Amid NSA scandal, sales way up for ‘1984,’ ‘Animal Farm’
Jun 11, 2013, 12:28 PM | Updated: 12:58 pm
Is Obama big brother? If sales are any indicator, people are taking to George Orwell's classic dystopian novel to find out. (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
Things have felt a little Orwellian lately. That’s why it’s not a huge surprise that sales of two of George Orwell’s classic tales are up by over 100 percent at Amazon.com.
According to Entertainment Weekly, sales of “1984” are up 127 percent on the online retailer while a “1984” and “Animal Farm” combo-pack is up 314 percent.
Ever since Edward Snowden came forward as the whistleblower claiming that the National Security Agency was combing through our phone records and saving our internet browser histories, everyone’s been referring to Big Brother.
As Jay Leno said last week, “When I was growing up, I was, we were afraid of Big Brother watching us. Now with Obama, we actually have a brother watching us!”
When Orwell wrote about Big Brother in “1984” – it was the all-seeing dictator in his dystopian novel. Since then, “Big Brother” has become a common phrase often used to refer to abuse of government power, especially in regards to civil liberties and mass surveillance.
But the Washington Examiner reports, “1984” did mark its 60th anniversary a week ago and that could have contributed to the spike in sales.
The timing, however, is just a little too good to be true, because if Edward Snowden is right, then Big Brother is watching you.
