As of January 3rd, a rather gnarly book is a bestseller in Germany.
Mein Kampf. Written by one Adolf Hitler. It has sold 85,000 copies, and is an annotated edition of Hitler's Nazi manifesto.
As of January 28th, a rather depressingly real and relevant book is a bestseller in America.
1984. Written during 1948 and 1949 as a view of the future, it chronicles one man's battle against an all seeing, truth-controlling, totalitarian post nuclear war dictatorship. Kellyanne Conway's use of the term 'alternative facts' was eerily and accurately paralleled in the novel as "Newspeak", the technique the government in the book uses to rewrite truths as they see fit and force upon people as the only truth.
The book 1984 received a similar boost in sales when the Edward Snowden story went public, because it was a story viewed, in essence, through the prism of omnipresent and perpetual surveillance, which is basically what Edward Snowden called out the Obama administration and the NSA on, and was rewarded with a very public crucifixion and forced to become a political asylee in the sweet, welcoming, Communist arms of the eternal motherland, Russia.
The fact that the Simpsons played a Trump presidency as a joke on their show which has now become an instilled reality is kind of disturbing in the accuracy of the humor. I guess one after effect of the Trump presidency is that people have started to actually read in America, and not just wait for the movie adaptation of the book. That being said, 1984, by virtue of its age and as yet continued and enduring relevance, has been treated to some very good adaptations, one of which had John Hurt in them, an actor who died around the time 1984 climbed back on top of the bestseller list this year. This stuff really does write itself - truth is stranger than fiction.
It is obvious to say that supporters of both sides of the aisle in the corridors of power would have picked up a copy of 1984, and I think that what this, in this glaringly stupefying polarization of the political climate, is that rare cloud that brings some welcome rain, so that we may all be drenched as it delivers its payload upon us, and just cool down for a little, and draw parallels to what we see transpire in the news and whether it reflects events in the book. A political discussion started by a book in which political discussion was basically high treason? Orwell himself would be proud of the irony of the situation.
