# How well did 1984 hold up in 1985?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** books-writing-myths\
**Created:** [June 12, 2024, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799 "2024-06-12T21:28:38Z")\
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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/38 "2024-06-14T15:44:17Z")

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The movie _The Shape of Things to Come_ was necessarily a highly condensed version of Wells’ book, presented as a future history, which was a very long almost polemical treatise on the death of capitalism and the rise of socialism. Essentially, the Great Depression segues into World War Two without a break, and the heavy use of chemical weapons along with the outbreak of a pandemic- natural or bioweapon is never known- collapses what little is left of civilization. Only the Dictatorship of the Air survives to recreate society along rational, scientific lines.

Yes, Wells really takes that tone unironically. [Holy Crap! H.G. Wells was a totalitarian!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-h-g-wells-was-a-totalitarian/549844)

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