From the Cradle to the Slave

In true media slut style I have tried to imbue my little story with some of the ethos, concepts and style of some of my favourite and, even, not-so-favourite things.

Here is a list with some occasional explanations:

Books

• George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm. There is the obvious homage (posh word for rip-off) to Orwell with Big Mother. Hopeful some of his satirical elements will also become apparent, as the story continues.

• Daniel Keys’ Flowers for Algernon.

• Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

• Swift’s Gulliver’s Tales.

• Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta and The Ballard of Halo Jones.

• 2000ad.

• Huxley’s Brave New World. To be honest I only like the first few chapters and found the rest of the book completely dire, but still conceptually it is an influence.

• Doris Lessing’s Memoirs of a Survivor.

• Ursula Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness, The Tombs of Atuan and The Dispossessed.

• Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

• John Fowles’ French Lieutenant’s Women.

• Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White.

• William Gibson’s Neuromancer.

• Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.

• Kafka: nothing specific – just a feeling.

Films and TV

• One Flew Over the Co Coos Nest

• Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

• Brass Eye

• Power of Nightmares

• Truman Show

• Big Brother

Music

• Joy Division’s Unknown Plesures

• Future Sound of London’s Life Forms

• Crass

• Dead Kennedys