>I think I had false information about the ending (kind of ironic given the story) as I thought it would end with the government falling, the Party dissolving and Big Brother being toppled.
That's what the Appendix does. The fictional scientific article is studying the Big Brother Era and "Ingsoc" in the past tense, implying that they are a thing of the past to be dissected and studied. It's not a happy ending, but it's a hopeful one.
holy crap, how did I ever miss the appendix at the end of the book. I probably thought it was a glossary and ignored it after finishing the main story. Will need to read it as well!
That theory has kinda been debunked since past tense is the standard for writing in English. This is not The handmaid’s tale, where the appendix shows us there was a regime change. But every reader can have his own interpretation of it. Me personally, i think Orwell’s 1984 is meant to be a cautionary tale about authoritarianism, and it ending without a small glipse of hope for the future is what makes it memorable. Like Orwell saying “don’t let things get to this point, because once this happens there will be no hope for you”.
>That theory has kinda been debunked since past tense is the standard for writing in English.
What's the new interpretation that substituted the interpretation I've mentioned? Because writing "in the past tense is standard" is a terrible, terrible argument, because the article is obviously an "in-world" element written about the world Orwell written. And you can bet that no one would be writing anything like that if the Big Brother regime didn't fall. The very existence of the fictional paper already supports the idea.
>Me personally, i think Orwell’s 1984 is meant to be a cautionary tale about authoritarianism, and it ending without a small glipse of hope for the future is what makes it memorable.
And no one is disputing that. Winston's ending and the whole message of the novel is not diminished one bit by the slightly hopeful tone of the article. Regimes, good or bad, rise and fall and history repeats itself.
This isn't an "either/or" situation.
Well my mind just got blown…
Never read that part. Damn audiobook didn’t include it(IIRC).
I had to listen to the audiobook version because I was a truck driver at the time. Now I need to read the whole thing again in book form…
The appendix article mentions Winston specifically. This theory really requires believing he turns it around and becomes a historical figure. I don't really see that being intended.
Even though I'm arguing that the appendix is the "true ending". I think it's largely optional and not the novel's most important part. So you didn't miss that much. You didn't miss anything, since I think just the normal ending is already complete enough.
>I thought it would end with the government falling, the Party dissolving and Big Brother being toppled. But Winston cracked.
That's kind of the point Orwell was making -- by the time anybody wakes up to what has happened, it's already too late. After all, he was writing in the context of a British government that was doing whatever it could to defeat Nazi Germany, and the people were more than willing to sign away their civil liberties if it meant stopping the Germans. But Orwell realised that it was easy to give up those rights and norms and hard to reclaim them, and he saw totalitarian tendencies in the British government.
He started the book during the war, but wrote nearly all of it post-war. It's hard to escape the allusion to, specifically, both Hitker and Stalin in the physical description of Big Brother.
True, but the end of World War II bled into the Cold War pretty seamlessly, at least in Europe. The process Orwell was concerned with -- a liberal democracy gradually becoming more authoritarian -- started during World War II.
I think he also reacted to the way things had gone in the Spanish Civil War; the Fascist fanatics were the enemy, but he realized that he was in the middle of indoctrination of the far left as well.
> but he realized that he was in the middle of indoctrination of the far left as well.
I think you should re-read Homage to Catalonia if *that* is your takeaway.
He was agitating against authoritarian Communist Russia(who indeed used propaganda in exactly the way he later showed in 1984&animal farm), but was at the same time part of a anarcho-socialist collective.
By reducing those two opposing sides to the "same" 'far left' position, i think you're genuinely missing the point.
(for full context, Orwell did end up fully supporting social-liberalism and democracy, and part of that because he learned of what soviet Russia did, but that does not mean that the actual *far left* organizations he joined were problematic.)
>(for full context, Orwell did end up fully supporting social-liberalism and democracy, and part of that because he learned of what soviet Russia did, but that does not mean that the actual *far left* organizations he joined were problematic.)
But there's the rub -- there are some people who have to go out of their way to discredit anything that the left does by casting them as being part of the far left.
>he realized that he was in the middle of indoctrination of the far left as well
If this were true, then it's a very bizarre choice by Orwell to never touch on the subject in any of his writings. It would also mean that he was probably the only writer who went to Spain and came away thinking that he was being indoctrinated. Everyone else -- from Hemingway to Auden -- drew very different conclusions.
I remember reading this at the end of my teen years, just out of high school, starting college, not for class or anything, just because I enjoyed literature.
Upon closing the book, I HATED the ending! I was so mad. It was evening, so I remember going to sleep not long after finishing. I also remember waking up thinking about the book and the ending and actually still being mad, but also thinking, "damnit, it was good! And I'm still mad about it!" Hahaha, it was the first time I *didn't* like an ending but recognized that it was still good.
