Just about everytime when someone feels oppressed by authority, should they reach for a reference, they’ll lazily pluck a George Orwell reference out of the air — most likely Nineteen Eighty-Four, but maybe Animal Farm. Bringing up “newspeak” and “doublethink” often ends up drowning in horribly unintentionally meta-parody. If said someone is asked to name other books Orwell wrote or if they actually read those two, the answer is almost always an unsure “No” or “Parts of it a long time ago”. Compare that with The Matrix, which still gets namedropped lots but whose quotees have actually experienced. (And on the cinematic side, the Orwellish Brazil has come out atop of the Nineteen Eighty-Four adaptation.)
Abstract mangling of Orwell’s original words have become like this massive gaussian blur — sure, the original meaning gets expanded (like how Alanis Morissette stretched out “Ironic”’s definition like carefree taffy), but it becomes boring. Dare I say this makes the original literature any less meaningful? No, but there are few surprises here, and when minds get numb, they don’t care.
So let’s care.
Despite Philip K. Dick’s Hollywood-derived popularity, his eponymous adjectives aren’t employed as much. Googling for “Orwellian” reveals 1,920,000 hits, while “Dickian” is 9,030 and “Phildickian” is a scant 3,500. Nevertheless, the themes of mistrust (even paranoia) in authority come up frequently in Dick’s work, and I’d argue are articulated far more practically, vividly, powerfully, yet realistically. A lot of that has to do with his far more prolific output and high-concepts-for-everyone mode of writing which is more approachable and not so, ah, bureaucratically standoffish. More people can relate to the doubts and fears of Dick’s Everymen characters like Bob Arctor and Rick Deckard than a Winston Smith. (And there should be more Everywomen characters in spec-fi too. :p )
The last time I saw an Orwell reference used well, it was by Cory Doctorow. He’s one-of-a-kind. And before that, I did like Apple’s landmark 1984 commercial, among the most famous ads of all time.
But just like I said before — go for references that may be unfamiliar, so those who get it are far more likely to have deep conversations of value with you. If Blade Runner aka DADOES feels too overused, reach for the brief gems of “Foster, You’re Dead”, “War Veteran”, and others which are within The Philip K. Dick Reader. I’ve read and recommend it.
Why skim the surface for driftwood when you can plunder the depths for treasure?
