1984 (Signet Classics) by George Orwell
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Book Reviews of 1984 (Signet Classics)
Book Review: Orwell's last, grimmest, funniest book
Summary: 5 Stars
I think I first read "1984" when I was about 10, twenty-odd years ago. I still have my old copy of it, a now highly tatty and heavily-taped-up Penguin edition. I remember wondering if it would come true in four years time and being a bit worried about it.The thing about "1984" is that it's such a weird bouillabaisse of critical analysis, dystopian fantasy and Orwell's own personal obsessions. All of these things bounce off each other in the most tangled and confusing ways. There's no doubt that many of the features of the book, such as the Two Minutes Hate, have proved to be chillingly funny prophecies, when you compare them to contemporary media phenomena such as the preposterous reversal of Saddam Hussein's public image in the West when he made the big mistake of invading a friendly country (from stern Friend of Democracy to swarthy Satan in a matter of weeks, thanks to a lot of hard work by the American press). Newspeak, also, has a certain currency, when we think of such phrases as "friendly fire" and "precision bombing".
But it has to be said that, if you're looking for a clear and rational book about What, as Marvin Gaye would have said, is Goin' On, then you have to conclude that Orwell's genius for fantasy overrode his intelligence. This book is suffused with Orwell's own personal attitudes to a degree not often recognised. The utter inability of Winston Smith to find any real hope in the proles has been belied by the persistence into the 21st century of popular dissent. I'm talking about things like the WTO riots and the use made of the internet (a technology developed chiefly by the Pentagon, remember) as a tool for political critique and activist organisation. I'm even talking about the Romanian revolution, in which one of the most downtrodden peoples in Europe rose up and deposed - by which I mean, arrested and shot - one of the worst dictators of the century.
Orwell's fatalistic sense of the _totality_ of evil is what's bad about the book, if you're looking for clear answers and good thoughts, but on the other hand, if you read the book not as a dire warning but as a satire, it's what's _good_ about it. The pompous lectures of O'Brien read more like the ramblings of a Sade character than as an authentic account of what it is to want power at the turn of these centuries. The evidence is that most of the really powerful and dangerous people in the world are not like O'Brien, in that they aren't in it for the dubious pleasure of "stamping on the human face forever". They're in it for money, sex and the thrill of feeling important. This makes them vulnerable. This means they can be stopped.
The other thing that we tend to notice about "1984" is the pervasive nostalgia of the book. Orwell was not just born in to the middle-class; one some pretty deep level, and despite his truly heroic efforts to change, he was marked by its values and attitudes to the end of his life, and while this gave him great strength, it also narrowed and sharpened his imagination. The points of value in this book are the old notebook, the half-forgotten nursery rhymes, the piece of coral in the ancient paperweight. Nothing new is good. Things fall apart as soon as bought (the Victory cigarette).
This narrowness of imagination can seem to spoil the book, but _only_ as long as we expect it to be some sort of honest effort to imagine life in the future. I sometimes wonder if Orwell meant people to take "1984" as seriously as they do. I think it's a brilliant, very blackly comic fantasy, something Swift might have written if he'd lived to see the concentration camps (and don't forget that Orwell wrote eloquently and wittily about Swift; check out the essays and war broadcasts).
I'm still glad I read it 20 years ago, and I still read it today. As a book about the importance of a life without dirt, bad cigarettes, horrible food and awful TV, it can't be beat. As a ground plan for Media Studies, it's superb. As a prophecy? Hmmm. No. It's a satire. Take it as gospel and you'll be crushed under its wheels; take it as a dark joke, and you can gain strength from it.
Book Review: A more terrifying book has never been written
Summary: 5 Stars
"1984" is a book which perhaps needs no introduction. It is a dreadful, dreary tome which evokes the very nature of despair in the attentive reader who is also aware of how close civilization teeters near Orwell's fictional precipice. In a very real sense, George Orwell futuristic view of a world dominated by three superpowers perpetually at war is actually a treatise on the destruction of an individual's soul.
