‘1984’ Sales Soar Following ‘Alternative Facts’
NEW YORK (AP) — After incorrect or unprovable statements made by Republican President Donald Trump and some White House aides, one truth is undeniable: Sales of George Orwell’s “1984” are soaring.
First published in 1949, Orwell’s classic dystopian tale of a society in which facts are distorted and suppressed in a cloud of “newspeak” topped the best-seller list of Amazon.com as of Tuesday evening. The sales bump comes after the Trump administration’s assertions his inauguration had record attendance and his unfounded allegation that millions of illegal votes were cast against him last fall.
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway coined an instant catchphrase Sunday when she called his claims about crowd size “alternative facts,” bringing comparisons on social media to “1984.”
Orwell’s book isn’t the only cautionary tale on the Amazon list. Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel about the election of an authoritarian president, “It Can’t Happen Here,” was at No. 46. Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” was at No. 71.
Sales also were up for Hannah Arendt’s seminal nonfiction analysis “The Origins of Totalitarianism.”
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Comments (2)
Julien Devereux says:
January 25, 2017 at 9:35 am
I’ve been telling people to read that book for well over a year. It used to be required reading in high school, now I wonder if it’s even in school libraries anymore.
Ellen Samrock says:
January 25, 2017 at 2:05 pm
I expect to see a huge uptick in the sale of pacifiers. It’s obvious that those on the left never achieved adulthood.