Hurricane Dorian hit Nova Scotia on Saturday night. Sunday, driving home from New Glasgow, we listened to Writers and Company on the CBC. It was an interview with Dorian Lynskey, author of The Ministry of Truth: the Biography of George Orwell’s 1984. This connected, for me, with Margaret Atwood’s new release The Testaments plus I received a notice from Lawrencetown Library that George Woodcock’s book on George Orwell had arrived through the services of inter-library loan; The Crystal Spirit: a study of George Orwell.
En route, we noticed a few more municipal slogans. For Pictou County Forward Together and also the town of New Glasgow Flourish.
https://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/news/regional/dorian-in-the-annapolis-valley-we-asked-for-photos-and-you-responded-350822/
Towards the end of this week, there are a number of realizations with Hurricane Dorian.
a) the sense of vulnerability when infrastructure fails.
b) the irony of demand for gas, whether for cars or generators and the climate change message.
c) the density of overhead lines in a province that still has a significant number of trees. Some of which, poplar, have a tendency to snap easily.
d)as a province, where do we stand on solar energy?
e) what about putting lines underground?
f) given the inter-dependency of the telephone system, the Internet system and the electricity system is there a better infrastructure/technology solution?
g) do we have the appropriate ‘community information’ easily accessible?
As we head into a federal election, and subsequently provincial and municipal, elections, are there connections to the writing of both Orwell and Atwood?
Acknowledgements
From Hurricane Dorian, it is apparent that to Flourish we need to Move Forward Together. Interestingly Forward Together is also the slogan of the Federal Green Party. Thanks to Heather for her observations and our conversations. Edward added the graphics.
References
Margaret Atwood. 2019. The Testaments. McClelland & Stewart.
Dorian Lynskey. 2019. The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984. Doubleday.
George Woodcock.1966. The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell. Little, Brown and Company.
Ernest Blair Experiment 
After hearing a long interview with Margaret Atwood on radio this week about her sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, I downloaded THT and have FINALLY started to read it. I tried once before, a long time ago and couldn’t “get into it”. I’m there now. I will also read the new one. Coincidence that the first name of the first author you mentioned is the same as the “person” who caused havoc this past week. Thanks for your musings – always a delight.
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Glad you noticed the link. Did you also notice that Atwood had green fingernails in the CBC interview
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Dorian. Greek ‘child of the sea’, like all hurricanes.
Also note, Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
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