MY IRONY METER JUST BROKE: 75th Anniversary Edition of Orwell’s 1984 Comes With a Trigger Warning.

UPDATE: Shock: Orwell’s 1984 Slapped with Trigger Warning.

The 75th anniversary features an introduction by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of “Take My Hand.” She explains why some new readers might find Orwell’s masterpiece upsetting.

“I’m enjoying the novel on its own terms, not as a classic but as a good story, that is until [the main character] Winston reveals himself to be a problematic character,” Kirn reads from the trigger warning text.

Taibbi starts to laugh as Kirn continues.

“[Winston] dislikes nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones … Winston’s views on women are at first despicable to the contemporary reader … he’s the kind of character who can make me put a book down,’” he continues with her text.

“How many books have you thrown away by Hemingway, by Tolstoy?” Kirn asks as an aside before continuing from Perkins-Valdez’s introduction.

“When I was younger that’s exactly what I would have done, but I’m a more seasoned reader now and I know the difference between a flawed character and a flawed story. I remind myself that this is a dystopian novel and Orwell is suggesting misogyny is likely in a totalitarian society and Winston is a product of that environment.”

“Thank you for your trigger warning for ‘1984,’” Kirn said. “It is the most 1984ish thing I’ve ever f***ing read.”

Kirn summarizes the rest of the trigger warning, which includes suggestions that the book is racist.

Wow, you caught him, Dolen! The man who wrote “Shooting an Elephant“ is a crypto-racist in spite of himself. The Bletchley Park racial cryptographers strike again!