1984

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Adonis Maratos
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Re: 1984

Post by Adonis Maratos »

When I first read this book, something completely different happened to me. I got so involved with the characters that i ended up raging at a book the way people rage over a football match. That's how I knew that book was good, not because of the message, which by the way seems impressively well aimed for the time it was written, but because of the way the story unravels and engulfs the reader. The day after finishing the book I went and talked to my English literature teacher about this new experience and he, instead of trying to analyze why this had happened, said I should try other books by Orwell and see if i get the same reaction. Immediately I went to the school's library and asked for any of Orwell's books, which earned me a weird look from the Librarian. After about 20 minutes of discussion I ended up with a copy of George Orwell's Animal farm. Long story short, I read it and by then I had a very strong urge to go buy as much bacon as I could afford and eat it with the satisfaction of a man feasting on the flesh of his.... well not enemies, more like characters he came to despise.
So this is my little anecdote with the book, In my opinion it's a book every teenager should read and then revisit at different stages of life just so he can witness the effect created by the different interpretations of a book we make as our own personalities change. It's a great book, by a great author.
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Idleheim
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Post by Idleheim »

It is more than mere words that are disposed of in Oceania. Others have glanced at this, especially Anu_; there IS a remarkable correlation between SMS and "txtng" and Ingsoc's newspeak. I have even written about this my junior year in college and am considering revisiting the subject for my thesis. However more than just the words themselves (the graphemes, the morphemes and the phonemes) that are being disposed of. The words are almost harmless in the eyes of minipax and minilov! The underpinnings of the words, however, the concepts and their referents are carefully neutralized in order to destroy the word, and then the word itself is gone, eliminating need for the concept, or, more importantly, the ability to express that concept. It almost requires doublethink to fully embrace, but let me give an example.

Look at the current American Voting process and parties. In the beginning there were almost as many parties as there were candidates. Social Party, Bullmoose Party, Do-little Party; the list goes on ad absurdum. However, by careful, purposeful and strategic maneuvering, their now exist only two parties of any real power and notoriety, the Democrat and Republican. Left-wing and Right-wing, or for the purposes of this example, Blue and Red. Yes, we throw in words like "centrist" and "extremists" to provide shades of "meaning" but everyone uses the same "red to blue" dichromatic scale and a false dichotomy, if one agrees with political theorists like Noam Chomsky, another VERY politically active linguist.

We do still have a plethora of parties and constituents in existence today, sure; Libertarians, Communists, Anarchists, Greens, etc. But by and large those parties are not even given attention. Soon, if left unchecked, attention will completely atrophy and the parties will dissolve and become inert. Likewise, the concept behind the party, say "green" (Not picking on the greens, just using them as an example) will no longer apply when talking about the political makeup. Without that concept, context becomes more fixed to the desired effect. Green no longer has a context in "Red and Blue" and therefore cannot be expressed without defaulting to a derivation of Red or Blue. Without the concept of a "Green Party", one removes it from the ballot and thus the political makeup, making it harder for someone of a Green-ish tint to fully express themselves, from a political party standpoint. Green is no longer a Referent to the Concept of "Green" Party.

Thus the Green Party no longer "exists" and, more importantly becomes harder, if not impossible, to manifest in the future, since the word green no longer has meaning, politically! That is how words are destroyed.

In the book, Syme saw the beauty in this destruction. Unfortunately, by virtue of having the concept well enough to destroy it, he becomes a target as well. Getting rid of the people who hold the words completes the "loop" left in the concept. The concept becomes a demiurge, with no meaningful name to pin it, and thus understand it.

Or perhaps, I simply do not have the words to grasp this concept myself, because they no longer exist.
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saviolo
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Post by saviolo »

Personally, I find 1984 powerful because it doesn't pull any punches. Orwell creates a world which is relentlessly grim, the resistance to Big Brother fails, Smith betrays everything he believes in and even changes his feelings towards the leadership. And he's still going to be executed at some point in the future. There is nothing which even resembles a happy ending here.

