The required reading list for Orwell appears to have shrunk to 1984, the selected essays and Animal Farm. The Babu suggests revisiting The Complete Works and rediscovering his novels. Looking for Orwell Lite? Take the quiz, compare Orwell and Huxley, Bill Gates indulges in a spot of classic Doublespeak, or read Jay Dubashi on Orwell (the burden of his piece is that he met the man, knew the man, dined with the man and has little intention unfortunately of telling you anything about the man).

If you intend to read just one article on Orwell and his vision of the future, let it be William Gibson’s The Road to Oceania. “Orwell’s projections come from the era of information broadcasting, and are not applicable to our own. Had Orwell been able to equip Big Brother with all the tools of artificial intelligence, he would still have been writing from an older paradigm, and the result could never have described our situation today, nor suggested where we might be heading.” This is light years from the usual balderdash about how Orwell’s 1984 was–ha, ha–nothing at all like the year 1984.