In one dramatic marathon of brain activity, I've finished my first draft of the EPQ final essay: I started last week, and now, 5,554 words and about 3 full evenings later, I have something with which to torment proof readers. Technically, I'm 500 words over the limit, but it's more flexible than the UCAS website, so I believe.
These are the first essay's contents:
Note on the Essay
Introduction
Defining New Worlds
Huxley’s Dystopia: Peaceful Control
Synthetics
Eugenics
Drugs and Medicine
Leisure and Entertainment
Orwell’s Dystopia: Totalitarian Control
Surveillance
Punishment and Correction
Limiting Scientific Advance
Conclusions
Friday, 9 December 2011
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
A Clockwork Orange & Anthem
Since the last post, I have started writing my final essay. My introduction is done, as well as sections on Synthetics and Eugenics. Firstly, though, I will discuss the two final books I've read for the project (I realised I could probably fit them in)*.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is a really remarkable book, one I'd read before, and one that would have been perfect to study with a language focus (it's written almost entirely in Nadsat, a slang derived from Russian and English, which after a while, is surprisingly intelligible). The only technology I really looked at in the book was the torture technology, the Ludvico Technique, which is used to de-condition Alex of his violent habits. This a chair very like the one on 1984 - it creates the sensation of pain in order to get the individual to renounce their previous attitudes or behaviours.
Ayn Rand's Anthem, which I bought from the famous (and famously overpriced) Blackwell's Books, describes a primitive society, meaning it is the lack of technology that's the defining feature of the dystopia. In the course of the book, the lead character rediscovers electricity, but the Council of Scholars don't want to know. It's a rather objectionable right-wing rant for the most part, but it's interesting to see how Anthem brings together Orwell's idea of halted technological progress and Huxley's idea of a homogenised, collectivist population.
In the Synthetics section, I've written mainly about 1984's Victory foods, and Brave New World and The Machine Stops' artificial materials and music. In the Eugenics section, it's been mostly about Huxley, though Ira Levin's This Perfect Day offers some relevant comparisons too. I feel it's going well, although reading it through, it feels very 'late night' - misplaced articles and clumsy grammatical structures - so I'm probably going to end up practically rewriting it before submission.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is a really remarkable book, one I'd read before, and one that would have been perfect to study with a language focus (it's written almost entirely in Nadsat, a slang derived from Russian and English, which after a while, is surprisingly intelligible). The only technology I really looked at in the book was the torture technology, the Ludvico Technique, which is used to de-condition Alex of his violent habits. This a chair very like the one on 1984 - it creates the sensation of pain in order to get the individual to renounce their previous attitudes or behaviours.
Ayn Rand's Anthem, which I bought from the famous (and famously overpriced) Blackwell's Books, describes a primitive society, meaning it is the lack of technology that's the defining feature of the dystopia. In the course of the book, the lead character rediscovers electricity, but the Council of Scholars don't want to know. It's a rather objectionable right-wing rant for the most part, but it's interesting to see how Anthem brings together Orwell's idea of halted technological progress and Huxley's idea of a homogenised, collectivist population.
In the Synthetics section, I've written mainly about 1984's Victory foods, and Brave New World and The Machine Stops' artificial materials and music. In the Eugenics section, it's been mostly about Huxley, though Ira Levin's This Perfect Day offers some relevant comparisons too. I feel it's going well, although reading it through, it feels very 'late night' - misplaced articles and clumsy grammatical structures - so I'm probably going to end up practically rewriting it before submission.
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