Brave New 1984

Reagan/Bush is 1984

Bumper sticker I saw during that past presidential election.

I initially read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four not long before the odometer matched Orwell's title.  This year, I read both again.  Huxley himself contrasted the two authors' forecasts:  Huxley letter to Orwell.  My memories of reading possessed a distilled nature;  I recalled the feelies, and a few other details from the softer dystopia.  Much more lingered in mind from the decade of 1948 transposed, the rat mask, the clock striking thirteen, the Two Minutes Hate.

Both utilized the rule of three:  War is Peace (War and Peace?), Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.  Community, Identity, Stability.  Each presented centralized authority. Three Weeks in a Helicopter, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, are the creations within creations.  Huxley indicated an exit:  "He had discovered Time and Death and God," not apparent in Orwell.

As to which author better extrapolated -- someone asked Burroughs if he would rather have Graham Greene or Conrad?  Why not have both, he responded.