, foresaw a dark future that never came to pass. That we escaped the destiny portrayed in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, may be owed in part to the way his chilling tale affected millions, who then girded themselves to fight “Big Brother” to their last breath. In other words, Orwell may have helped make his own scenario not come true. In this brilliant and profound essay, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science fiction novelist and futurist David Brin explains how the common wisdom about future catastrophes is both useful and utterly misguided. Excerpted from THROUGH STRANGER EYES (paperback, Nimble Books, 2010).