Just finished reading this and am now in a paranoid orwellian state of mind. i'm in the process of analysing in my mind. needless to say i enjoyed it, very thought provoking.
what did you think of this book? is it merely a work of fiction? how closely does it resonate with real life?
3. "i know how, i said how closely, meaning to what extent does it..." In response to Reply # 2
for instance do you believe internet/tv is the modern day telescreen? that political correctness is modern day thoughtcrime?
i know the basics of it is valid and true but i want to know the extent of peoples belief in it. are we in a fully fledged orwellian state or is orwells book just a novel.
13. "I am going to go ahead and disagree with you." In response to Reply # 8
I think you are being a bit paranoid. 1984 type of world is totally possible and you definitely see it in different parts of the globe (N. Korea actually have all homes wired with speakers and the Great Leader talks to people through out the day) but we are not even close to having that going on in the US at the moment. From a historical context, there has never been a long term sustained society as "free" as the United States is today. I am not saying that we live in a perfect society. But I think you undermined the real ills in our society when you draw false exaggerated comparisions. (e.g., as soon as anyone starts comparing the president to Hitler, then folks tune you out because you are starting off with an exgaerated premise).
14. "RE: 1984 - George Orwell" In response to Reply # 0 Sat Sep-12-09 05:10 PM by Willong
Yeah its one of my favorites. A similar book written roughly around the same period by Aldous Huxley is defenitely recommended if you appreciated this one. It's called Brave New World. It presents the future as a dystopia based around conditioning and consumerism rather than the totalitarianism of Big Brother. It may even be closer to the actual outcome than 1984 is so far. Either way it is interesting comparing the two. Orwell was actually a student of Huxley when in college.
Huxley is the guy in the avatar; Im a bit of a fan.
17. "okay so I have a question..." In response to Reply # 0
Why did O'Brien give Winston a copy of Goldstein's book? Why didn't he just capture him beforehand? Why did he allow things to play out the way they did?
I realize the importance of incorporating the book to provide context to the reader. I just don't understand how it makes sense in context with the story.
If the answer is that he wanted to build a mountain of evidence against Winston before arresting him, then that's hypocritical of the entire last segment of the novel. The thought police don't have to have any evidence, they can do what they want. O'Brien could have simply told Winston that he read the book and it would have been true.
It's almost as if the book's presence in the novel is meaningless aside from providing the reader w/ historical context.
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