1984 in Q&A with Matthew Williams

Apr 03, 2011 Matthew Williams rated it it was amazing

One of the most insightful, frightening and influential books I've ever read. It's rare that you can say that a book changed your life, the way you think, or the way you look at the world. But this is definitely one of those books! In it, Orwell offered not only a series of stern warnings about the future and current state of humanity, he also provided current and subsequent generations with an inside look at the kinds thinking, strategies and vocabulary that go into depriving human beings of th One of the most insightful, frightening and influential books I've ever read. It's rare that you can say that a book changed your life, the way you think, or the way you look at the world. But this is definitely one of those books! In it, Orwell offered not only a series of stern warnings about the future and current state of humanity, he also provided current and subsequent generations with an inside look at the kinds thinking, strategies and vocabulary that go into depriving human beings of their most basic freedoms. He even went so far as to answer the age old question of why: why do totalitarians do what they do? The answer, inevitably: "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power." Scary stuff!

One of the most powerful and enduring parts of the book for me was the Goldstein Manifesto. In truth, Eric Arthur Blair (aka. Orwell) wrote this part before writing the rest of the story. As such, it contains Blair's most essential thoughts on history, technological and social change, revolution, and the very basis of dictatorships. According to Blair, the worst totalitarian philosophies (i.e. Nazism, Stalinism, etc.) emerged not as a result of modernity, but in response to it.

As he states so eloquently: "From the moment when the machine first made its appearance it was clear to all thinking people that the need for human drudgery, and therefore to a great extent human inequality, had disappeared. If the machine were used deliberately for that end, hunger, over-work, dirt, illiteracy and disease could be eliminated within a few generations."

"But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction – indeed, in some sense was the destruction – of a hierarchical society. In a world in which everyone worked short hours, had enough to eat, lived in a house with a bathroom and a refrigerator, and possessed a motor-car or even an aeroplane, the most obvious and perhaps the most important form of inequality would already have disappeared. If it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction."

"In earlier ages, class distinctions has not only been inevitable but desirable. Inequality was the price of civilization. With the development of machine production, however, the case was altered. Even if it was still necessary for human beings to do different kinds of work, it was no longer necessary for them to live at different social or economic levels. Therefore, from the point of view of the new groups who were on the point of seizing power, human equality was no longer an ideal to be striven after, but a danger to be averted.”

"In more primitive ages, when a just and peaceful society was in fact not possible, it had been fairly easy to believe it... But by the fourth decade of the twentieth century all the main currents of political thought were authoritarian. The earthly paradise had been discredited at exactly the moment when it became realizable." ...more

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Oct 22, 2008 J.M. Cornwell rated it it was amazing

1984 is one of those books I thought I'd read in school, but hadn't actually read. I did see the movie with John Hurt as Winston Smith and most of the language of 1984 has passed into common use, like Big Brother, thought police, thought crimes, etc. George Orwell's take on the future is powerful and clairvoyant -- and we are living a version of his constricted, hate-filled world today.

Winston Smith, Orwell's protagonist, begins the book by hiding out of sight of the telescreen and writing in a

1984 is one of those books I thought I'd read in school, but hadn't actually read. I did see the movie with John Hurt as Winston Smith and most of the language of 1984 has passed into common use, like Big Brother, thought police, thought crimes, etc. George Orwell's take on the future is powerful and clairvoyant -- and we are living a version of his constricted, hate-filled world today.

Winston Smith, Orwell's protagonist, begins the book by hiding out of sight of the telescreen and writing in a diary with pen and ink purchased at different shops so as to be more difficult to track. He is writing his thoughts about Oceania and Big Brother and the world he lives in, the gray, unemotional, fear-filled world that surrounds him but does not include him. He is writing for O'Brien, a man in the inner circle of the Party, someone Winston believes is also rebelling against the status quo. As Winston continues his small rebellions, Orwell illustrates how Winston is less free than he thinks he is. Winston is merely an inconsequential cog in the wheel of The Party.

Orwell paints a world where Oceania is always at war and thus always asking more of its citizens by giving them less and expecting them to accept less with equanimity because it's for Oceania, the Party, and for Big Brother. Outwardly, everyone lives the same way with oily gin, gray coveralls, and cramped quarters always in vies of the telescreens where even in the parks and countryside there are microphones to capture even the whispered confidences between lovers and co-conspirators. Children turn their parents in for what they say in their sleep that proves there is rebellion in their minds. Life is a gray, empty round of hate and fear and hopelessness, even among the proles who are not subject to the dictates of the Party because they are not allowed to be party members. The proles are serfs, slaves and belong to Big Brother as surely as do the party members.

Orwell creates Winston Smith's world with simple, straightforward language, evoking a cold world full of people looking over their shoulders and clutching their small rebellions in secret. Paranoia and disgust oozes from the pages and stays with the reader long after the book is closed. Even the passages of the Book that explains the workings of The party and how Oceania, though a bit pedantic, ring with truth.

While our world, this modern world, seems less gray and freer, Orwell got it right. His newspeak is our politically correct and his Big Brother is our out of control Congress and President. We don't have thought police per se, but we have a media controlled by the government that spouts the party line and an entire country of people watching and listening to pounce on the slightest misspoken word they gladly throw back in our faces for public condemnation of the miscreant. Although what we see isn't exactly like Orwell's vision, it's close enough to be frightening, knowing that wars are made and lines redrawn to give us somewhere to focus our hate when the real damage is done by the government that is supposed to support and protect us.

George Orwell's 1984 is here and reading about it is frighteningly real.

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