4. How a Nation Is Exploited

How a power-crazed junta of 20th-century dystopian authors overthrew Western democracy — and what went wrong.

In the fourth exciting instalment of the time-travelling adventures of George Orwell and H. G. Wells, 1984's Big Brother himself has appeared before our heroes to relate the story of his rise to power at the head of a team of dystopian visionaries — Ray Bradbury, Margaret Atwood, Aldous Huxley and Yevgeny Zamyatin.

CAST

• Robin Johnson as George Orwell
• Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells
• Tara Court as Julia
• Liselle Nic Giollabháin as Thought Deputy Chief Rutherford
• Eve Morris as the security guard

WITH SPECIAL GUEST DYSTOPIANS

• Alexander Paul Walsh as Yevgeny Zamyatin and the BBC Announcer
• Simon Beck as Aldous Huxley
• David Court as Ray Bradbury
• Alex Noussias as Margaret Atwood

Zamyatin's We, often credited as the inspiration for dystopia as a modern genre, is in the public domain and you can find an English translation at Project Gutenberg. Huxley claimed not to have read We before he wrote Brave New World. Orwell definitely read both. Huxley really was Orwell's French teacher at Eton.

The Oceanian National Anthem, Oceania, 'Tis For Thee, with lyrics extrapolated by Robin to the tune of The Internationale, can be heard on our soundcloud, sung by several of Robin and two of Eve.

While this episode was in production, the US Supreme Court struck down the federally protected right to abortion. This directly endangers and removes bodily autonomy from tens of millions of Americans, and sets a terrifying example for the rest of the world. Of all the dystopian novels discussed in the episode, Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is now the most horribly relevant. Untrue Stories is free, but if you've enjoyed it as much as something you'd pay a few dollars for, you could donate those dollars to an organisation like the National Network of Abortion Funds, and/or perhaps to an organisation that will help the queer and trans people whose rights the Court has more or less promised to dismantle next. (You can even make those donations if you haven't enjoyed the show.) Love and anger.

2022-07-27: This episode has been updated to adjust volume levels.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

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