So I'm currently reading "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess (it is simply amazing. a spectacular book) and I'm almost finished. So I went on wiki to just read about the author, find out more about him. He seems like such an interesting person, too bad he's dead.
But anyway, there's this little bit on wiki that talks about his relationship with islam, and that at a point in his life he was considering converting.
ANYWAY, he wrote this book called 1985. I haven't read it, but supposedly a major theme in the book is "the rise of Islam as a major cultural and political force in Britain, due to large-scale immigration from the Middle East; London abounds with mosques and rich Arabs." He wrote this book in 1978, and like 1984, was predicting what Britain would be like in 1985. It's strange because in a way, his theory was correct, because there are many more muslims in Britain nowadays. Perhaps not to the extent that he envisioned, but a part of it.
So yeah, I just thought it was something interesting to share... I'm definitely going to buy it as soon as I can.
I've got the book, and I'm really excited to start reading it. Has no one here read it before?!
It's been out of print for several years, I think. I would have read it otherwise, as I'm a big fan of Anthony Burgess' work.
I didn't know he was thinking of converting to Islam at one stage, although it's eminently possible. He was brought up a Catholic, lapsed in early adulthood, and then resumed the faith of his family after reading James Joyce's A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. He was always interested in religion, and it is a prominent theme in two of his best books: The Kingdom Of The Wicked, which is a novelised treatment of the history of early Christianity, and Earthly Powers, one of whose main characters becomes Pope during the course of the book.
1985 sounds interesting, although I'm not sure it took any great foresight for someone in 1978 to determine that Muslim population in the UK would continue to rise. Being Burgess, though, there's bound to be more to it than that.
Actually, I didn't manage to find just 1985, the copy I have is a collection of 2 of his books; '1985' and 'the wanting seed'. It's called 'future imperfect'.
True, but "the rise of Islam as a major cultural and political force in Britain" holds mainly for Islam nowadays- ie. the other minorities aren't having these same issues to the extent that islam is. Not sure if that's correct or even makes sense, but inshaAllah it'll become clearer as soon as I finish the book. I'll let you know how it goes!
Oh, and you reminded me of another book I've had on my list for a while- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Should get on that as soon as I can as well!
^Well it consists of two parts. The first part is a bunch of essays and interviews that discuss and analyze Orwell's 1984. The second part is a short novel by Burgess. I'm still on the first part but his thoughts on 1984 are really interesting.
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