George Orwell, Thomas Pynchon: Nineteen Eighty-Four (2019, Penguin Books, Limited)
400 pages
English language
Published Dec. 25, 2019 by Penguin Books, Limited.
Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often referred to as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the English novelist George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair). It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of persons and behaviours within society. Orwell, himself a democratic socialist, modelled the authoritarian government in the novel after Stalinist Russia. More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated.
Also contained in:
Novels (Animal Farm / Burmese Days / Clergyman's Daughter / Coming Up for Air / Keep the Aspidistra Flying / Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Novels (Animal Farm / Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often referred to as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the English novelist George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair). It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of persons and behaviours within society. Orwell, himself a democratic socialist, modelled the authoritarian government in the novel after Stalinist Russia. More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated.
Also contained in:
Novels (Animal Farm / Burmese Days / Clergyman's Daughter / Coming Up for Air / Keep the Aspidistra Flying / Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Novels (Animal Farm / Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Still a bit dull and definitely depressing but I have to say an audiobook is the best possible experience for this particular piece.
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.
Dwaplusdobra książka.
Seemed like an appropriate last book to close the year of 2016. I first read 1984 in the year 1984, but I was only 12 then, so rereading it now gave a much deeper appreciation for the depth of Orwell's insight. If you'd asked me 10 years ago I would have said Brave New World had come closer to anticipating our modern problems, but after watching the proponents of Brexit and the Trump campaign flat out lie and deny the truth with no accountability or consequence, I'm no longer so sure that Orwell didn't come closer to the mark. Considering the book was written in 1948, that's no small feat.
Two quotes that struck me as particularly relevant:
"Talking to her, he realized how easy it was to present an appearance of orthodoxy while having no grasp whatever of what orthodoxy meant. In a way, the world-view of the Party …
Seemed like an appropriate last book to close the year of 2016. I first read 1984 in the year 1984, but I was only 12 then, so rereading it now gave a much deeper appreciation for the depth of Orwell's insight. If you'd asked me 10 years ago I would have said Brave New World had come closer to anticipating our modern problems, but after watching the proponents of Brexit and the Trump campaign flat out lie and deny the truth with no accountability or consequence, I'm no longer so sure that Orwell didn't come closer to the mark. Considering the book was written in 1948, that's no small feat.
Two quotes that struck me as particularly relevant:
"Talking to her, he realized how easy it was to present an appearance of orthodoxy while having no grasp whatever of what orthodoxy meant. In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird."
"DOUBLETHINK means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them ... DOUBLETHINK lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word DOUBLETHINK it is necessary to exercise DOUBLETHINK. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of DOUBLETHINK one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth."
Two words recurrently came to my mind while I was reading the book – “Hauntingly beautiful”.
That’s how brilliant this book is. I would’ve given it 10 out of 5 stars, if I could. Orwell delivers a masterful stroke of fiction – or is it fiction? It seems more like a premonition of sorts, a guide as to what could possibly happen in future if we’re not careful. I had heard about what a genius Orwell was - and though I got a taste of it in “Animal Farm” – “1984” was kind-of-a full blown force hitting your face!
In short, this is a story of the world in a dystopian setting, where a Totalitarian empire presides over much of humanity, controlling them in every aspect possible – down to their thoughts. A world where every action of yours is recorded and monitored by the “Telescreen” – not unlike the …
Two words recurrently came to my mind while I was reading the book – “Hauntingly beautiful”.
That’s how brilliant this book is. I would’ve given it 10 out of 5 stars, if I could. Orwell delivers a masterful stroke of fiction – or is it fiction? It seems more like a premonition of sorts, a guide as to what could possibly happen in future if we’re not careful. I had heard about what a genius Orwell was - and though I got a taste of it in “Animal Farm” – “1984” was kind-of-a full blown force hitting your face!
In short, this is a story of the world in a dystopian setting, where a Totalitarian empire presides over much of humanity, controlling them in every aspect possible – down to their thoughts. A world where every action of yours is recorded and monitored by the “Telescreen” – not unlike the “All-Seeing Eye” from Lord of the Rings.
