Nineteen Eighty-Four

325 pages

English language

Published March 7, 2008 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:
978-0-14-103614-4
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Goodreads:
3744438

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4 stars (28 reviews)

Which One Will YOU Be IN the Year 1984?

There won't be much choice, of course, if this book's predictions turn out to be true. But you'll probably become one of the following four types:

Proletarian--Considered inferior and kept in total ignorance, you'll be fed lies from the Ministry of Truth, eliminated upon signs of promise or ability!

Police Guard--Chosen for lack of intelligence but superiour brown, you'll be suspicious of everyone and be ready to give your life for Big Brother, the leader you've never even seen!

Party Member--Male--Face-less, mind-less, a flesh-and-blood robot with a push-button brain, you're denied love by law, taught hate by the flick of a switch!

Party Member--Female--A member of the Anti-Sex League from birth, your duty will be to smother all human emotion, and your children might not be your husband's!

Unbelievable? You'll feel differently after you've read this best-selling book of forbidden love …

89 editions

problematic but relevant

4 stars

A lot to unpack in this book. The lead character (Winston) has some pretty misogynistic tendencies, and there's not a single female character in the book with any depth whatsoever. This can be explained to some extent by the fact that it was written in the 40s, and that Winston has been subject to psychological manipulation essentially since birth.

Problematic elements aside, this provides an interesting dive into the world of psychological warfare, which remains relevant to this day.

reviewed Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (The Complete works of George Orwell -- v. 1)

Review of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The contributions of this book are far too grand for me to go into all details here. To make it short, I believe that Orwell provided a fitting explanation of how individual thought is suppressed under totalitarian regimes. The principles of doublethink are also used in democratic states whenever it is politically necessary to hold two conflicting opinions. I even claim that it is a politician's most essential skill to perform this mental gymnastics convincingly.

However, this propaganda does not necesarrily manage to convince everybody. Regardless of the political system, it seems that generally, the people under its influence tend to root for it. But also regardless of the system, the capacity for subversive ideas can never be eliminated. Whether this capacity is actually of any use, though, depends on the system. The dystopian world of 1984 deals with subversive thoughts in such an efficient way, that revolutionary spirit is …

reviewed Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (The Complete works of George Orwell -- v. 1)

Review of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

There are a few things that I find riveting in 1984:
- The idea that information control can shape reality. I first read 1984 in college, before algorithms played such a huge role in our lives. Today the notion that influencing information access can shape a populations' perception of the world, encourage opinion, shape our behaviors is all too real.
- The sense of hopelessness is absolute. I've never felt so mournful finishing a book. At the end, the world of individual liberty and hope has just completed fading from view. As Winston capitulates, the state continues its inexorable march to consuming the whole of the human experience, subverting romantic relationships, subverting the relationship between children and parents, even purging language of unorthodox concepts.

I probably shouldn't read books like this on the road. What a downer.

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