Daily Painting

Viktor Zaretskyi
EYES OF AUTUMN (1985) 

Watching

RE-ANIMATOR
Stuart Gordon
USA, 1985

Daily Painting

Cy Twombly
WILDER SHORES OF LOVE (1985)

Watching

I LIKE BATS
[LUBIĘ NIETOPERZE]
Grzegorz Warchol
Poland, 1985

Watching

MR. VAMPIRE
[殭屍先生]
Ricky Lau
Hong Kong, 1985

Playing

The Cure
THE HEAD ON THE DOOR

Playing

The Highwaymen
HIGHWAYMAN

NEIL POSTMAN
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985)

We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.

As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

Daily Painting

Júlio Pomar
LUSITÂNIA NO BAIRRO LATINO (1985)
[LUSITANIA IN THE LATIN QUARTER]

Playing

Eurythmics
BE YOURSELF TONIGHT

MARGARET ATWOOD

The Handmaid's Tale

It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.

Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.

I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed at home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could point your finger at.

Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn't be too careful.

MARGARET ATWOOD
The Handmaid's Tale

Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.

-

MARGARET ATWOOD
The Handmaid's Tale

Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse, for some.

-

MARGARET ATWOOD
The Handmaid's Tale

A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.

Currently Playing

Einar Englund
PIANO QUINTET (1941)
STRING QUARTET (1985)

Sinfonia Lahti Chamber Ensemble
Peter Lönnqvist

Currently Playing

Aphex Twin
SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS 85-92

Currently Playing

Cowboy Junkies
200 MORE MILES
Live Performances 1985-1994

BRIAN ALDISS
Helliconia Winter

On Mars, Venus, Mercury, and the moons of Jupiter, human beings were more free—free to found their own petty nations and ruin their own lives their own way. But.

Daily Painting

Cy Twombly
WILDER SHORES OF LOVE (1985)

Currently Playing

Michael Torke
COLOR MUSIC

David Zinman
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Kent Nagano
London Sinfonietta

Currently Watching

PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE
Tim Burton
USA, 1985

Currently Playing

Tom Waits
RAIN DOGS