Nineteen Eighty-Four! (possible spoilers)

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

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.