"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" - 1984, And Why It Rocks.
116 replies, posted
[img]http://z.about.com/d/bestsellers/1/0/H/5/-/-/1984.jpg[/img]
"Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic dystopian novel by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949, it is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totalitarian regime."
The novel portrays an ever-present, ever-controlling government. The main character, Winston Smith, works in the "Ministry Of Truth" to rewrite old newspapers and various other sources in order to manipulate the past to make it seem as though what is, has always been.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
Social Classes of 1984:
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/1984_Social_Classes_alt.svg[/img]
For a map of the regions/countries of 1984: [url]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/1984_fictious_world_map_v2_quad.svg[/url]
The wikipedia article is much more informing than what I can give you here, due to the fact that this novel has a lot of depth.
HOWEVER, before you go off reading that, I highly recommend you just go read the book. It's available at almost any bookstore, not to mention it's freely published online, and you can even get free audiobook files of it.
Here's one of the many: [url]http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/index.html[/url]
Anyway, as a novel of extremely high literary merit, and my favorite book of all time, I highly encourage anyone over the age of 15 to read this. Any younger and you might not understand it completely. I read it at 15 and again at 17 and I still missed parts.
This book will also help you out in many english classes, I guarantee. It's a stockpile of brilliant symbolism, allusion, and many other literary techniques which are stressed in language and literature classes.
"And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn't really mean it. But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there's no other way of saving yourself and you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the other person. You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself."
My Avatar is actually Big Brother.
But if there is hope, it lay in the Proles.
I really should read this.
Started reading it. Didn't get too far. I occupy myself with far too many books at once.
Didn't George Orwell write other books like the Animal Farm (didn't read it).
He was a Socialist. :)
Man, I should finally buy this already. I've been putting off and off.
Rats! Room 101! Hooray!
[QUOTE=Wakka;15111271]Didn't George Orwell write other books like the Animal Farm (didn't read it).
He was a Socialist. :)[/QUOTE]Yes. Yes he did. This is probably one of the best books I have ever read.
[QUOTE=Wakka;15111271]Didn't George Orwell write other books like the Animal Farm (didn't read it).
He was a Socialist. :)[/QUOTE]
Yes, and yes, he described himself as a Democratic Socialist.
It really is a good book in my opinion. Asimov said it was just overhyped because it hit a nerve in those times of uncertainty, but then Asimov nerdraged about people using the term Sci-Fi.
I really love the ending to 1984
I found something peculiar.
War is Peace
“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.” - George W. Bush
Freedom is Slavery
"Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do." - Rudy Giuliani
Ignorance is Strength
"The truth is a useless commodity that will hang around your neck like an albatross all the way to the homeless shelter." - Jeb Bush
Also an interesting read: [url]http://www.studentsfororwell.org/[/url]
I should read this, everyone is always talking about it
[QUOTE=Dr Egg;15111332]I really love the ending to 1984[/QUOTE]
The ending stuck in my brain forever.
It's a very good book.
Do you know what one critic proposed? I'll put it in spoilers.
[sp]There IS no war, and no EastAsia or Eurasia. It's just the UK has gone mental and is terrorising its own people while outside of the UK everyone's fairly normal. The only evidence we have that the war is waging is what we are told by Big Brother, so it could just be a massive horrific scheme (as Julia suggests)[/sp]
When I read this book I imagine it takes place in City 17 and Emmanuel Goldstein is Eli.
Then I imagine evil-leader-O'Brien is Conan O'Brien. :frogbon:
[QUOTE=Wakka;15111271]Didn't George Orwell write other books like the Animal Farm (didn't read it).
He was a Socialist. :)[/QUOTE]
If you had read the books you'd know that his books are satires of socialist governments, showing the flaws of it. Animal Farm was just a retelling of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and how the leaders became corrupt with their "Communism".
[QUOTE=Boyblunder;15111334]I found something peculiar.
War is Peace
“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.” - George W. Bush
Freedom is Slavery
"Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do." - Rudy Giuliani
Ignorance is Strength
"The truth is a useless commodity that will hang around your neck like an albatross all the way to the homeless shelter." - Jeb Bush
Also an interesting read: [url]http://www.studentsfororwell.org/[/url][/QUOTE]
Holy shit.
[QUOTE=Nitrowing;15111423]If you had read the books you'd know that his books are satires of socialist governments, showing the flaws of it. Animal Farm was just a retelling of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and how the leaders became corrupt with their "Communism".[/QUOTE]
Okay, but he was an admitted socialist.
[QUOTE=Splurgy;15111414]It's a very good book.
Do you know what one critic proposed? I'll put it in spoilers.
[sp]There IS no war, and no EastAsia or Eurasia. It's just the UK has gone mental and is terrorising its own people while outside of the UK everyone's fairly normal. The only evidence we have that the war is waging is what we are told by Big Brother, so it could just be a massive horrific scheme (as Julia suggests)[/sp][/QUOTE]
That's very possible. As [sp] the war keeps everyone on edge, hence the "War is Peace" line. It's suggested that by eternal war they're at equilibrium, but it could be that the war is fabricated. The citizens have to have a hope of sorts, so they use the war to keep them at bay and give them hope for a win. [/sp]
I love that book, and after reading I noticed its references everywhere.
[QUOTE=Nitrowing;15111423]If you had read the books you'd know that his books are satires of socialist governments, showing the flaws of it. Animal Farm was just a retelling of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and how the leaders became corrupt with their "Communism".[/QUOTE]
Nuh-uh.
[quote=George Orwell]
My recent novel [Nineteen Eighty-Four] is NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or on the British Labour Party (of which I am a supporter) but as a show-up of the perversions ... which have already been partly realized in Communism and Fascism. ...The scene of the book is laid in Britain in order to emphasize that the English-speaking races are not innately better than anyone else and that totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere.[/quote]
i've always wanted to read this it interested me greatly when i first heard about it
A brilliant book, but maybe a bit too much sex in it?
[QUOTE=Splurgy;15111473]Nuh-uh.[/QUOTE]
"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it," - George Orwell, "Why I Write"
[QUOTE=-Ben_Wolfe-;15111460]I love that book, and after reading I noticed its references everywhere.[/QUOTE]
That happened to me after reading this book and many others, such as Slaughterhouse Five. I notice the "Unstuck In Time" line everywhere.
Awesome book, I based my uni project on it. Had to design a book cover :)
Great book, I really enjoyed it.
[sp] Winston gets tortured and re-educated[/sp]
[QUOTE=SenorJose;15111508]A brilliant book, but maybe a bit too much sex in it?[/QUOTE]
There was quite a bit of sex, but none of it was gratuitous in the least bit. The use of sex in the novel is all in helping the point.
Good book.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.