A tale of two Winstons

I has a TV evening last night. As well as "Rough Science", we also watched the final part of Simon Schama's "History of Britain". It compared Winston Churchill and George Orwell; the hero of "Nineteen-Eighty-Four" was Winston Smith hence the title. I don't know if George Orwell pointedly chose Winston as the name though Simon Schama seemed to suggest it. I would suspect that the program divided most of those who watched it, into two groups, one identifying with Orwell and one with Churchill. From previous entries, I am sure you can work out in which group I was. Schama, and he pointed this out himself was always identifying with Orwell but the tone of the program seemed to compare and reconcile the two. I can't really explain why, but Orwell is just so much more interesting by virtue of the complexity contained in his writings (albeit concealed behind very sharp and direct language).

I was trying to think of a word other than "hero" to describe Winston Smith. He's definitely not an anti-hero. Maybe "un-hero" would be good and this of course sounds like "Newspeak". "Double-Plus Un-Hero" - "Double Plus Un-Person". These of course would not exist in Newspeak because by using the word Un-Person you would be acknowledging the existence in the first place. Un-Person could only ever be a concept word which existed solely in the brain and as the final purpose of Newspeak is to remove "Un-Good-Think" it would not be in the dictionaries. Maybe there is a Double-Think explanation for why it could exist but then again giving two opposite meanings to the same word is like having all the population under your control fighting the same war just to keep them occupied. (cf "The Attack of the Clones" - all combatants are ultimately in the control of one person.)

Farewell Bobbi Harlow.