Winston Smith is a lonely man employed by the nation of Oceania's Ministry of Truth. His job is largely the correction of documents which were written incorrectly; i.e., have information pertinent to the doings of a person who does not exist--or rather, a person who does not exist anymore and who the government wishes to phase out of existence altogether, past, present, and future. The what of this job is making someone an unperson, a concept which is both noun and verb.
Citizens are always watched and closely monitored by Big Brother, an omnipresent, omniscient representation of the Party leader. Even dissenting thoughts, thoughtcrime, are punishable offenses. Winston Smith is cursed with an above-average intellect and ability to remember things...such as, in direct opposition to Party rhetoric, Oceania has NOT in fact always been at war with Eurasia (one of the other three superpowers). This, slowly, eats into his psyche until he commits two grand offenses contradictory to Party dogma: he falls in love and rales against Big Brother's dictates in his own mind. These two acts of resistance set the stage for the book's climax where Winston's status of plebian worker bee versus enlightened man will be ultimately decided.
This book, in the vein of "Darkness at Noon", not only explores the idea of life under a totalitarian government, but also how persons of power, through threat, force, intimidation, logic, or seduction are able to literally change one's thinking. Manipulation of thought, as suggested by these two books, is simple for a dedicated, organized, and powerful entity to accomplish, as all human's beliefs are essentially as malleable as gold, though less valuable. This idea is the real heart of "1984", while the futuristic environment, Newspeak, and illustrations of single Party influence are only interesting backdrops. Manipulation of an individual's thought, even as these new beliefs contradict old beliefs or even known reality, constitutes the destruction of the individual's soul.
*spoiler*
The 20-30 page interrogation of Winston Smith in the final portion of the book shows, through vivid dialogue and Smith's own internal monologue, our protagonist's gradual acceptance of Big Brother's truth as his own. In Soviet Russia, before a dissenter's execution, it was important to the Party that one publically announce all one's "crimes." In George Orwell's "1984", Big Brother wants much more...he wants you to believe what you are saying as you publically renounce yourself and admit your crimes. The interrogation and oft-borrowed "Room #101" scenes are some of the finest writing in modern literature.
*end spoiler*
"1984" is a must-read for everyone on Earth. Once we realize how truly easy it is for organized groups or charismatic individuals to get us to believe virtually anything they want us to believe, we will finally become more careful about what we "know" as "fact".
As an aside: this book is often placed in the same category as Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." I am extremely familiar with both books and personally believe that grouping them together is similar to saying that "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and "The Island" should be grouped together simply because they both have the word "island" within their title. "Brave New World", while not valueless, is a markedly inferior book to "1984", almost juvenille in it's depictions of social isolation of the quasi-protagonistic "Outsider" and in the protrayal of future life in the ethically-challenged, biologically-dictated caste structure of Huxley's future vision. Spare a moment to read "Brave New World", but group it not into Winston Smith's dire future world.
Book Review: Absolutely perfect.
Summary: 5 Stars
To those 37 people who rated this book with a One star, and to those 22 people who rated this book with two stars:
Im the kindest and simplist words I can muster up, I am dreadfully sorry you did not approve of the book. Truely I am sorry.
Orwellian's 1984 is simply a masterpiece that, while being frequently challanged for its content and it's ungraphic, unerotic sex scene, everyone should read. It tells of the protagonist, Winston, within his daily life in Oceania (the future London, England).
Winston, is not unlike most people living in Oceania, he has a large television screen in his room which constantly spouts information spoon fed (and presumably processed) by the Ministry of Truth, which not only presents information, but creates the future, and changes the past to fit the glorification of their leader: Big Brother. The enormous screen is two-way, as much as you can see the man and/or woman in the broadcasting room, they can see Winston (or any other man or woman) in his daily life.
Winston, is not unlike most Oceanians. He speaks English. But not the English of Shakespeare or Woolf, or of today's standards. His form of English has been chopped down to remove all possible loopholes, or Doublespeak. For instance, one may think of something as good, or ungood. Fast, or unfast. Big, or Unbig.
Never: bad, slow, or small.
