- Versificator
The versificator is a device employed by
Ingsoc in thenovel 1984 byGeorge Orwell .Its primary purpose is to act as a 'writing machine', a machine which produces both literature and music, its primary target audience being the
Proletariat .The purpose of the versificator is to provide a means of producing 'creative' output without having any of the party members having to actually engage in a creative thought. The versificator is capable of producing
newspaper s, containing content similar to that found in modern daytabloid , featuring stories concerningsports , crime andastrology .The machine is also capable of producing films, low qualitypaperback novels, and music, of a sort.Orwell clearly meant the versificator as a commentary on the quality of
low culture and its ultimate effect. The metaphor of thefactory or theproduction line commonly appears in discussions of mass-distributed culture.Similar machines appear in the "Down There", a bleak
dystopian short story byDamon Knight and in "The Silver Eggheads" byFritz Leiber . The latter novel describes a future in which machines generate "wordwooze" in order to amuse the populace.ources
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