Nineteen Eighty-Four! (possible spoilers)

Heineken Helen · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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

Heineken Helen · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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

norm · June 2008

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

:D

urbanhippie · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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 · June 2008

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.

Nineteen Eighty-Four! (possible spoilers)

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