A new Ali Smith book is always an event – or should that be, a series of events. Artful (2012) started as lectures she gave at Oxford University, and became a ghost story novel-cum-essay. How to Be Both (2014) featured two stories that could be printed either way round. Her Seasonal Quartet formed rapidly-written responses to current affairs – with the years between Autumn in 2016 and Summer in 2020 offering plenty of material.
Continue reading “Review: Gliff, Ali Smith”Tag: dystopia
Review: Memory Piece, Lisa Ko
The first section of Lisa Ko’s novel follows a Chinese-American artist, Giselle Chin, who in 1996 begins a durational work called Memory Piece: she writes down her memories for seven hours a day, for a year – and at the end she burns the lot. But in Memory Piece, the book, the documenting of life becomes something precious and worth preserving.
Continue reading “Review: Memory Piece, Lisa Ko”Dawn King on adapting Brave New World
“We live in a dystopia now.” So claims playwright Dawn King, who’s adapted Aldous Huxley’s great dystopian novel, Brave New World. “We’re walking round with tiny computers in our pockets. Our government probably knows everything about us; our phone companies definitely do, even your calorie intake and heart rate. At the same time there are boatloads of people dying to get into countries like ours… it’s pure dystopia. We live in the future, and the future’s failed us.” Continue reading “Dawn King on adapting Brave New World”
From A Brave New World to 1984: why dystopian novels are invading the theatre
“We live in a dystopia now.” So claims playwright Dawn King.
“We’re walking round with these tiny computers in our pockets: your government probably knows everything about you; your phone company definitely knows everything about you – even your calorie intake; you spread all this information everywhere you go, and yet at the same time there are boatloads of people dying to get into a country like ours …. We live in the future and the future’s kind of failed us.” Continue reading “From A Brave New World to 1984: why dystopian novels are invading the theatre”