Orwell’s Classic novel 1984 to be retold as a feminist social justice narrative in which the Julia character “is happy with her life.”
Well, it happened. Reality has become more satirical than The Babylon Bee.
George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four will be retold to comply with a feminist social justice narrative. Instead of being told from the perspective of Winston Smith, the man at the center of the story, who finds himself trapped by authoritarian power, groupthink, and generally unable to live freely either in his life or in his mind, the story will be told from the perspective of Julia, his lover and betrayer.
The new version, to be written by Sandra Newman, with events will told from Julia’s point-of-view, is unlikely to add to the existing work, and can only stand to be a comment on it from the perspective of the 21st century West. The contemporary understanding of authoritarianism, double-speak, and thought police is that, essentially, and according to the educated classes, there’s nothing wrong with it. In fact, these things are being promoted.
Definitions are consistently changed to suit the narrative of the elite, educated, progressive class. Their rulings on biological sex, race, and the relative essentialism of each is what dictates educational standards and discourse. When modern Winstons push back, they are squashed. It is the Julias of the world who dabble with the idea that they are free while really being entirely manipulated, that rule our culture.
Newman writes of the beginning of the illicit affair between Winston and Julia. “It was the man from Records who began it, him all unknowing in his prim, grim way, his above-it-all oldthink way. He was the one Syme called ‘Old Misery,'” according to The Guardian.
The Orwell estate had wanted a retelling from a feminist perspective for some time, and were happy to hear that Newman was taking on the challenge. Newman, they said, “proved to be the perfect fit.”
Publisher Granta is all on board with the new re-telling, saying that the Julia character, in Newman’s imagination, has a “far better” understanding that Winston does of life in Oceania, and “is essentially happy with her life.”