My Irony Meter Just Broke: 75th Anniversary Edition of Orwell's 1984 Comes With a Trigger Warning

When George Orwell published his chilling, dystopian novel 1984 in the summer of 1949, he was issuing a dire warning for all free nations of the West. We can't help but think that he would be horrified, but probably also somewhat amused, to find that far too many of those Western nations are treating it as a playbook in the 21st century.

With the 75th anniversary of the novel's publication (technically last year), naturally, Signet Books wanted to release a new edition of the landmark novel, with the approval of the Orwell estate, of course.

But today I learned, courtesy of Walter Kirn and Matt Taibbi, that both Signet Books and the Orwell estate have no idea what the word 'irony' means.

Last night on their show, 'America This Week, Live,' the two writers discussed the modern implications of Orwell's magnum opus 75 years later. It was a great two-hour conversation, filled with many valuable insights about 1984's warnings and how they are being ignored by far too many today.

But if you skip to the 1:36:00 mark of the video below, they turn their attention to a new introduction for this edition written by woke author and CRT advocate Dolen Perkins-Valdez.

In which you will learn that the current leading paperback version of 1984, its official Orwell-estate-approved 75th anniversary edition, includes a 1984-ish trigger-warning introduction calling the novel's hero "problematic" because of his "misogyny."

I am not making this up. https://t.co/U9UAR3dsdQ
— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) June 2, 2025

As Kirn also hilariously noted on the podcast, 'We're getting someone to convict George Orwell of thoughtcrime in the book he wrote about thoughtcrime.'

Taibbi also offered some follow-up thoughts today.

Absolutely unbelievable that the 75th anniversary edition of 1984 was published with a foreword apologizing for the book’s “problematic” content and author. Talk about being blind to irony https://t.co/2R2TLFhyUP
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) June 3, 2025

Irony? What's that? The word sounds very masculine and misogynistic. Society should probably ban it.

Here are a couple of highlighted excerpts from the introduction:

I'll have to wait till I finish my read to see exactly what you are referring to, but I took a look at the introductory essay by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, and am in dismay at aspects of it:

"That sliver of connection can be difficult for someone like me to find in a novel that does… pic.twitter.com/NPMPaSmi51
— Mark Blair (@mblair) June 2, 2025

And another excerpt which shows the introduction to be -- surprise, surprise -- entirely narcissistic and about Perkins-Valdez instead of about Orwell and his all-too-prophetic novel.

I have the 75th edition too. After reading this paragraph by a woman named Dolan Perkins-Valdez I decided to skip the rest of the critique as it’s all about her life experience. pic.twitter.com/ofAzFuqj6u
— Phillip Ruland (@Rulo123) June 2, 2025

It almost makes me wonder if Perkins-Valdez read the book at all, or just some other radical racist/feminist/liberal's interpretation of it.

History has stopped. https://t.co/oXgGDeVEFv pic.twitter.com/zaQSEDHCin
— Dr. Decepticon Boba Fett👌 🇺🇸🇹🇼🇭🇰 (@xtreemmasheen3k) June 3, 2025

On the other hand, maybe she HAS read 1984 and, as I noted above, decided it was a great recipe to follow.

They have read it. They know what they are doing. https://t.co/5HXuAeXHKa
— Jeffrey Payne (@jeffreywny) June 3, 2025

This is entirely possible.

The Left is beyond parody... https://t.co/hRMt21OqRr
— Marc Sulfridge (@marcsulf) June 3, 2025

It reminds me of a great Babylon Bee article: 'New Film Adaptation Of '1984' To Feature Big Brother As The Good Guy.'

Isn't Oceania ... err, I mean the U.K., pretty much doing that in their government right now?

The Minister of Truth approved this warning… https://t.co/bY2ezKRhh3
— Lost Horizons (@RanchPlanet) June 3, 2025

I'm sure Kier Starmer gave it two thumbs up.

that is hilarious and beyond depressing at the same time https://t.co/PyfxPfYTCw
— Omid — e/acc (@omid) June 3, 2025

I'm only laughing at it because the alternative is to simply throw my hands in the air and give up.

For now, however, I take solace in three things.

First, Signet did not change any of the text of the book itself. At least not yet. But they're probably considering it. Just look what they've done to Roald Dahl.

Secondly, no one reads the introduction. Especially when it is an introduction written by some no-name, woke author who can't hold a candle to Orwell on her best day.

And finally, no matter what they try to do to 1984, my old, dog-eared, unedited copy of the novel -- with no introductory apology for its contents -- remains in an honored place on my bookshelf. And no one, least of all Dolen Perkins-Valdez, is getting their grubby, censorious, revisionist hands on it.

I hope all of our readers have a hard copy of it as well.

If you don't, buy an old one on eBay. Whatever you do, don't buy the 75th anniversary edition.

Except maybe for the ironic laughs.