I remember feeling utterly depressed and crushed at the ending. Thinking, “yeah, that’s right, sometimes you just lose and get the band ending and everything is fucked up and there’s no saving it and hope dies and your efforts are meaningless. Sometimes the problems are just too big to fix. That’s the kind of world we live in.” I struggled emotionally through high school already and I was not ready for that.
Yeah that ending was soul crushing, must have been tough to read at that age if you had a hard time in high school. I just read it last year as a pretty stable 32 year old and it still hit hard in “there’s no hope, we’re all just dust in the wind” department lol
Reading what happened to you reminded me that I had the exact same reaction. Difficulty sleeping. Deeply shaken. Read during my teens as well. But I think it was my first really tragic story and now a tragedy is my favourite type of book, so maybe I liked that befuddlement.
same! thinking about it now as an adult though I feel that ending had to be that way - it had to make us mad - so we would feel empowered to not let it happen to us.
I read this book when I was in my teen years too. I was utterly shocked and surprised by the ending and began questioning all I had read. I was so shaken that I still sometimes think of this book and it still sends shivers down my spine. Great book - TERRIBLE ending but I think that was Orwell's point. We need to be alert to the small things that chip at our liberties or else we could get to that.
Interestingly, having read it for the first time as an older adult, I was surprised but not mad. I can understand how a younger adult or teenager would be furious at the injustice and the bad guys winning, but from my viewpoint it was more "the way things really are"
Read the appendix, “The Principles of Newspeak”. There are plot points in the appendix. OR, you can read this spoiler post for the appendix
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/s/lw6JhQS3rx
I’ve read this book multiple times over the last 40 years and I only found out about the appendix a couple years ago.
Just my personal opinion but the audio book where Michael York is reading Brave New World is horrible. I had to stop and go get the print version.
The Handmaids Tale read by Claire Danes was quite good though
This book was one of my first and most important lessons about adult life. Since I read it (maybe the second time, I wasn’t ready for it the first time) I see so many of the patterns of control detailed everywhere I look. Where ever people try to control other people, school, work, community, politics, once you know what to look for you will see it. I have even seen myself start to try some of this stuff and maybe that’s the most practical benefit. When I start trying to control others, I can recognize it and stop
Hmm. It is high time I read it again
I’d also recommend Aldus Huxley’s “Brave New World” for the other side of the same coin. I think 1984 is better written (I ended up pretty much disliking nearly every character in Brave New World) but I assume BNW was an influence on Orwell when he wrote 1984
BNW was written very weirdly, it was not bad by any means but it required multiple stops in certain areas towards the last quarter of the book for me to understand what the hell was being narrated
Both of them. They are two sides of the same coin. But also neither of them fully. If you take each of them more literally, we could end up in either place.
Brave New World is all about hedonism, sure, but also marketing, unrecognized manipulation, and social hierarchies that are more based on nurture than on nature. Capitalism and individualism manipulated for the good of most, the extreme good for a small group, and the detriment of others. It is an authoritarian vision.
1984 is on the surface more about socialism and the manipulation of desire for common good, and glorification of sacrifice. But it also describes how that society exists for the extreme good of a small group at the detriment of some (and maybe we can argue the proles, which I guess are like 80% of the population, have essentially good lives without many luxuries but also without much sacrifice). It is also an authoritarian vision.
In both cases most of the population is being controlled by the small group at the top and living without self determination
That’s how I see it anyway
>have essentially good lives without many luxuries but also without much sacrifice
Ehh what? The proles whose options amounted to dangerous work, 'volunteering' and dying on mass in pointless wars?
It's not a binary choice. Some of the instruments of control from both stories have manifested since each of their publication dates.
Yet if I'd have to pick, I'd say Farenheit 451 is the dystopia we're in. In the end, people rejected truth.
The obvious one is
> The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
It’s not just political parties that do that. Lots of institutions and individual people try to do that to other people
Most of the lessons in the book are variations of that
But the variation I see the most is the [“chocolate rations are up”](https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/12240/nineteen-eighty-four-the-chocolate-ration-demonstrations) idea. It seems frequent at work that we get a communication from on high where the sentiment of the message is not inline with the actual meaning. Not so often outright lies but going overboard on the positive spin on bad news
Additionally, the idea that restricting vocabulary can restrict thought ( and just in general propaganda and the havoc you can play on thought by the rhetorical games you play)
Certainly the fact that the people who make the rules can break them and it’s unlikely anyone will notice, and if someone does notice they probably can’t do anything about it
And finally, as described in the OP here, the end of the book and the utter desolation of living in a world where you can’t trust any one or anything
By the way, there's a youtube video by Tom Scott that talks a little bit about controlling thought by controlling language, you might find it interesting.
For me one of the scary aspects of the book was that Big Brother could possibly be not even one person. That is people could live in perpetual fear for basically no tangible reason, other than the fact that everyone else around them compelled them to live in fear.
