BBC radio 4 - Orwell v Kafka

[WarriorN]

They are doing a full day of Orwell (1984) and Kafka linked programmes including a reading of 1984.

Interesting (and also rather hypocritical in some respects. But it facilitates free speech.)

One programme has had correlations to the post office scandal. Suppression of evidence etc

Helen Lewis seems to be involved too with a programme(?series )

Thanks for the heads up! Excellent.

Yes, thank you.

So, got my head around it now: They're playing a reading of 1984 throughout the weekend.

Interspersed with this series by Hislop and Lewis, Orwell v Kafka

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m00201sm?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

I spent a solid hour sitting in my kitchen listening to Martin Freeman read the first chunk of 1984 this morning. It was extraordinary. I’m always reading, and always have the radio on in the background, but I don’t do audiobooks and can’t think when I last just sat and listened to a story, let alone one I’ve read several times myself. It was so powerful, it pinned me to the spot. Enjoyed the first instalment of the Lewis/Hislop thing too.

Yes extremely powerful.

I've been interrupted a lot so will listen again.

Part on now even has links to surrogacy

Actually on the surrogacy thing, has anyone read The Giver, by Lois Lowry? It’s a children’s book published in 1993, which I’d somehow never come across despite having loved her other books as a child. I gave it to DD (12), and she loved it and then made me read it too. It’s a dystopian, totalitarian setting, where all choice and risk have been removed from people’s lives, so their jobs are allocated to them, they all have identical homes, their spouses are chosen for them etc. But the stuff on reproduction was fascinating - somewhere between The Handmaid’s Tale and Brave New World. Birth and child rearing are completely separated from each other. Some girls, when jobs are allocated to others, are chosen to be “Birthmothers” and are forced to have three babies each, who are then raised to toddlerhood in a communal setting, before being given to families when they’re a year old, after the community can be sure they’re not deficient in any way. (If they are, even down to not sleeping through the night in schedule, they’re disposed of - it’s very dark!). Couples are then given two children to raise, a boy and a girl. Sex is completely removed from the equation - at the first hint of sexual attraction, or “stirrings” during puberty, children are given pills to take for life which suppress all such instincts. It doesn’t go into how the birthmothers are impregnated - it’s a children’s book, despite how it sounds! - but the undercurrents of both surrogacy and puberty blockers were fascinating, even though they’re not the overriding focus.

Anyway, sorry, total derailment but I read it this week and my head’s still full of it!

Thanks so much for heads up on this OP

I sat for 40 minutes in the car, listening more intently to Radio 4 than I have for years. I tend to turn it on in the car and swiftly turn it off again. Not today.

thanks for this OP, love having something good to listen to. Will send to DS as well since he's just read the book and really enjoyed it

@CornflakesOnTheSolesOfHerShoes I don't think that's a derail at all; similar parallels.

The book you describe sounds like what Evy Mages experienced growing up in Austria in a home run by a psychiatrist where they were subjected to awful regimes and injected with a drug (originally for cows in heat) with a view to curbing sexuality.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0htx97x?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

I listened to all of the book being read. (In case anyone was wondering it was an abridged version but I don't think it had been heavily abridged, more bits removed here and there to squeeze it into 6 1-hour episodes.)

Things being Orwellian is part of the wallpaper at the moment but listening to the book it's still shocking to realise that the stuff we've been living through over the past decade is part of what he was warning about. So many jolts of recognition in terms of compelled speech, compelled thought, and how dehumanising and horrific that is.

In additon to the readings of the book, there were half hour discussion segments with Helen Lewis, Ian Hislop, and guests. At the end of the last of those discussion segments broadcast yesterday, Ian Hislop spoke strongly about the lessons of the book and the sheer wrongness of compelling speech and thought and it was striking to think how he hasn't taken that analysis, overlayed it on to how gender identity ideology has played out, and seen what would be staring him in the face.

The last of the half hour discussion segments is coming up in 10 minutes (at half one).

I haven't read the book but did watch the film! It was good from what I rememberI. I might have to give it another watch

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435651/

wrongness of compelling speech and thought and it was striking to think how he hasn't taken that analysis, overlayed it on to how gender identity ideology has played out, and seen what would be staring him in the face.

Helen has spoken about it though; i wonder if she will speak on this in the series?

She didn't but like you say she has in the past while Hislop seems content to view this in terms of who he doesn't like.

Yes, Private Eye has been a massive disappointment over the last few years on this subject. Occasionally sniggers at things but doesn't take it seriously. It's a boy's club thing. Hislop has absolutely blown his credibility on this one. Joins the ranks of Louis Theroux and Jon Ronson.

Thank you @WarriorN for telling us about this. I listened to 1984 over the weekend and was totally gripped. All narrators were superb, especially Martin Freeman and Juliet Stephenson.

Couldn’t agree more with @nauticant ’s “jolts of recognition” with the compelled speech and compelled thought. The jolts were chilling. It’s a very absorbing, thought provoking listen well worth the time.