Big Brother is watching
Lisa Kane
Issue date: 5/5/09 Section: Opinion
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The line is one of Orwell's most infamous; and it couldn't have held more true when Amazon unknowingly swiped "1984" and another of Orwell's famous novels, Animal Farm, from their Kindle electronic book collections overnight.
The Kindle is Amazon's invention, considered a software and hardware program for reading electronic books and other digital media.
Amazon claimed a rightful apology, stating "These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books," in press releases after the fact.
But why then, in an odd parallel considered an "Orwellian Twist," had Amazon removed the books with a secret notion?
One day, patrons owned the books, and the next they were replaced by an email announcing a refund without any real explanation.
Amazon simply sent out the same email they would to a buyer who had initiated a refund.
"1984" is the story of a dystopian society, a vision of a society in which conditions of life are miserable and characterized by poverty, oppression, war, violence, disease, pollution and the abridgement of human rights, resulting in widespread unhappiness and suffering.
The 1949 novel depicts a repressed society in which any move made must be a collective action; a world where every human is a closely watched civil servant to their government, "Secret Police."
Although Amazon's actions are in no way as drastic as Orwell's story twists, anyone who has "1984" can see the humorous similarity in the actions taken.
Soon after the recall went public, the company issued a statement saying, "We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances."
Amazon quickly reimbursed their customers for both titles, but the strange Orwellian twist still remains an Orwellian fail in the eyes of the Kindle owners.
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