What is less well known is that its author, Eric Blair, wasn't adverse to helping Big Capitalist Brother, passing a list of over 30 friends and acquaintances he had made in public life and whom he regarded as Soviet sympathisers, including film star Charlie Chaplin, the actor Michael Redgrave (Vanessa Redgrave's father) and the historian E. H. Carr.
But was Orwell a very good science-fiction writer? Here we publish the view of the famous science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov, whose critique while not pro-socialist does raise some serious criticisms that might be especially helpful to high school readers "struggling" with this mandatory text.
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I've been writing a four-part article for Field Newspaper Syndicate at the beginning of each year for several years now and in 1980, mindful of the approach of the year 1984, FNS asked me to write a thorough critique of George Orwell's novel 1984.
I was reluctant. I remembered almost nothing of the book and said so - but Denison Demac, the lovely young woman who is my contact at FNS, simply sent me a copy of it and said, 'Read it.'
So I read it and found myself absolutely astonished at what I read. I wondered how many people who talked about the novel so glibly had ever read it; or if they had, whether they remembered it at all.
I felt I would have to write the critique if only to set people straight. (I'm sorry; I love setting people straight.)
