'Splain to me 1984?

[grumbler]

So I am talking to my students this week about Castro, and how Cuba isn't totalitarian, though it is close.  I want to use Big Brother as an example of what totalitarianism is, as comparison.

Youtube is no help.  Check it out.  Lots of examples of the Apple spoof but zero examples of the thing being spoofed.

Turns out that the movie 1984 is really hard to reference   http://www.amazon.com/1984-John-Hurt/dp/B00007KQA3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1263531211&sr=1-1 shows that it is mega-expensive in original form and very expensive used.

I thought this fun to contemplate.  Who would have guessed that 1984 is really hard to access?

[katmai]

With Netflix i can stream it online

[Eddie Teach]

Too bad you don't teach English or you could just make them read it.

[Syt]

The movie is 9.95 EUR on Amazon.de

Class of 1984 is 2.99.

[Razgovory]

I'm not sure if there really very many actual totalitarian governments that have actually existed.  It's very hard for the state to control every aspect of someone's life.  The Soviet Union under Stalin is one of the most well known though I think the closest was Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge.  I think Nazi Germany aspired to it but never was competent enough to achieve it.  North Korea very well may be one, but it's hard to tell because nobody really knows what goes on in that country.

[Richard Hakluyt]

£3.98 on Amazon.uk, though it is the same 2004 release selling at a discount.

I recently re-read 1984, shortly after a read of Kynaston's Austerity Britain and Orwell's Homage to Catalonia; an interesting experience as both of these times in Orwell's life influenced 1984.

[Sophie Scholl]

It's one of my least favorite songs off of Tina Turner's Private Dancer album.

[Slargos]

There are plenty of movies set in sweden, but I don't know any about Sweden per se, sorry. 

[Grey Fox]

It was awesome year, yes.

Greatest human generation is born that year. [Haven't showned it yet]

[Darth Wagtaros]

Metropolis.

[Razgovory]

It was awesome year, yes.

Greatest human generation is born that year. [Haven't showned it yet]

My Idiot brother wasw born then.

[Josephus]

What is it you teach, Grumbler?

[Zanza]

I'm not sure if there really very many actual totalitarian governments that have actually existed.  It's very hard for the state to control every aspect of someone's life.  The Soviet Union under Stalin is one of the most well known though I think the closest was Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge.  I think Nazi Germany aspired to it but never was competent enough to achieve it.  North Korea very well may be one, but it's hard to tell because nobody really knows what goes on in that country.

The GDR was probably more successful in that aspect than the Nazis.

[Malthus]

What is it you teach, Grumbler?

Classes for the dictators of the future. 

[Jaron]

In a class I student taught on, the teacher had a "time machine" cabinet full of nostalgic shit from the 70s-90s. Not a single one of them kids understood the "88 MPH" reference on the cabinet door.