If most modern authors wrote this it would end up with a teenage girl overthrowing everything at the end of the third book. It was just a better class of pessimism.
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FunDuhMentalist
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Post by FunDuhMentalist »

I find myself dreaming of the world created by Orwell in 1984, and of that created by Huxley in Brave New World. Incidentally, I find both the world converge at some point and resemble today's world. Not a very pleasant thought. For me, the ultimate torture in the last chapter of the book is still a thing the worst nightmares are made up of. Love and helplessness don't make for a pretty picture. That, and the future isn't always bright, are things 1984 left me with, among many other thoughts.
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Post by Sianselina »

1984- is most certainly a warning, and several similarities between 2014 and the vision of Orwell can be observed, such as the implement of a TV screen in most developed households, or the creation of the omniscient FBI or NASA, whose bank of information covers all our private datas. Nevertheless there seems to be an uncrosable threshold; the gap between a government controlled robot, and a human being. Our humanity, meaning our creativity and hunger for expression is what will never die out, since it denies us as human beings, and prevent this particular distopy, where all individual initiative has been destroyed, of ever being realized.
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saviolo
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Post by saviolo »

Sianselina wrote: Nevertheless there seems to be an uncrosable threshold; the gap between a government controlled robot, and a human being.
Well put.

I think what Orwell could not predict was the growth of communication technology. Governments today are struggling to control the messages we receive and even very oppressive regimes are being challenged by the free slow of information. We don't all think alike. I'm based in England but have a lot more in common with friends in the USA and France than the people who live next door to me. Funny that.
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sarahstark
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Post by sarahstark »

One of the things that made 1984 such an important literary piece was the time in which it was written. He wrote it following world war 2. Orwell saw the control of both nazi and communist governments, and wrote the book as a warning, to any and all futures, of a potential world where the government controls too much.

So we might not be at "that point" yet. The government does certain things, but it also doesn't. But Orwell's warning is timeless, and applicable to any and every government and time period. He warns to not give complete and total power to the government.
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Post by shayna »

I loved 1984. What I really didn't like was Brave New World. We often compare the two since they are studied at the same time in high school. I felt like 1984 really succeeded due to Orwell's brilliant writing style, while Brave New World was a book of ideas that fell flat and was somewhat hard to get through.
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ZackandMack
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Post by ZackandMack »

First read 1984 back in the 60s or was it the 70s? Such is age...anyway, it was supposed to be just a book, not a blueprint of things to come. We have arrived, on time and with the cameras watching. The question is...Who Watches the Watchers? (Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?)
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subzerowon
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Post by subzerowon »

1984 scared me.
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Post by paperleopard »

1984 has really changed me. Often as I sit in history class or science class and even math class, I find myself wondering, "who says that the Great Leap Forward even happened? Why does the Law of Sines even work? Who says we ever landed on the moon?" Its something valuabe, I think.
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ZackandMack
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Post by ZackandMack »

The title itself was just arbitrary. Orwell became disillusioned with socialism after fighting in the Spanish Civil War...Read his Homage to Catalonia. He was anti-fascist before it was fashionable. Same with members of the Lincoln Brigade. In fact, here in the States, being anti-fascist prior to 1941 branded one as a supporter of Stalin, (which many anti-fascists were until the Pact between Molotov and Ribbentropf).

Perhaps it was this flip--the peace pact between Stalin and Hitler prior to Operation Barbarossa--that Orwell observed fellow communists twist themselves logically to support the pact prior to Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. We saw this in the New York Times with reporter Duranty writing nothing by skittles and cream about the Soviet Union, when it was an absolute falsehood. We see it today with members of the Journal-list group singing the praises of the government and covering for any of its failures.

Orwell saw this is real-time from the late 1930s through the war. It was not a great leap to think that the role of government were to not contract, but expand its power of its "subjects"

Huxley wrote the same thing some time later in Brave New World, which he proudly claimed was a blueprint of things to come. It is on track, disturbingly so...
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Post by kasi33 »

Thought control is in everything we do, from the moment we wake up, to when we go to sleep. Everyone in consumer America, and every other country with products to be sold, is a target. Marketers are constantly thinking up new ways to convince us that they can solve all of our problems. We all are convinced that we have the newest mental illness, or stomach problem, or that we are vitamin deficient. The food we eat is being made more expensive by the day, but the packaging is still suggesting that we are getting "30% free". Every time I give a woman a compliment, she tries to market me makeup or skincare or a purse. If I compliment someone's tattoo, they give me their card, if I like someone's hair, they work at the salon next door. They are trying to make a living, most of them honestly. Unfortunately, some of them are scamming.
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Post by Tianarenee3 »

Had to read this book in high school, can't say I miss it, but I think now as I grow up it's definitely a book I appreciate more.
acasto
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Post by acasto »

I found this story a very powerful one about distopia. The way it is presented, it seems much easier to perfect a distopia than a utopia.
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