Well that was definitely something.
So he understood the Simpsons, a Clockwork orange, and 1984 except thought that the subject matter was being praised rather than being shown as a bad thing? I am going to assume the other referenced media is the same.
I don’t think you need to set yourself on fire to convince people shits fucked and getting worse. But. I don’t think it is because of “that”
He was right about 1984, it’s defeatist nonsense.
I took 1984 as more of a cautionary tale rather than defeatest
I recently had an interesting discussion where someone interpreted the pessimistic ending as a result of successful in-universe propaganda from the Party, and that all the shit they said was just gaslighting and lies to make themselves seem omnipresent and make resistance seem hopeless.
I don’t think this was the intended message but the author is dead, we can make up our own head canons and no one can stop us!
If you interpret the appendix as an ending then it’s a lot less pessimistic as it implies that all totalitarian regimes eventually fall.