Winston is not unlike most Oceanians, he has a job at the Ministry of Truth, (or Minitruth, just to remove loopholes once again), where he rewrites history. He receives information, such as the leader of England... I mean Oceania... being Winston Churchill... I mean Big Brother... and his sole succesful victory over the leader of the other two country-states.
However, (to speed things up a bit) Winston falls in love. Love, is a forbidden thing in Oceania; people mate solely for bringing in more children. (These children are then whisked away for a sort of Secret Police/Gestapo-eske training so Big Brother can have another pair of eyes within each household. Oceania's next big attempt: to make the sexual impulse regulated)
Winston and his lover soon meet for their sexual escepades away from the cameras, that are everywhere, and soon contact a small antique-shop owner who lives in the slums of Oceania for a room.
The two rent the room, and unfortunately, the falling action of the story takes place there, where Winston and his lover are captured by the Thoughtpolice (The grown-up Gestapo) and are sent for brainwashing.
To those who say the future would never become like this...In a local newspaper, the sewage pipeline owners were tossing around an idea of placing cameras in the septic pipes to see who, "Was pouring grease down their toilets."
Another Orwellian Innovation, while seemingly less "potent" is that of the Red Light Cameras. You do the logic.
Big Brother is also invading Wal*Mart with his RF-ID chips that are used to "Track Inventory."
What happens if the Cashier coincidently "forgets" to take the chip off?
Legislature has been considered that mandates a national ID card which can track where any citizen of the U.S. is at any time.
Two other words: Patriot Act.
However, I must say two, final things: First, I may sound like a shrill pessimist, however with the right mind, orchestrating the right, belligerant, and malignant agenda, a national catostrophy can fuel Orwellian invasions of privacy simply and unconditionally (see the reason above this paragraph.)
And lastly, I take another reviewer, Mr. WiseToolz in which he reviews,
"This book just didn't grab my attention. I simply couldn't "connect" with the characters (Winston, Julia, Syme, O'Brien and Big Brother). To me, they were all just a bunch of names and not "real" people. "
Take away enough freedoms and instill enough mundanity, and people become, "just a bunch of names...".
In closing, the book is an excellent piece of work that should be read with an open mind.
Book Review: Startling View of a Future World
Summary: 5 Stars
"1984" has made an impressive impact on literature, as well as society in general. It is a classic of the dystopian (or "Negative Utopia") genre. Though it was written in 1949, and the real year 1984 has already passed, the totalitarian society of the future George Orwell describes is remarkably believable and seems more possible than ever.
The world of "1984" is much different than our present world; the territories are now divided into Oceania (which includes Great Britain and the Americas), Eurasia (includes the Soviet Union), and Eastasia (includes China, Japan, and Korea). These three powers are engaged in perpetual war, in which alliances are constantly formed and split. The governments of each of the three "superstates" has an enormous amount of control over the citizens and media. "Big Brother", ruler of Oceania, is seen as an omnipotent, infallible leader. The departments of Oceanian government are the Ministry of Peace (concerned with war), the Ministry of Plenty (concerned with rations of food and other goods), the Ministry of Love (concerned with the arrest and torture of those opposing the government), and the Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Truth is perhaps the most influential of the four, as it is concerned with spreading propaganda of the Party (the only political group allowed in Oceania). The government places "telescreens" in most of the citizens' homes and various public places, which are generally unable to be turned off. These telescreens continuously provide information about government affairs. They can also be used as monitors for the government to observe what citizens are doing inside of their homes at any given time.
The book centers around the protagonist, Winston Smith, a citizen of London, in Oceania. He is employed in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where he alters recent and historical articles and documents to coincide with what the Party desires to be represented as absolute fact. He finds his work challenging and interesting, but starts to increasingly wonder about the real facts that are hidden in the past and deeply questions "Ingsoc" (the form of English Socialism in Oceania's government). Winston begins keeping a journal of his thoughts about life and government, sitting at a place in his house away from his telescreen so he can't be watched. This is just one small part of a chain of events that leads him to become increasingly evasive and defiant of the Party, trying to keep out of the government's watch.
