1984 - Part Three

[Dini, the master of meaning]

Haven't gotten that far myself, but for those of you who have finished the book (or have read it before) here's the place to talk about it. Discuss away!

[Deborah]

Ah ... now I remember why my opinion of this book is so iffy. The plot is rolling along, Winston and Julia are meeting in the "secret" room, Winston has "the book!" and ... Pages and pages of Winston reading "the book." Pages and pages of dry fictional political background that the reader, if they are familiar with real history at all, has already surmised. Snoooooore ... By the time the plot is back on track SPOILER



I'm ready to put Orwell's head in a rat trap!

[Angie]

After finishing the book I can say I wouldn't read it again. It is quite depressing and not a topic that really interests me. I have never really been interested in politics or into being paranoid about big brother but I can see how this book relates to our society today.

I kept coming up with questions in part 3... and it's funny because every time I thought of one Obrian would answer it! So I was wondering if they were going to just kill Winston then why torture him... and then BOOM that was answered. There were some others but I didn't take notes so I don't remember them now.

I was surprised by Winston betraying Julia so fast when he saw the rats. They didn't even but him and he was screaming to kill her instead. Though I guess that might be because he knew OBrian would do it, the man had proved he was willing to torture.

I skipped the whole appendix about newspeak. It reminds me of the Lord of the Rings appendix.. I just have no interest.

[Angie]

Deborah wrote: "Ah ... now I remember why my opinion of this book is so iffy. The plot is rolling along, Winston and Julia are meeting in the "secret" room, Winston has "the book!" and ... Pages and pages of Wins..."


You wrote spoiler but I think you forgot to write what the spoiler is?

[Angie]

Wondering what people think.. does the Brotherhood or Big Brother actually exist? What do you think the other 2 super powers were doing at this time... were they also living in this type of Utopia?

[Dini, the master of meaning]

Angie, I agree that this book is a tough one to chew. It's certainly not light reading and needs a certain mindset before you enter it. I also don't think I can read it twice.

I for one think the appendix about Newspeak was very interesting, having studied linguistics. I don't know what the Lord of the Rings appendix is like, but the Newspeak one was really interesting in how it describes limiting people's thoughts through language, because it's just that powerful.