Sorry if my cryptic note about 1984 and Brave New World sewed confusion.
I was bragging on my deparmtnet for having the good sense to juxtapose
those books and on myself for choosing to be in this department. Shame
on me for hubris and lousy email communicative strategy.
Phil-- An epiphany for me was reading the first sentence in the Appendix
to 1984 and realizing the significance of the fact that it was written
in the past tense, presupposing the non-existence of the world that
ends as if it would last forever. Reading Orwell's "Politics and the English
language" in this context is often helpful to students who firmly believe
newspeak isa possible language and do not realize that it is true that
control over the present provides control over the past which provides
control over the future.
I happen to be teaching exactly that text at this time.
mike