Winston becomes romantically involved with a girl named Julia, who also detests the government's restrictions and lies. Winston and Julia try to sneak away to places free from government surveillance as often as they can, so they can be together. Winston hears rumors of a "Brotherhood", a group secretly working to disobey, and perhaps eventually overthrow, the Party. He constantly searches for evidence that such a group really does exist and that there may be hope for a revolution after all.
Orwell takes important details into consideration to make this society seem real, particularly "Newspeak". Newspeak is regarded as Oceania's official language, and is "the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year". The goal of Newspeak's usage is to narrow the range of thought and individuality. Synonyms and antonyms are constantly being obliterated and many meanings can be summed up with greater rapidity than in "Oldspeak" (standard English) through abbreviations. Though Oldspeak is still used throughout the course of the novel, Newspeak phrases often appear in government publications and occasionally in dialogue. One of the common expressions, "doublethink", occurs when citizens accept the government's new and false facts as truth, in the place of previously established and real facts. The fear and oppression within such a society, where words are twisted in the government's favor and freedom of expression is destroyed, is conveyed with incredible believability in Orwell's work.
Book Review: 1984 a must read
Summary: 5 Stars
George Orwell's book 1984, published in 1949, was an excellent book. I thought it was amazing that he used such imagination to come up with all aspects of this book. The fact that he wrote this book in the 40's and projected what life might be like in 1984 was very interesting. It makes you think. We think of 1984 as a punk era that is well in our past, Orwell thought of 1984 as the future, the far off future. Just as we thought that the year 2000 was going to be filled with flying cars and people living on the moon and mars, he thought of 1984 in a very different way than it turned out. Or did he. He didn't have any way to perceive all of the technological advances we would make, but he did make some very good guesses. He talks about a machine that is in every room and on every street corner. This machine is called a "Telescreen." This machine watches and listens to every word and every movement you make. The local government watches this and will arrest you if you are caught going against the government. Saying anything bad will get you in jail. In the year 1984, according to Orwell, the world has been split up into three superstates Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania. Oceania is were Winston Smith (the main character) lives. All of these superstates are run the same. They have a very strong central government that controls everything. These three states are constantly at war with each other and they have all created their own languages. The government in Oceania is called "Big Brother." This is where the phrase "Big brother is watching you" came from. In these states no one is free and everyone is an enemy. People are raised on false beliefs that the government has told them. The goverment would even take it to the extreme and collect all the newspapers and rewrite them and burn the old ones if the papers stated beleifs that the goverment doesn't have anymore. That is what Winston Smith did. He was a a rewriter of documents. The government of Oceania was one based totally upon mind manipulation. They used a term that they called "Doublethink" this was the power of holding two contradictory ideas in someones head and having them fully accept both. Big Brother raised all the people to be loyal to their government and be the government's slaves. The people saw this as being the way of things so they went along with it, having every second of their lives planned out and watched. Even people's children were more loyal to the government than their parents. Their was a scene in the book were a kid turned his parents in for speaking slander against the government. Even the language was cleansed and regulated. The government created a language called "Newspeak." "Newspeak" contained only words that were cleansed in thought. For example the word bad would be translated to "ungood." All in all, this book talks about the government and all the ways it is composed. But it does have a story line as well. The storyline is about Winston and this girl he meets named Julia. They both have the same strong feelings against the government and they often meet in very crowded places where it would be hard for them to be caught talking. They finally decide to join an underground group against the government. They meet with this guy O'Brien who claims to be in charge. The story starts to unfold after that meeting. This was very good book. It was very deep and intense. I loved hearing all about the Totalitarian ideas the government practiced. Plus it was cool to hear what a man in the 40's perceived 1984 to be like. In a way he was right, we are constantly monitored by satellites and surveillance camera's. GPS systems and even cell phones. "Big Brother" does exist just in a different way than Orwell perceived him. But we also do have our freedom to think and speak. These are two things that the citizens of Orwell's 1984 did not have. But keep this in mind "Big Brother" could be watching you right now.