Are the futures depicted in science fiction films like Blade Runner and The Matrix really possible ones--projections of things that already exist? Or are they meant to be symbolic or metaphorical? In these early years of the twenty-first century--the 'New American Century', if the imperialists have their way--it is sobering and enlightening to re-read, with these questions in mind, two earlier futurist visions that have deeply influenced the makers of these and other modern dystopias--Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. These books have been extraordinarily influential, both on generations of readers whose political consciousness has been affected by them, and on generations of writers, in non-fiction as well as fiction. A re-reading today yields some very striking lessons in assessing our present, and in thinking about our future
