1984 & Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Nineteen Eighty-Four often referred to as 1984 is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the English novelist George Orwell the novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated. The story takes place in an imagined future the year 1984 when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war omnipresent government surveillance historical negationism and propaganda. Keep the Aspidistra Flying first published in 1936 is a socially critical novel by George Orwell. In the titular phrase Orwell uses the aspidistra a symbol of the stuffiness of middle-class society in conjunction with the locution to keep the flag (or colours) flying. The title can thus be interpreted as a sarcastic exhortation in the sense of Hooray for the middle class!.