so doctors, lawyers, you know, rocket scientists and what have you. and there were five for girls. let s see if you can guess what they were. secretary? yes. nurse? yes. teacher? yes. got it. ok, that s three. that s three. er.| don t know, was it housewife? did that count? that s not a career. that was considered a career. er.yes, but domestic science. 0k. otherwise known as home economics. home economics. right. and the fifth one, which is a bit surprising that early, it was.it was airline stewardess. oh, right, of course. so, which box did were you ticking at that age? well, i was a mercenary little child. the one that made the most money at that time was.. was the home economist. ah, right. so although i was not really very interested, um. i took that in high school instead of what i should have taken, which was secretarial sciences. i should have taken typing.
so, did you perform, as well? yes, of course. yeah? you were.? yes, i played orlon. 0k. yes, i performed, i directed. hmm. your next choice for this cultural life is reading sci fi in the cellar when you were supposed to be doing your homework. and especially reading george orwell. when did you first come across orwell, then? well, my dad liked science fiction because he was a scientist and he used to get a big kick out of it. hmm. so he had quite a collection. but i first read animal farm cos it was in the house, my dad had it. hmm. and i thought it was going to be, oh, good, animals! just like wind in the willows. talking animals? talking animals. what fun! er.but this is not what it was. and of course, i didn t understand that it was an allegory of the soviet union at that time, based on the show trials and so forth. um. because you were, what nine, ten.? yeah. i had no knowledge of those things.
thinking in that way at all when you re seven. no. when i entered what we would call high school, they gave you a book called guidance. we had it in class, called guidance, which was supposed to be guiding us to our future, um.careers. hmm. so there were lots of future careers for boys. so doctors, lawyers, you know, rocket scientists and what have you. and there were five for girls. let s see if you can guess what they were. secretary? yes. nurse? yes. teacher? yes. got it. ok, that s three. that s three. er.| don t know, was it housewife? did that count? that s not a career. that was considered a career. er.yes, but domestic science. 0k. otherwise known as home economics. home economics. right. and the fifth one, which is a bit surprising that early, it was.it was airline stewardess. oh, right, of course. so, which box did were you ticking at that age? well, i was a mercenary little child. the one that made the most money at that time was.. was the home economist.
hmm. so he had quite a collection. but i first read animal farm cos it was in the house, my dad had it. hmm. and i thought it was going to be, oh, good, animals! just like wind in the willows. talking animals? talking animals. what fun! er.but this is not what it was. and of course, i didn t understand that it was an allegory of the soviet union at that time, based on the show trials and so forth. um. because you were, what nine, ten.? yeah. i had no knowledge of those things. so itjust ruined me, because here were these nice animals and they.and they came to tragic ends. and it was very, very upsetting. when it came to 1984, then, what was it about that book that gripped you so much? having been born in 1939, two months after the onset of world war ii, i ve always been pretty interested in dictatorships. and also, world war ii.
let s see if you can guess what they were. secretary? yes. nurse? yes. teacher? yes. got it. ok, that s three. that s three. er.| don t know, was it housewife? did that count? that s not a career. that was considered a career. er.yes, but domestic science. 0k. otherwise known as home economics. home economics. right. and the fifth one, which is a bit surprising that early, it was.it was airline stewardess. oh, right, of course. so, which box did were you ticking at that age? well, i was a mercenary little child. the one that made the most money at that time was.. was the home economist. ah, right. so although i was not really very interested, um. i took that in high school instead of what i should have taken, which was secretarial sciences. i should have taken typing. what was the result? i still cannot touch type. i have to look. are you.are you two fingers? four.