Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
August 17, 2012 at 10:23 pm
(This post was last modified: August 17, 2012 at 10:23 pm by Reforged.)
When I was younger I had an obsessive lust for knowledge. This was quickly starved and buried by the second rate high school I went to.
Four to five years later I find it reawakened and so have taken to obsessively buying and reading various books. Recently I have been lead to George Orwell and two of his novels. Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
It is the latter I find to be particularly tragic yet gripping all the same.
The main character is Winston Smith living in London, part of Oceania ruled by a totalitarian body calling themselves "The Party" who use "Big Brother" as their supposed figured head. The book follows his journey as he comes to full awareness of how utterly trapped he is in a society where no thought is free and no action unwatched.
George Orwells genius shines through in this absorbing novel in which he creates frightening concepts such as "doublethink" and "newspeak".
Doublethink being a method of thought that will allow you to acknowledge a fact and then dismiss it just as quickly if that is what is stated by an authority figure to be the truth. The obvious result is unrealized, unrestrained hypocrisy and contradiction that basically allows The Party to dictate "the truth" as they see fit. It is a very potent form of brainwashing.
Newspeak is an entire language thats sole purpose it is to abbreviate and limit the English language. The theory being that this in turn will limit human thought. In the novel the language is constantly updated by The Party, presumably to make the English language even more limited.
The people are under a constant barrage as Oceania is at war with Eurasia and East Asia. Alternating between the two it ensures the people have an outlet to vent their anger towards and are panicked into a state of compliance.
Theres more and I cannot possibly reveal it without ruining the whole plot or taking up many more paragraphs but suffice to say it was an astounding work of fiction that takes on the political, the sociological, the sexual, the absurd and the tragic.
This is one novel that certainly deserves its place as a literary classic.
Thoughts? Also I'd like recommendations on my next read.
I've got Ulysses on standby but thats some seriously heavy reading which I'd like to leave till later when theres nothing else of interest.
Four to five years later I find it reawakened and so have taken to obsessively buying and reading various books. Recently I have been lead to George Orwell and two of his novels. Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
It is the latter I find to be particularly tragic yet gripping all the same.
The main character is Winston Smith living in London, part of Oceania ruled by a totalitarian body calling themselves "The Party" who use "Big Brother" as their supposed figured head. The book follows his journey as he comes to full awareness of how utterly trapped he is in a society where no thought is free and no action unwatched.
George Orwells genius shines through in this absorbing novel in which he creates frightening concepts such as "doublethink" and "newspeak".
Doublethink being a method of thought that will allow you to acknowledge a fact and then dismiss it just as quickly if that is what is stated by an authority figure to be the truth. The obvious result is unrealized, unrestrained hypocrisy and contradiction that basically allows The Party to dictate "the truth" as they see fit. It is a very potent form of brainwashing.
Newspeak is an entire language thats sole purpose it is to abbreviate and limit the English language. The theory being that this in turn will limit human thought. In the novel the language is constantly updated by The Party, presumably to make the English language even more limited.
The people are under a constant barrage as Oceania is at war with Eurasia and East Asia. Alternating between the two it ensures the people have an outlet to vent their anger towards and are panicked into a state of compliance.
Theres more and I cannot possibly reveal it without ruining the whole plot or taking up many more paragraphs but suffice to say it was an astounding work of fiction that takes on the political, the sociological, the sexual, the absurd and the tragic.
This is one novel that certainly deserves its place as a literary classic.
Thoughts? Also I'd like recommendations on my next read.
I've got Ulysses on standby but thats some seriously heavy reading which I'd like to leave till later when theres nothing else of interest.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die."
- Abdul Alhazred.
- Abdul Alhazred.
