@SallyStrange More that I don't dislike Orwell/Blair enough to rate this book above the first.

@FinalOverdrive@kolektiva.social Oh I literally just meant that I'd rather have sex with Julia, it's been literally 30 years since I read 1984. No idea how I'd rate it today.

@SallyStrange I treat it as one of the great works one rates highly even if it isn't ones cup of tea. Before one accuses me of male chauvinism, Margaret Atwood (leave aside her recent clueless fan club) is in my view very much the equal of Orwell, Huxley, and Zamayatin.

@FinalOverdrive@kolektiva.social certainly, I mean, even though it's been decades, its unsettling nature still sticks with me. And in "Julia," you can hear the critique, but you can also see the love for it coming through.

@SallyStrange I only hope Winston isn't made out to be a monster. That is the authors perogative, but the very worst I'd call him is myopic in the way men, including Orwell/Blair, could be in the 1940s.

@SallyStrange In a limited sense, very limited sense: even neurotypical girls were like that for me as an autistic boy growing up. I will not deny, though i did not realize it then, as a boy I represented greater potential danger...and I suppose with all the usual social deficiencies and blindspots I probably came off crueler.

Nothing could change the fact that like their male counterpart, she had one over on me in terms of social ability. That she could manipulate me while I could not in turn. Not that I'd want to.

The only difference was that it was more often realized with the boys. But the danger happened often enough with the girls.