Nineteen Eighty-Four! (possible spoilers)

Heineken Helen

I've JUST finished reading this fucking hell! I think it has one of the most chilling endings to a book ever.

I don't know what emotion I'm taking from it but too much of the book seems eerily familiar! Is it supposed to be a warning of what could happen or of the fact that you can't fight it?

Rygar

The book is almost sixty years old, what possible spoilers could there be?

Heineken Helen

Rygar wrote:

The book is almost sixty years old, what possible spoilers could there be?

I'd never read it and didn't know much about it... so if anyone's gonna discuss how it ends, for those who haven't read it, that would be a spoiler

Take it you've read it then?

Rygar

Heineken Helen wrote:

I'd never read it and didn't know much about it... so if anyone's gonna discuss how it ends, for those who haven't read it, that would be a spoiler

Take it you've read it then?

Nope! I may have seen the movie, though.

Pauk

I like it, but it's been 4 or 5 years since I read it so bit hazy on the details. Will have to read it again sometime soon.

Heineken Helen

Rygar wrote:

Nope! I may have seen the movie, though.

Didn't even know there was one, lol. Obviously I'd heard about big brother and room 101 but didn't know exactly what it was all about.

Heineken Helen

fowls wrote:

I like it, but it's been 4 or 5 years since I read it so bit hazy on the details. Will have to read it again sometime soon.

I can't believe I've never read it before! Although I have to say the ending leaves me a bit cold and very sad... I like books that offer some kinda hope although it probably wouldn't be a classic then

Rygar

Heineken Helen wrote:

Didn't even know there was one, lol. Obviously I'd heard about big brother and room 101 but didn't know exactly what it was all about.

I may have read part or most of the book, but it's been a long enough time to not particularly remember. I have the gist of it.
The movie, at least the one I'm thinking of, was done with animals.

Heineken Helen

Rygar wrote:

I may have read part or most of the book, but it's been a long enough time to not particularly remember. I have the gist of it.
The movie, at least the one I'm thinking of, was done with animals.

Is that not animal farm?

You should try reading the book again... I think it may be one of the best I've ever read.

chime

Rygar wrote:

I may have read part or most of the book, but it's been a long enough time to not particularly remember. I have the gist of it.
The movie, at least the one I'm thinking of, was done with animals.

Are you thinking of the book Animal Farm? "Two Legs Good, Four Legs Bad"

EDIT: Hells beat me to it

Been a while since I read Nineteen Eighty Four ... I liked it but am not a conspiracy theorist at all so just took it as a book *shrugs* ... obvious political commentary involved and needing checks and balances on those in power ... but to me definately fiction rather than a prophecy.

Rygar

Chime wrote:

Are you thinking of the book Animal Farm? "Two Legs Good, Four Legs Bad"

EDIT: Hells beat me to it

bahaha, yes and no. Right book, wrong movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_%281984_film%29
Shows you how much I remember

Heineken Helen

Chime wrote:

Been a while since I read Nineteen Eighty Four ... I liked it but am not a conspiracy theorist at all so just took it as a book *shrugs* ... obvious political commentary involved and needing checks and balances on those in power ... but to me definately fiction rather than a prophecy.

Oh obviously it's definitely fiction... I'm not THAT much of a conspiracy theorist BUT I do believe quite a bit of it could happen in the future or is already happening... the 'truth' is already being manipulated by the media in some cases... there are laws coming into effect all over the world that allows governments monitor phonecalls, text messages, emails, what you watch on tv, what you get in the library, what you buy, where you travel to, etc etc. I don't see it as a prophecy either but some of what he explained... especially in 'goldsteins book' was a little too close to how things actually are.

jackrabbit slim

Aw man, i thought this was going to be about the van halen record. Might as well jump!

norm

spoilers?!?!!? :eek: yeah maybe if you had talked to me 25 years ago :D

urbanhippie

I LOVE this book.... I re-read it about once a year or so. Whenever life looks bad, it reminds me of how much worse things could be.

Heineken Helen

urbanhippie wrote:

I LOVE this book.... I re-read it about once a year or so. Whenever life looks bad, it reminds me of how much worse things could be.

It's one I will definitely read a few times... I think there's plenty to learn from it. It's so sad how they break him though and how some of it comes together at the end :( I was hoping O'Brien really would turn out to be good... seems Julia was the only one he could trust, I didn't know if it would come out that she'd betrayed him all along too. I really think on the basis of this book alone (since I've not read any of his others) George Orwell was a bloody genius

Heineken Helen

cutback, I know of at least one other boardie who's planning on reading it soon and doesn't know much about the plot or outcome.

ryan198

What about that book is not prophetic? Do we not have things like the "Clean Air Bill" which allows for more toxic waste dumping, and the "Patriot Act" which actually takes away people's civil liberties? Are we not in a "War with Iraq" to find WMDs but actually had nothing to do with it? Unfortunately I think Orwell gave our government the blueprint for fucking us over.

norm

Heineken Helen wrote:

cutback, I know of at least one other boardie who's planning on reading it soon and doesn't know much about the plot or outcome.

interesting.....it was required reading in junior high school for me

smithnic

ryan198 wrote:

What about that book is not prophetic? Do we not have things like the "Clean Air Bill" which allows for more toxic waste dumping, and the "Patriot Act" which actually takes away people's civil liberties? Are we not in a "War with Iraq" to find WMDs but actually had nothing to do with it? Unfortunately I think Orwell gave our government the blueprint for fucking us over.

Governments have been creating enemies for people to rally around from the beginning of time. You create an enemy to rally against, and thus you unite and forget about the problems at home. Which is why scary guys in the desert scare us into letting a special-ed cowboy do whatever he and his penguin VP want.

