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Title: The Political Paranoids' "Gospel of Orwell"
Review: Orwell is one of the most overrated novelists of this century. He's nothing more nor less than a second-rate hack who profiteered by preying on the worst fears of modern man. Today, his book is the modern bible of the paranoid disgruntled white male and other conspiracy nutcases. Yet another fairy tale, albeit a grown-up one, warns us to LOOK OUT for that proverbial boogy man--Big Brother, in this case, being the latest in a long line of aliases he goes under. Perhaps Orwell's "Newspeak" should include these additions: "Propaganda is Truth"; "Truth is Absolute"; "Freedom springs from Fear"; "Extremism is Virtue." This book has never made anyone stop to think, but, instead, to fear and hate one more faceless abstraction. Contemporary paranoia gets a much more powerful portrayal in the works of Thomas Pynchon, such as "The Crying of Lot 49." At least IT has the virtue of being well written.
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