George Orwell's 1984 to be rewritten from a female perspective

Originally published at: George Orwell's 1984 to be rewritten from a female perspective | Boing Boing

6 Likes

The usual entitled man-children will whinge about how feminists are
“ruining their childhood mandatory middle school English assignment” but this sounds interesting.

21 Likes

Oh the clusterfuck intersection of folks who are going to be mad about this is super weird.

25 Likes

I can’t imagine why people would be mad about this, but I’m sure somebody will find a way. This is the perfect way to introduce a different perspective to a landmark work; tell the same story from the perspective of a different, already-introduced-yet-under-developed character.

It’s not even called 19-lady-4.

18 Likes
7 Likes

That they never bothered to read.

14 Likes

File under “wonderful things”

10 Likes

This opens up sooooo many possibilities…

Tom Clancy books as told by a woman
Michael Crichton books as told by an athiest
Dean Koontz books as told by a misunderstood demon

12 Likes

I remember when I read “Wide Sargasso Sea” it was specifically because I had heard it described as “Jane Eyre from the perspective of the wife in the attic” and… I actually don’t think I would have “gotten” that book if I hadn’t framed it that way a little before reading it.

It’s a cool thing when fiction talks back to itself across time through different writers I think.

8 Likes

My immediate impression after first reading 1984 was that it wouldn’t work. Even in the most totalitarian regimes, there are places that are too rural or too densely crowded to effectively eliminate things like the black market, both for goods and ideas. That’s when I realized that that’s the world Winston and Julia discover; another world within their own that is allowed to exist so that full control can be maintained over those within the regime. I think this is really the brilliance of 1984, not just the descriptions of oppression, but of how people will necessarily go about their daily lives regardless of who’s in charge. I’d love to see not just Julia’s story, but Mr Charrington’s, as well.

“Winston woke up with the word ‘Shakespeare’ on his lips.”

Edited for grammar.

7 Likes

That would be the intersection between

  • People who like to throw around the terms “Orwellian” and “Big Brother” to describe any policies conservatives don’t like, and
  • People who never actually read Nineteen Eighty-Four
10 Likes

Reminds me I need to re-read Grendel.

5 Likes

It’s not even called 19-lady-4.

Total missed opportunity.

3 Likes

Sub section: people who have read 1984 but didn’t understand anything at all.

10 Likes

I find it hard to believe that no one has tried to do this before. Surely there have been enough pastiches of some sort or another?

Isn’t that sort of not at all how the book goes?

His heart leapt. Scores of times she had done it: he wished it had been
hundreds–thousands. Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him
with a wild hope. […]

‘Listen. The more men you’ve had, the more I love you. Do you understand
that?’

‘Yes, perfectly.’

1 Like

It’s an established genre to rewrite old classics from another perspective.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Last Ringbearer

Or just have fun with them like in ‘The Other Log of Phileas Fogg’ or ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’

8 Likes

Plus basically the entire history of Arthurian legend.

3 Likes

Political oppression on a female perspective.

4 Likes

sounds like Ahab’s Wife

3 Likes

10 Likes