Monday, June 15, 2009

Quote of the Month

The products of a twisted mind could be our end, but they have equal ability to be our new beginning.

"Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas." -Alfred Whitney Griswold

3 Fab Fans:

Aeromax said...

Orwell's idea of dystopia relied on the assumption that people would still be motivated towards freedom, and that the state would have to beat the crap out of them to take it away.

Huxley's idea of dystopia (which imo were far scariet) didn't require a totalitarian state because the public consciousness had been so numbed by itself that people had no desire to be free - they were smothered in so much idle pleasure they didn't notice their slavery. Books didn't have to be burned because nobody read them.

As time passes, Orwell's concept remains relevant, but avoidable through vigilance. Huxley's concept is becoming brick-shittingly real.

Andrea said...

"Ideas or lack of them can cause disease!"

- Breakfast of Champions. Have you read that yet? It's amazing.

Samantha said...

Huxley's dystopia is much scarier because you can feel it happening. Which, I guess, is the point of a science fiction writer.