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1984 (Signet Classics)

New American Library

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Question of Modern Society

Big Brother is watching in a utopian vision of 1984 where everyone is being watched. With the invent of modern cell phone technologies and such it is entirely possible that we are all being watched by someone or multiple someone's without being made aware. Love is also forbidden and mixing between classes is frowned upon. Love in modern society is under attack by the pressures of a bad economy, work schedules, children, and fifty bajillion other things and I personally have noticed that there isn't exactly a lot of mixing between people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and occupations, so my thought is are we really that far from the basic concepts of 1984 : technological watching possible at any moment, a loss of love and intimacy and a divides between ethnic and cultural groups that still can't mix ?

Of course, it can't happen here...

My copy is so old it does not have an ISBN. It is the twenty-first printing of the 1949 Harcourt edition. Refer, then, to page 191: "In the long run a hierarchial society was only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance." (This is the rant of the ficticious Goldstein.)
Now read Jon Jeter's "Flat Broke in the Free Market," "Armed madhouse," by Palast, "The Man Who Sold the World..." by Kleinkrecht, and, of course, the ever popular blockbuster of international poverty "The World is Flat" by Friedman. So, I will leave it up to you, gentle reader, was Orwell a prophet of distinction or a paranoid socialist nutcase? Have you already visited Room 101?
The book is marred by lengthy and didactic dialogue and the premise "They" would spend money to force Winston to love Big Brother before whacking him. Stalin, and rest of the politicians, dictators, and religious leaders would not have spent the dime.
But, at least, as yet, our ubiquitous screens only broadcast and do not monitor, although there is some very distressing information out there about electronic surveillence.
Now, one of the local teachers complained to me that he was expected to be teaching exactly the same thing the same day as all the other instructors in his field. "Why don't they just use a DVD?" he complained. Now, it just so happens that Uncle Mitch, and I will not tell you who he is if you do not know, just announced that every student could have virtual charter school education just by plugging in a computer (Thus, eliminating teachers, teachers' unions, pension plans, school building maintenance, etc. for the public from this personal taxes).
You can bet the DVD would be broadcast from some third world country where the techs would work for food, while those who will rule over us, including Uncle's offspring, attended private schools, probably funded by public tax money. You can also bet a shiny new dime that "1984" would not be in the curriculum.
So, the question again is: Was Orwell a prophet of distinction or a paranoid socialist nutcase?
Either way, this book seems almost as fresh today as the day it was written, and, as distressing as this title is, should be on your required reading list.
As an addendum: Readers may wish to revisit Orwell's earlier work "Animal Farm" to discover that "1984" is really just an enlargement of that previous publication, although the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

1984

1984 is a very enjoyable book to read, although I would never hand this to anyone under 14. This is a book that does discuss sexual content between two of the main characters, but this is part of the main story line. I think anyone that reads it will like it. Although it is pretty scary on how close some of the topics which it touches is becoming today in the world.

Alright...

I bought this book because it wasn't in my high school curriculum, and I wanted to be more 'well read'. I couldn't even make it through this book. I got about 3/4 of the way through before I lost all interest. I had a hard time remembering what all of the jargon. I can understand why is it a classic though.

A Strange backwards world(Beware)

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair. He first gained fame for publishing 1984. He was born in 1903 in Bengal, India and died in 1950. He was poor until his 30's. He was frightened by communism and his books reflected that particularly in Animal Farm.

The author's goal in this book, 1984, was quite simple. He wanted to frighten people about a totalitarian, technologically backwards society where truth is changed to what is the present people say. What they say is are lies. The telescreens that are mounted everywhere destroy privacy everywhere but in the slums when they are like cameras. There is no such thing as love. If discovered, the secret would condition it out. There is a constant fake war as an excuse to make goods and then destroy them. There are 3 types of people, the proles, the outer party, and the inner party with all the wealth, goods, mansions, and servants.

The author without a doubt achieves his goal. It is akin to detonating a brick of C-4 to swat a fly. He definitely frightens the reader into a coma. The reader's own children turning them in for thoughtcrime. Could anyone imagine that? No Bill of Rights? Room 101 where all the reader's worst fears come out and haunt the reader? If there was a secret police, how would people live? By looking over their shoulders, and holding low pitched conversations, thats how. Once the reader died, there would be no trace of the reader. No mention on the newspaper. It would just be changed the next day. The reader couldn't say anything subversive, because the readers' co-workers would turn them in. The worst of all is that speech would all be polarized. Everything that you said would have negative or positive connotations.

The book has its strengths, when it describes the antiques shop and how there was relics like china. The description of Newspeak and the different ministries abbreviations are also strengths. The abbreviations are just a way of getting the mind to conform to new values. It was all about perception.

The weakness is when the baser instincts leak through into actions. One example is when Winston wanted to rape Julia because he thought she was part of the secret police. Another is the very graphic screen, when Winston is getting interrogated and sells out his love for Julia just to get the pain to stop. It is a little too strong in my opinion.