売上げ貢献の話

“Sales of George Orwell's 1984 surge after Kellyanne Conway's 'alternative facts'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/24/george-orwell-1984-sales-surge-kellyanne-conway-alternative-facts

ドナルド・トランプの顧問ケリーアン・コンウェイ*1が「オルタナティヴな事実」という表現を使って以来、ジョージ・オーウェルの『1984』*2の売上げがリヴァイヴァルして、amazon.comで第６位まで急上昇してしまったという。それは「オルタナティヴな事実」が「ニュースピーク」を連想させたから。

Comparisons were made with the term “newspeak” used in the 1949 novel, which was used to signal a fictional language that aims at eliminating personal thought and also “doublethink”. In the book Orwell writes that it “means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them”.
The connection was initially made on CNN’s Reliable Sources*3. “Alternative facts is a George Orwell phrase,” said Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty.

Conway’s use of the term was in reference to White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s comments about last week’s inauguration attracting “the largest audience ever”. Her interview was widely criticized and she was sub-tweeted by Merriam-Webster dictionary with a definition of the word fact*4. On last night’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, the host joked: “Kellyanne Conway is like someone trying to do a Jedi mind trick after only a week of Jedi training.”

In 1984, a superstate wields extreme control over the people and persecutes any form of independent thought.

一九八四年[新訳版] (ハヤカワepi文庫)

*1:See eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellyanne_Conway

*2:Mentioned in http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20061207/1165500508 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20090908/1252375872 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20130304/1362367180 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20130804/1375550443 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20130910/1378829609

*3:Brian Stelter “'Alternative facts:' Why the Trump team is 'planting a flag' in war on media” http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/22/media/alternative-facts-donald-trump/

*4:https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/823221915171061760