How to organize the activity:

You should give your class two dystopian works to read, or permit choice - one work or the other. Here, we have suggested two canonical novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World. You can, of course, substitute these for other works. Your students, then, should read both novels, or be allowed to choose one or other of the two works.

Once students have read one or both novels, and before the debate takes place, ask students to vote, anonymously, on the following:

Both novels, Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four have an enduring appeal. Brave New World was written in 1931 and Nineteen Eighty-Four was written in 1948/9. Despite the passage of time, it can be claimed that both books are urgently topical. Of the two novels, which most accurately represents the social and political issues of the present time?

This may be easier to do where students have read both novels. However, reading both novels isn't necessary, and it is possible for them to read an online synopsis of the work they haven't read. 

Once students have voted, divide your class into 2 groups: (i) Advocates or (ii) Critical audience.

The advocates should be divided into 2 (further) groups: Advocates for Brave New World and advocates for Nineteen Eighty-Four. Depending on class size, decide how many advocates you will have, but 3-5 students (per novel) would work well. One or some of the advocates should prepare to argue for their novel; the other advocates should prepare and rehearse dramatic readings (from their chosen novel).

Critical audience members should prepare potential questions they would like to ask the advocates (of both novels).

• An advocate for Brave New World makes introductory remarks about the contemporary relevance of the novel (10 minutes).
• Advocates for Brave New World participate in a dramatic reading of the novel, using the reading to illustrate/provide evidence for the arguments advanced (5 minutes).
• An advocate for Brave New World makes a further claim for their novel (5 minutes).
• Advocates for Brave New World make a second dramatic reading (5 minutes).
• An advocate for Brave New World makes closing remarks (5 minutes).

• An advocate for Nineteen Eighty-Four makes introductory remarks about the contemporary relevance of the novel (10 minutes).
• Advocates for Nineteen Eighty-Four participate in a dramatic reading of the novel, using the reading to illustrate/provide evidence for the arguments advanced (5 minutes).
• An advocate for Nineteen Eighty-Four makes a further claim for their novel (5 minutes).
• Advocates for Nineteen Eighty-Four make a second dramatic reading (5 minutes).
• An advocate for Nineteen Eighty-Four makes closing remarks (5 minutes).

Of the two novels, which most accurately represents the social and political issues of the present time?

• The populace in BNW is socially conditioned, living in a reality that is more virtual than real. For many of us, consumption (promoted through advertising) provides instant gratification, divorcing us from the reality of our lives.
• BNW understands the significant role technology plays in social life, including biotechnology, genetic engineering, and virtual reality machines.
• The novel anticipates the contraceptive pill and the sexual politics this technology enabled.
• The social classes of BNW resemble social structuration in contemporary society, where there is significant separation between elites and a marginalized underclass.
• Soma is equivalent to a plethora of medicines and mood-altering drugs that are ubiquitous in contemporary society, and remove people from the ‘reality’ of life.
• Oceania, in Orwell’s novel, is based on the command economy of the Soviet Union. However, the reality of our present lives is that automation is increasingly making people unemployed. Many people today are often divorced from the means of production, engaged in ‘useless’ jobs.
• BNW anticipates an age of promiscuity without commitment. Dating apps and widespread pornography on the Internet are readily available, and people increasingly live without a partner or extended family.
• Orwell’s novel anticipated permanent war. Whilst there are areas of conflict in the world, this tends not to impact on the world’s ‘alphas’. Many of us live in permanent peace, unless we enter into the virtual worlds of violent video games. In general, despite war and conflict, this is the most peaceful era in human history.

• Whilst there are elements of a blind pursuit of pleasure in modern life, it is actually the blind pursuit of power that dominates the current political agenda. The world is dominated by autocrats who have no positive vision of the future or guiding ideology (however misguided). Elite groups aim to secure power for the sake of power and without a positive vision of the future. This replicates the world of 1984.
• Dictators are ubiquitous today. Similar to 1984, their rule is underpinned by a logic that demands the hatred of a manufactured, evil other. The other shifts, becoming a constant focus of hatred that blinds us to the realities of power and the state.
• The power of hatred depends on the manipulation to hate. History is manipulated. Truth is always relative, and controlled by elite groups. This is paralleled in 1984.
• Communication is altered, reshaping and compressing what can and cannot be said. Twitter (now X) has become the Newspeak of our era. The limitations of X mean that there is no space for reasoned, considered debate. Instead, X allows enough space for authoritarian assertion and counter assertion. Authoritarian voices dominate X and, arguably, it is owned by an unhinged authoritarian billionaire.
• Surveillance is widespread in modern life. Cameras are everywhere. Our digital footprint and digital financial transactions means that our every action is monitored, and our motivations known. This tendency is accelerating and becoming entrenched.