With all of the debate surrounding the FBI vs. Apple case and NSA and privacy, I fear we are slowly reaching towards the Orwellian universe. With that in mind, I think this line summarizes it the best – “1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual”.
a chilling examination of the mechanisms of authoritarianism. Most people do not understand this book. It's about far more than just Stalin.
so depressed
This book was more disturbing than I thought it would be. While well written, I couldn't really get enjoyment out of the story. I guess I like to believe that mankind is mostly good and will always rise over evil. So, I guess I prefer books that reinforce those beliefs. And this was certainly not the book for that.
A frightening look at the dangers of total government control, the loss of freedom of speech and thought, and the importance of continuing this discourse before it happens to us. Some might say it already has, but this book shows how terrible it really can be.
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Very good read, though a little dated now. The premise is still 100% believable. I read this first in school but have re-read it several times first. A gripping tale of the oppression of people by a totalitarian government who hide behind the figurehead of "Big Brother".
What can I say? I both love and hate this book, which may be a form of doublethink. Even having read it before, I was still rooting for Winston Smith to retain his humanity ... but alas. What struck me in particular this read-through was how blatantly the things that will happen to Winston are stated throughout the book. It's more than mere foreshadowing: From the beginning, we get actual description of the sorts of things that Winston ends up having to endure (see some of the earlier quotes listed below). The mantra that the result is concurrent with the act is thematically reinforced, which makes the story even more chilling with a second reading, at least for me. O'Brien's obviating statement upon first entering Winston's cell ("You knew this, Winston.... Don't deceive yourself. You did know it — you have always known it.") seems directed more at the …
What can I say? I both love and hate this book, which may be a form of doublethink. Even having read it before, I was still rooting for Winston Smith to retain his humanity ... but alas. What struck me in particular this read-through was how blatantly the things that will happen to Winston are stated throughout the book. It's more than mere foreshadowing: From the beginning, we get actual description of the sorts of things that Winston ends up having to endure (see some of the earlier quotes listed below). The mantra that the result is concurrent with the act is thematically reinforced, which makes the story even more chilling with a second reading, at least for me. O'Brien's obviating statement upon first entering Winston's cell ("You knew this, Winston.... Don't deceive yourself. You did know it — you have always known it.") seems directed more at the reader than at the character: We knew what was going to happen, we read what was going to happen, we were told nothing else ever happens, yet we still hoped and deceived ourselves that it would not happen.
Without getting to much into modern politics, there's some interesting comparisons that can be made today. For example, privacy concerns about products like Google Glass, which are basically telescreens for your face — especially in light of Google's fight with the FBI over "National Security" letters, which are basically non-court-reviewed subpoenas that nobody's allowed to talk about and, thus, don't really exist.... Or the relatively new legal "mosaic theory" of surveillance where at some vaguely magical point a certain amount of public scrutiny by police violates 4th Amendment rights, but in a stunning display of Sorites Paradoxism, nobody (including SCOTUS) can really determine where that point is, and thus, it effectively doesn't exist.
On a personal note, I read it on my telesc— err, iPad. This is the first ebook where I've actually spent a bit of effort highlighting quotes and passages in that medium. Then, stupidly I removed the ebook from my iPad. Fortunately, when I synced it back, all my highlights were still in existence. Given that providential event and the effort I went through, I now present:
A List of Things I Highlighted in 1984
The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. (I'm thinking of Season 1, Episode 6 of Buffy, titled "The Pack," here...)
At those moments his secret loathing of Big Brother changed into adoration, and Big Brother seemed to tower up, an invincible, fearless protector, standing like a rock against the hordes of Asia, and Goldstein, in spite of his isolation, his helplessness and the doubt that hung about his very existence, seemed like some sinister enchanter, capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the structure of civilisation.
He hated her because she was young and pretty and sexless, because he wanted to go to bed with her and would never do so, because round her sweet supple waist, which seemed to ask you to encircle it with your arm, there was only the odious scarlet sash, aggressive symbol of chastity.
Winston woke up with the word 'Shakespeare' on his lips.
All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed exactly as often as was necessary.
It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones...
Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice; at the most, an occasional whispered word.
...in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy, but always against one's own body.
