Not sure how Wow-worthy this is, but I discovered an overlap between Orwell and F. Scott Fitzgerald that seems unlikely to be random.
In 1936, Fitzgerald wrote an article for Esquire Magazine discussing mental agility and ability to cope with ambiguity. He said:
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
13 years later, in 1984, Orwell said:“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
While there is no direct evidence, the two quotes are too similar to be happenstance. I think Orwell knew of Fitzgerald's thinking and put a dystopian twist on it. The implication being that like everything else that was upside down in the 1984 book (war = peace, ignorance = power, etc), mental acuity and intelligence was stupidity. He just didn't spell it out like the rest of things he did.
Where Fitzgerald says, “...retain the ability to function,” Orwell’s citizens are conditioned not to function as individuals, but as extensions of the Party — functioning only within approved contradictions.
It’s the mirror image of intelligence: Fitzgerald frames contradiction as adaptive and self-aware, while Orwell frames it as obedience dressed in logic. And you’re right — Orwell never explicitly calls intelligence stupidity, but he absolutely dismantles the very idea of independent thought. |