Collin

I loved it! It's been a while since I read it, though. Wonderful book and I loved the ending. I'm surprised you've only just read it, Helen. I figured you for the type of person who reads it every year and buys copies for other people and says; see! see! it's happening!

Anyway, I recently read Václav Havel's authorized biography, and as you all undoubtedly know he was a playwrite of "the theatre of the absurd", a writer, philosopher under the communist and socialist regime in the Czech republic. A lot of writers were banned and were not allowed to publish their works. One night he went to a bar with a friend and started talking to a man, when he introduced himself the man said he knew his name because he had spent the last year editing him out of Czech anthologies of literature, and other cultural reference works.

gobrowns19

The end of last school year, my freshman year of college, we had to pick a topic relating to 1984 and today, and my group did censorship. Basically we came to the conclusion that it is eerily similar, and our main point of focus was controlling our thoughts. Many today think twice just about THINKING of things.

Also, Brother with lyrics always reminds me of this book. I know, not groundbreaking or anything, lol, but the slow part "In my miiiiind, there's a clearing.....the birds they don't need to whisper' always reminds me of that clearing where Julia always was.

Also, in high school a friend and I had to do a project on Animal Farm, so we recreated the movie through my brothers toy farm and toy animals, and added some cool music, many PJ songs too. Thumbing My Way when Old Major died, Do the Evolution when the animals first revolt, and Down when they were admiring their work on the windmill.

Collin

gobrowns19 wrote:

Also, in high school a friend and I had to do a project on Animal Farm, so we recreated the movie through my brothers toy farm and toy animals, and added some cool music, many PJ songs too. Thumbing My Way when Old Major died, Do the Evolution when the animals first revolt, and Down when they were admiring their work on the windmill.

Awesome!

he still stands

Orwell intended this book to be his vision of the future, and he is extremely accurate in many regards.

It's supposed to be a warning. A reminder to always question authority. And a reminder that being a dissenter is much more romantic than being a conformist.

Aldous Huxley was the other great "dystopian" (anti-utopia) writer, especially "Brave New World."

gleemonex

1984 is most certainly a prophecy of where he saw the world going after WWII. Stalinist totalitarianism was a great fear of his and 1984 really builds on some of the totalitarian themes of Animal Farm. One of the biggest changes, though, is that 1984 reminds us that the masses have the power to keep a government in check. We may never see a government as bad as the one in 1984, but we can still change aspects of the government that don't benefit the population. Hope will always lie with the "proles". Unfortunately, I'd say that more people in the U.S. need to read and learn this book and its messages because they have spent the last 8 years being controlled by their government rather than controlling it.

Other novels I'd recommend by Orwell are Animal Farm, obviously; Homage to Catalonia (regarding the Spanish Civil War, in which Orwell fought); and Burmese Days (regarding Orwell's time as a police officer in Burma and his hatred of imperialism). Also, anyone who is interested should take a look at this essay he wrote, titled Why I Write. It's not a long read and it is very helpful in understanding George Orwell. http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw

I wrote an 18 page paper on George Orwell earlier this year for school. It took months and I read a ton of his novels and essays and lots of biographies on him. That essay gave me such admiration for him and his work. It's pretty amazing, the impact his writing has had on society. He is truly one of the greatest writers of all time.

ryan198

for those of you reading 1984, and Animal Farm, you might want to pick up "The Jungle" as well. It's kind of funny that book reminds me of how the NFL works these days. Young men fondled, measured, and prodded then drafted in a league with little of their salary guaranteed...then when they break down they are given little to no compensation, they are usually undereducated, and have broken bodies that are of little use to the outside world.

catefrances

good to hear youve discovered this book helen. the main emotion i came away from it with was anger. newspeak? what the fuck is that? you cant just take words away cause you dont like them. as a writer this horrified me.


who controls the past now controls the future
who controls the present now controls the past

small town beck

I read this book last year for the first time and I quite enjoyed it. Animal Farm was required reading in school but 1984 wasn't, I really think it should be. I love a quote from the book although I am probably fucking it up "Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one "... actually I double checked and that is it.

A lot of it did ring true though for modern times from where I see it but I remain hopeful

Heineken Helen

cutback wrote:

interesting.....it was required reading in junior high school for me

Oh I'm sure we were too busy reading Ulysses at the time or something

Heineken Helen

smithnic wrote:

Governments have been creating enemies for people to rally around from the beginning of time. You create an enemy to rally against, and thus you unite and forget about the problems at home. Which is why scary guys in the desert scare us into letting a special-ed cowboy do whatever he and his penguin VP want.

I think it definitely rings true when he says we're always at war... yet there are no big battles like there used to be. The threat of war must always be there.

Heineken Helen

Collin wrote:

I loved it! It's been a while since I read it, though. Wonderful book and I loved the ending. I'm surprised you've only just read it, Helen. I figured you for the type of person who reads it every year and buys copies for other people and says; see! see! it's happening!

Anyway, I recently read Václav Havel's authorized biography, and as you all undoubtedly know he was a playwrite of "the theatre of the absurd", a writer, philosopher under the communist and socialist regime in the Czech republic. A lot of writers were banned and were not allowed to publish their works. One night he went to a bar with a friend and started talking to a man, when he introduced himself the man said he knew his name because he had spent the last year editing him out of Czech anthologies of literature, and other cultural reference works.

Wow Collin... are ya serious? Is it a good read?

Hahaha... Yeh, I can't believe I've never read it before either... but... guess what everyone's getting for christmas this year