[Infowarrior] - 1984 published 60 years ago today

[Richard Forno]

(c/o Anonymous)

Nineteen Eighty-Four
Author 	George Orwell
Publisher 	Secker and Warburg (London)
Publication date 	8 June 1949

Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes abbreviated to 1984) is a classic  
dystopian novel by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949, it  
is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totalitarian  
regime. The story follows the life of one seemingly insignificant man,  
Winston Smith, a civil servant assigned the task of perpetuating the  
regime's propaganda by falsifying records and political literature.  
Smith grows disillusioned with his meager existence and so begins a  
rebellion against the system that leads to his arrest and torture.

The novel has become famous for its portrayal of pervasive government  
surveillance and control, and government's increasing encroachment on  
the rights of the individual. Since its publication, many of its terms  
and concepts, such as "Big Brother", "doublethink", and "Newspeak"  
have entered the popular vernacular. The word "Orwellian" itself has  
come to refer to anything reminiscent of the book's fictional regime.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four>