RE: Orwell's 1984 and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 combined?
November 1, 2012 at 9:05 am
(This post was last modified: November 1, 2012 at 9:19 am by Something completely different.)
Some time ago I read "Die verlorene Ehre der Katarina Blum"/"The lost Honour of Katarina Blum" by the great german writer Heinrich Böll.
It`s about a woman who has a one night stand with a stranger whom she had never met before in her entire life.
The next morning after the guy is gone and while she is in the shower a special forces police commando storm her appartment.
It turns out that the man she went to bead with was a bankrobber and suspected left-wing terrorist.
In the rest of the book it is discribed in horrifying detail, how the tabloid press and especialy one tabloid "journalist", ruins her reputation and life, by publishing factless reports in newspapers based on assumptions which trash her public image. It goes so far that they eaven harass her sick and hospitalized mother with questions about her daughter - and thereby drive the broken woman into death.
In the novels climax, Katarina invites the tabloid "journalist" to an interview, (he has never before talked to her, he doesnt know any facts about her; but has still completly ruined her public image and reputation by writing factles smeararticles which are nothing but lies about her "sexlife" and "conection to terrorists"), right at the beginning of the "interview", the "journalist" tries to talk her into having sex with him, disgusted and ruined of and by him - she murderes him.
After that she is arrested and put into jail.
The novel ends with Katarina not being trialed for the murder and she almoust commiting suicide.
In the 1970s movie -the plot ends with the "journalists" funeral, in which the tabloids publisher holds a speech, praising the "journalist" as a defender of "free speech and free press".
It is one of the greatest german novels writen in the past century and certainly contributed greatly to Heinrich Böll being the first post - world war 2 writer to gain the nobel prize for literature.
It was writen during a time in which the german tabloid "Die Bild Zeitung", ruined peoples lives and carreers without mercy, by publishing articles and launching smearcampains based on lies.
This novel and the public actions undertaken by many public figures including Günter Grass - lead to the "Bild" thinking over it`s way of publishing, and although still a useless tabloid which I wouldnt eaven use to wipe my ass, it is no longer the horrible dishonest piece of shit it use to be.
To me it is the best "utopian" novel about press - culture and a possible threat to democracy. Especialy when one looks at the horrible print media in the UK (like the Sun or Daily Mail), the fact that 2 thirds of the italian press and media are owned by Berlosconi and the absolutly biased and oftern fact-ignoring media in the US.
I am not a big fan of 1984, Brave new World and Fahrenheit 451. I guess TV,Internet etc. have done a lot to broadcast opinions and to start debate rather than indoctrinating people.
The closest to the Orwelian media in reality are probably the 3 examples i have given before. And state funded indoctrination press is something reserved to dictatorships rather than being common in democracies. Press and media - as long as they are objective and honest, are one of the cornerstones of a functioning democratic sociaty., therefor to me, the novel which discribes the destructive force of biased dishonest tabloid media in a democracy, is the better novel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Ho...arina_Blum
It`s about a woman who has a one night stand with a stranger whom she had never met before in her entire life.
The next morning after the guy is gone and while she is in the shower a special forces police commando storm her appartment.
It turns out that the man she went to bead with was a bankrobber and suspected left-wing terrorist.
In the rest of the book it is discribed in horrifying detail, how the tabloid press and especialy one tabloid "journalist", ruins her reputation and life, by publishing factless reports in newspapers based on assumptions which trash her public image. It goes so far that they eaven harass her sick and hospitalized mother with questions about her daughter - and thereby drive the broken woman into death.
In the novels climax, Katarina invites the tabloid "journalist" to an interview, (he has never before talked to her, he doesnt know any facts about her; but has still completly ruined her public image and reputation by writing factles smeararticles which are nothing but lies about her "sexlife" and "conection to terrorists"), right at the beginning of the "interview", the "journalist" tries to talk her into having sex with him, disgusted and ruined of and by him - she murderes him.
After that she is arrested and put into jail.
The novel ends with Katarina not being trialed for the murder and she almoust commiting suicide.
In the 1970s movie -the plot ends with the "journalists" funeral, in which the tabloids publisher holds a speech, praising the "journalist" as a defender of "free speech and free press".
It is one of the greatest german novels writen in the past century and certainly contributed greatly to Heinrich Böll being the first post - world war 2 writer to gain the nobel prize for literature.
It was writen during a time in which the german tabloid "Die Bild Zeitung", ruined peoples lives and carreers without mercy, by publishing articles and launching smearcampains based on lies.
This novel and the public actions undertaken by many public figures including Günter Grass - lead to the "Bild" thinking over it`s way of publishing, and although still a useless tabloid which I wouldnt eaven use to wipe my ass, it is no longer the horrible dishonest piece of shit it use to be.
To me it is the best "utopian" novel about press - culture and a possible threat to democracy. Especialy when one looks at the horrible print media in the UK (like the Sun or Daily Mail), the fact that 2 thirds of the italian press and media are owned by Berlosconi and the absolutly biased and oftern fact-ignoring media in the US.
I am not a big fan of 1984, Brave new World and Fahrenheit 451. I guess TV,Internet etc. have done a lot to broadcast opinions and to start debate rather than indoctrinating people.
The closest to the Orwelian media in reality are probably the 3 examples i have given before. And state funded indoctrination press is something reserved to dictatorships rather than being common in democracies. Press and media - as long as they are objective and honest, are one of the cornerstones of a functioning democratic sociaty., therefor to me, the novel which discribes the destructive force of biased dishonest tabloid media in a democracy, is the better novel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Ho...arina_Blum
