Nineteen Eighty-Four! (possible spoilers)

Heineken Helen

he still stands wrote:

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."

yes, but is it a warning that you're never gonna be able to do anything about it?

Heineken Helen

catefrances wrote:

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

I don't know what my main emotion is yet... yes it made me angry but I felt a bit empty at the end... and betrayed... cos the way it ends is most likely the way it WOULD end :(

Heineken Helen

small town beck wrote:

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

That's a good quote indeed... and something I've often pondered.

El_Kabong

i thought the book We had a much worse ending...similar subject but w/ a little easier flow to it

Heineken Helen

El_Kabong wrote:

i thought the book We had a much worse ending...similar subject but w/ a little easier flow to it

who wrote that?

catefrances

Heineken Helen wrote:

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

now i know youve got a sense of humour.

El_Kabong

Heineken Helen wrote:

who wrote that?

Yevgeny Zamyatin

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Library-Classics-Yevgeny-Zamyatin/dp/081297462X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212572408&sr=8-1

Heineken Helen

catefrances wrote:

now i know youve got a sense of humour.

I've tried reading that piece of shite about 10 times... but I have NO concentration span at all and just zone out almost immediately

Heineken Helen

El_Kabong wrote:

Yevgeny Zamyatin

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Library-Classics-Yevgeny-Zamyatin/dp/081297462X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212572408&sr=8-1

Excellent... sounds great... I may have to look that one up

catefrances

Heineken Helen wrote:

I've tried reading that piece of shite about 10 times... but I have NO concentration span at all and just zone out almost immediately

i tried twice and figured there were better books to read.

Heineken Helen

catefrances wrote:

i tried twice and figured there were better books to read.

don't get me wrong... 10 times was a gross exaggeration

catefrances

Heineken Helen wrote:

don't get me wrong... 10 times was a gross exaggeration

aah the gift of the blarney.

Collin

Heineken Helen wrote:

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

There are a few very interesting passages in it, for instance, the security measures they took against him were incredible. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, though. It can be tedious at times, especially if you have no real interest in the Czech or Czechoslovakian history. It will give you a good idea of what life was like for dissidents in the communist regime. But you have to remember it was perfectly possible to live a normal life in those regimes if you registered as a communist. This book focuses solely on Václav Havel and a few dissidents who worked with him. Also, there was only a very small percentage of dissidents.

Maybe you'd like to read A Higher Kind Of Loyalty by Liu Binyan, a Chinese journalist and political dissident. He tells his own story, it is written very beautifully and it's very touching and haunting.

Heineken Helen

Collin wrote:

There are a few very interesting passages in it, for instance, the security measures they took against him were incredible. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, though. It can be tedious at times, especially if you have no real interest in the Czech or Czechoslovakian history. It will give you a good idea of what life was like for dissidents in the communist regime. But you have to remember it was perfectly possible to live a normal life in those regimes if you registered as a communist. This book focuses solely on Václav Havel and a few dissidents who worked with him. Also, there was only a very small percentage of dissidents.

Maybe you'd like to read A Higher Kind Of Loyalty by Liu Binyan, a Chinese journalist and political dissident. He tells his own story, it is written very beautifully and it's very touching and haunting.

Thank you always good to get recommendations. I'll keep that one in mind. I'm reading this one at the mo:

http://www.amazon.com/Superclass-Global-Power-Elite-Making/dp/0374272107/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212572693&sr=1-1

Seems interesting so far... only started it this morning though.