George Orwell may be dust, but it appears Web 2.0 technology has improved to the point where even the dead can blog:
The Orwell Prize is delighted to announce that, to mark the 70th anniversary of the diaries, each diary entry will be published on this blog exactly seventy years after it was written, allowing you to follow Orwell’s recuperation in Morocco, his return to the UK, and his opinions on the descent of Europe into war in real time. The diaries end in 1942, three years into the conflict…”
The rich comedy opportunities aside, this could introduce a new crop of people to an interesting writer (whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair). Blogs are simply powerful electronic publishing platforms, and this promises to be an interesting publishing project.
The posts begin on August 9… 1938.
Keep writing (even after you’re dead), Tom Chandler.
Comments 3
Next thing you know, they’ll have Fred Astaire dancing in Pepsi commercials.
Oh, wait a second…
Actually this is a pretty cool idea. I like the symmetry of the 70 years thing — kind of a “this day-in-the-life in history” thing.
Might be a good way to teach history too. For example, if you are teaching the Battle of Waterloo, every day leading up to the battle you could have “newspaper” reports describing what is going on. That would certainly allow students time to absorb it all, and it would only take a few minutes a day to cover.
‘Course it would be a bit of work on the part of the teacher…
~Graham
Hi Tom,
I just tried to get to the blog — the Orwell website has done a good job of hiding the link (hint: look at the banner graphic carefully…) so here’s the direct link:
http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/
~Graham
Graham: Found that blog, but – despite the address – I wasn’t 100% sure it would actually be the Orwell blog. Skipped it until August 9, when we’ll presumably know for sure.
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