A Do-It-Yourself Dystopia: The Americanization of Big Brother

by Steven Carter

Overview

The essence of life in an oligarchy like George Orwell presents in '1984' is that freedom of choice is virtually non-existent. But what happens when so many trivial and meaningless choices inundate a culture such as our own and freedom itself becomes devalued? In 'A Do-It-Yourself Dystopia', through a variety of essays, Steven Carter addresses this and other issues in a wide-ranging search for hidden oligarchies of the American self.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761822714
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/09/2002
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	182
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Steven Carter is Professor of English at California State University in Bakersfield.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xi
	Foreword: Orwell Contra Huxley	xiii
Chapter 1	Democracy and Doublethink	1
Chapter 2	Newspeak for a New Millennium	29
Chapter 3	The Despair of Possibility	43
Chapter 4	The Bones of "Saint" Hermann Goering	55
	Intermission: A Country of Dreadful Joy
Intermission I	TV and the Telescreen	67
Intermission II	On Being Silent	77
Chapter 5	The Masks of Passion	83
Chapter 6	Alexander's Bitter Tears	95
Chapter 7	Leopards in the Temple	113
	L'Envoi: The Rites of Memory	129
	Bibliography	149
	Index	159

Editorial Reviews

In this collection of essays (some previously published in various journals), Carter (California State University-Bakersfield) explores what happens when so many trivial and meaningless choices inundate our culture that the principle of freedom becomes devalued, much as the value of hard currency is threatened when counterfeit money floods the economy. Carter won the International Essay Prize in 2000, and was a former Senior Fulbright Fellow in Poland. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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