10 April 2013

 Birthdays
Alex Pettyfer b. 1990
Jamie Chung b. 1983
Max Von Sydow b. 1929

If I was using the Photo Slot = Pretty Girl Rule, you would now be looking at a picture of Jamie Chung from Sucker Punch. If I wanted a pretty boy instead, Mr. Pettyfer from I Am Number Four and In Time would be an excellent choice. But sometimes even a dirty old man looks at a list of names and says "There is exactly one great actor in that list" and today was one of those days. He had a long and brilliant career before his first genre film Flash Gordon in 1980 and has done several since, including Minority Report in the century.

Many happy returns to all concerned.

Prediction: Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war, but it was evident there had been a fairly long interval of peace during his childhood, because one of his early memories was of an air raid which appeared to take everyone by surprise. Perhaps it was the time when the atomic bomb had dropped on Colchester.

Predictor: George Orwell in 1984, published 1949

Reality: On Sunday of this week, I posted a map of the world governments according to 1984. Oceania's center I assume to be the United States, Eurasia looks like an expanded Soviet Union and Eastasia is China and some surrounding countries. Orwell does not give any detailed explanation of how the world went from the late 1940s to the world of 1984, but obviously there were more wars of expansion and the wars to control the Disputed Territories have been fought ever since.

There aren't that many exact dates given in 1984. One of the recurring themes is the unreliability of memory. My memory is good enough to recall that this is the seventh day of Orwell Week - and my reliable labels back me up.  There is so much more that is worth discussing in the book, from Hate Week and Two Minutes' Hate to the books that influenced Orwell to write this and the writers who owe him a debt, but I'm going to stay true to my self-imposed deadline and make this the last of the Orwell posts for now. I will certainly return to it... IN THE FUTURE!


Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! 




Back on our regular schedule, Thursday is a prediction from Arthur C. Clarke, and we celebrate the birthday of the best looking toaster ever.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!