1984 By George Orwell

[emmie]

has anyone read this book and can give me the gist of what's its about - i have a friends copy and been meaning to read it, but other stuff has come in the way. I know its quite a serious book but any feedback would be most welcome.

[ToraToraTora]

yes John Hurt, Richard Burton, the room 101 scene is legendary.

[naomi24]

Another classic I would recommend, emmie, is 'To Kill a Mockingbird' - I bought the movie of that one too.

[emmie]

one of my favourite books and films Naomi, great story by Harper Lee and film with Gregory Peck.

[emmie]

i have both on my shelves.

[margarettom]

Quite agree naomi24. Both excellent. I’ve seen a really good stage version too.

[Spungle]

It's one of the more chillingly accurate prophecies of what elements of western society is already becoming. The most powerful 'controllers' on the Planet, ie Facebook, now are openly de-platforming anyone straying outside of the leftist 'woke' agenda. When this happened recently, one of the high-profile women who was banned, had the actual police remove her from Facebook's Silicon Valley HQ when she visited reception and demanded an answer. The media giants have so much power, its going to be a prettt insurmountable task to ever rein them back in. Kudos to the last administration in the US Senate who at least made an effort to hold these faceless entities to account.

[Spungle]

While we're recommending, 'Animal Farm' is a masterpiece in political satire.

[ToraToraTora]

well as far as twitface et al goes I "deplatformed" myself in advance!

[drmorgans]

I was in a stage adaptation of Animal Farm a couple of years ago and decided to re-read the novel. It is an excellent (and very transparent) satire of the Soviet Union under Stalin.

[Spungle]

Haha, yes, a wise move, I dont use either FB or Twattle myself either. But to reach an audience of thousands, there isnt much option but to use social media these days...

[Spungle]

/It is an excellent (and very transparent) satire of the Soviet Union under Stalin./ Or, to be pernickety, also from 1917-1929. Yes, it's probably one of the most simple yet brilliant political works of the last century.

[Canary42]

///, you'll recognise a lot of the things in the book are here in some form or another.///

I say, that's a bit anti-English, also a bit critical of the outcome of 11 years of Tory Rule. How out of character.

P.S. Boris's daily Covid bulletins put me in mind of 1984 Big Brother's daily invasion into people's homes.

P.P.S And his plethora of U-Turns aligns with the book's constant switching of "facts".

P.P.P.S Not to mention Patel's determination to clamp down on protests.

[jno]

there was an older film verson with Edmond O'Brien and Michael Redgrave.

As far as the title goes, he just reversed the last two digits of the year he wrote it, to suggest it was nearly happening already. And yet here we are, 73 years on, and still hasn't arrived - though England has come close to being Airstrip One at times when it's followed the USA into wars.

[naomi24]

I second the recommendation for Animal Farm. That too, I think, reflects many elements of today's dishonest and manipulative world.

[Untitled]

1984 is a "serious" book for sure... but it's not a difficult read. I expect you will finish it quickly.

'Brave New World' is a very good companion to it and the books are often compared... once you have finished one (or both) you should have a listen to this debate which compares them... complete with dramatic readings!


https://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/brave-new-world-vs-nineteen-eighty-four/

the vid is on youtube if that's your thing

[davebro]

All Orwell's books & his essays are worth reading & if you can find him John Petty. Same sort of era.

[bluemoon1]

I agree Brave New World is a very good companion and reflects a lot of what is happening in the world today. It is a really difficult read though, I'm sure Aldous Huxley had just bought a new thesaurus and decided to use every word he could find.

[Peter Pedant]

emmie - - control plus enlarges most prints
if your wonderful AB post has turned blue and gone bye-byes then control z will restore

and lots more ( keyboard shortcuts on google has around 100)

ellipsis - good

AH has missed out the parallel bits - 1984 was in 1948
The changes are in 1960
Television is prophetic
the ten mins hate for Goldstein is based on Trotsky and his demonising
Victory Gin and Victory stew are the substandard war time dishes which were available in British Restaurants - meal for 1/6 I think

the names of ministries were reversed - War office became Ministry of Peace - short MiniPax - this was the gt white monolith building outside the British Museum Univ London Building
( apparently Orwell saw it first time and thought - that will be MiniPax)
just as we have the Min of Defence

Europe had become a vassal of America and was named Oceania (kinda confusing for us kids as there was an Oceania in the Pacific and what was Lundy doing there for chrissakes)
England was airstrip one

English was purposefully impoverished ( o god think of AB speak jesus) and called newSpeak. It was designed to make thought crime impossible. good OK - bad- out replaced by ungood. Very bad - doubleplus ungood - [note to reader - my foo comments are in New Speak such as - - - "wot dat den?" to replace " please can you explain and amplify that which you have just posted?". TTT posts almost exclusively in newSpeak and we suffer for it]

The ministry of Truth where winston works rewrites the newpapers according to the then orthodoxy. This mirrors trotsky being writtenb out of ( literally ) the Soviet Encyclopedia

Orwell points to linguistic context but doesnt define it
Orwell ( honestly you should read it)

so that "Big Brother is double plus ungood " is an unthinkable as /this daffodil has just urinated on my cat/ - - - a forbidden thought such as 'Israel is the aggressor against a prison city like Gaza' - example example I was just saying an impossible contemporary thought, calm down

This was big in the sixties ( sapin whorf hypothesis ) and a lecturer challenged his class to translate the first page of 1984 into Shakespeare - and the class rose to the challenge - " The clouds were gathering over Christendom " Sapin whorf has had its day (*)

winston betrays Julia - tres triste - in room 101

and that is some sort of summary

[the fooing may begin - let me start you - who da foo da Trotsky when he's at home? Where Oceania den, Europe or New Zealand etc etc . Whorf - he ship or sumfing? ]
Long post - foo away boys and girls
read the book - honest - only 150 p do it in an evg

[Peter Pedant]

Sapin Whorf had a resurrection last year in FT - Gillian Tett's column. I had to put her straight. Whorf was a safety engineer ( a whaaaaaat?) and NOT a linguist and never wrote a linguistic paper. He is the one that noticed that Petrol dumps that had rest rooms - "take your boots off and relax boys" had more avoidable safety explostions than those that had notices - drink but dont let your guard down.....

amazing what you learn on AB innit?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Lee_Whorf

well foooo! I hear you all say

[woofgang]

emmie, if you are going to read it, why do you want spoilers?