But before death (nobody spoke of such things, yet everybody knew of them) there was the routine confession that had to be gone through: the grovelling on the floor and screaming for mercy, the crack of broken bones, the smashed teeth and bloody clots of hair. Why did you have to endure it, since it was always the same?
Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that's all.
[People incapable of understanding orthodoxy] could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane.
Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter: only feelings matter.
They can make you say anything — anything — but they can't make you believe it.
They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious, even to yourself, remained impregnable.
At present nothing is possible except to extend the area of sanity little by little.
Nevertheless the dangers inherent in the machine are still there.
The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already.
But no advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimeter nearer. From the point of view of the Low, no historic change has ever meant much more than a change in the name of their masters.
Inequality was the price of civilisation.
The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life, imposed by the dead upon the living. A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors.
For the secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one's own infallibility with the power to learn from past mistakes.
Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad.
"You don't think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?" (Parsons)
In the face of pain, there are no heroes...
It is not easy to become sane.
Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
You must stop imagining that posterity will vindicate you, Winston. Posterity will never hear of you.
We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him.
What happens to you here is forever.
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.
One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.
Reality is inside the skull.
Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain.
It was all contained in that first act. Nothing has happened that you did not foresee.
For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself.
To die hating them, that was freedom.
And Finally...
I'll note with hints of both humor and chagrin, that I once controlled the domain prolefeed.org.
An extended version of this review is available at my website, www.curtisweyant.com.
This was a reread, and unsurprisingly not very enjoyable. Many of the “classics” of SF are idea driven, and I respect the endeavor, but they are not fun to read. There’s a full ~15% that is a political theory book within the book.
Big Brother is watching you. De ultieme nachtmerrie van eenieder die niets te verbergen heeft. 1984 schetst een wereld waarin alles -maar dan ook echt alles en iedereen- gecompromitteerd is. Zelfs taal wordt een slachtoffer van de totalitaire staat. De geschiedenis wordt letterlijk herschreven om het staatsapparaat te dienen. Big Brother is een gezichtsloze maar alwetende dreiging die altijd meekijkt en -luistert, zelfs in je eigen huis. Kortom: niemand ontkomt aan de tiranniek van de staat.
Winston Smith is, zoals vele anderen, een dienaar van de Staat, maar is tevens een heimelijke dissident. Hij probeert op allerlei manieren om de macht van Big Brother te breken, maar weet niet te ontkomen aan de nietsontziende klauwen van de overheid. Onder de sluier van democratie heeft de absolute macht zich genesteld in de hersenen van het volk. En niemand kan het tij meer keren.
Wat Orwell ons achter heeft gelaten kan niet …
Big Brother is watching you. De ultieme nachtmerrie van eenieder die niets te verbergen heeft. 1984 schetst een wereld waarin alles -maar dan ook echt alles en iedereen- gecompromitteerd is. Zelfs taal wordt een slachtoffer van de totalitaire staat. De geschiedenis wordt letterlijk herschreven om het staatsapparaat te dienen. Big Brother is een gezichtsloze maar alwetende dreiging die altijd meekijkt en -luistert, zelfs in je eigen huis. Kortom: niemand ontkomt aan de tiranniek van de staat.
Winston Smith is, zoals vele anderen, een dienaar van de Staat, maar is tevens een heimelijke dissident. Hij probeert op allerlei manieren om de macht van Big Brother te breken, maar weet niet te ontkomen aan de nietsontziende klauwen van de overheid. Onder de sluier van democratie heeft de absolute macht zich genesteld in de hersenen van het volk. En niemand kan het tij meer keren.
Wat Orwell ons achter heeft gelaten kan niet onderschat worden: het is een ijzingwekkende waarschuwing tegen de macht van gewetenloze staten die het individu wegcijferen om het “belang van het volk” te kunnen waarborgen.
As literary science fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic novel of the social science fiction sub-genre, the terms and concepts of Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Memory hole et cetera, became contemporary vernacular, including the adjective Orwellian, denoting George Orwell’s writings and totalitarianism as exposited in Nineteen Eighty-Four. George Orwell has mastered the art of writing, and dystopian societies so much so that even now days there is a sense of science fiction and relevants to our society.
Overrated and the characters were so shallow I had no emotional attachment to them at all.