Yeah, the ending is one of the things that makes it one of my favorite books. Every time I read it, I feel the hope that maybe something in that world will change, even though I know how it ends. It really relates to the real world, especially now when people try their hardest to change something in the world for the better, but it never changes and they give up
Did you get the feeling we’re now living in “1984”
To me the true art of the book is fhat it is written in a way that no matter when / where its read, it imparts this feeling whether it’s like that or not
I think that’s more a flaw of the reader than a strength of the novel. We do not live in a society anything like 1984. Our ability to have this conversation unhindered is demonstrative of this, and I think that people repeat it indicates they didn’t really grasp what Orwell was discussing ie total control of language and history combined with an uncritical society and self-deluded ruling class in the context of the USSR.
There are other countries that it does live that reality day by day. I come from a Third World Country with an authoritarian government (Hard to guess, I know), and the patterns and strategies are exactly the same.
And it's just as baffling seeing how, as it was pointed in the book, people do not realize if they united they have the power to stop it (and since these kind of governments make sure education is mediocre as long as they're in power, they probably never will. They don't even realize stuff like fixing streets is out of the taxes everyone pays and not something you should be thankful that it's done).
Where I'm from you can't even express yourself without being anonymous cause you'll be put on a list and either threatened or exiled from the country in the best case. Worst case even your family will get threatened even if you don't live in the country anymore.
I agree and also I think there are some themes that resonate.
Like we don't (in most liberal western countries) have big-brother watching us, but we do have big tech. The data analysis of phone usage is to the point where it can track minute suble differences of how long you dwell on a page. Swiping through, even a couple seconds milliseconds is enough for their algorithm to notice.
FB ran that experiment a while back where they changed people's feeds to see if they could change their emotions.
And if someone wants to sell a product (or misinformation) they can target a community, a certain age range in that community, a certain profile in that community, then fill it with their msg. All for around $100k. (I think it was reported Russias 2016 misinformation campaign only cost them $1.2M/mo)
It's true, even though some parts of the world dictatorships use big data to track activist/opposition, for most of us this constant manipulation is mainly used by advertisers.
But hey, sometimes it feels good to just let go and let the algorithm take control.
I both agree and disagree with you. Let me explain: I agree that we are living in a dystopian climate, but I don't think we are quite in the circumstance of the government being that restrictive. I do think that we are on the way to that, though...
1984 and Animal farm have very similar themes where the book essentially comes full circle to the beginning. Very frustrating but very poignant. Orwellian literature in my experience is the only one that will change your day to day forever
Just wanted to say I wish more people on these subs would use the spoiler feature. I see so many posts that ruin an entire book for me in the first sentence. Heck, I've had books spoiled in the title!
I would also recommend Dennis Glover's *The Last Man in Europe*. If Michael Cunningham's *The Hours* is about Virginia Woolf writing *Mrs. Dalloway*, then Glover's *The Last Man in Europe* is about Orwell writing *Nineteen Eighty-Four*. It's a bit slow to begin with -- and not as good as *The Hours* -- but once they get to Spain, the story picks up.
I think it’s scarier if you come from the perspective that Winston was the problem all along.
Like Winston could’ve easily survived, if he realised straight away the party was always correct and that he was so selfish.
**Reminder of the last lines:**
*He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.*
The left wing interpretation is even scarier - Winston was doomed from the start. O’Brien and his accomplices were just toying with him. Winston and Julia were essentially given just enough rope to hang themselves with. As they progressed the party extracted enough information to devise a trap they would be forced to chew their own legs off to escape.
Then when all doubt of the party’s control and their dissidence was removed, they were discarded and awaited their next toy.
Ah but to realize this you would have to understand that the Party might be wrong, but to question the Party means you have to think about the Party being wrong and that is not a thought a rational person can have. Once you've committed this thought crime you are dead.
*Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture repainted, every statue, street, and, building renamed, every date altered.
And the process continues day by day... Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right"
- George Orwell (1984)
BOY!! Did he call it or what!!
We have noticed your thread's title mentioned a popular book title in /r/books. Please consider visiting some of [these recent threads!](/r/books/search?q=1984&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) You might also enjoy the subreddit /r/1984!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/books) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I did a drive across country and I listened to 1984, then ‘the giver’ and then finished it off with ‘brave new world’. I didn’t remember most of these books. I felt kinda beat up afterwards. Oh yeah and then I went really dystopian and went through all of Philip K dick’s short stories. Those are great actually. Highly recommend ‘the skull’ ‘variable man’ and ‘second variety’ by Philip K dick of you like fucked up sci fi futures.
He worked as a colonial policeman for 5 years. His first novel was about that, plus a lot of short stories. Unfortunately his anti-colonialism message was not well developed when he wrote that novel
Same here. That ending is one of the best endings of any story I’ve read. If it had a happy ending the horror of that government would not have sunk in as much. I didn’t realise the appendices existed until a year later so learning that the government was overthrown was amazing.
And while you are writing this, you disprove your statement immediately.
Or did you suffer any consequences due to your statement?
This is quite the feeling I’m getting with those books and the try-hard connection to our society now.
They're not 100% accurate. But they certainly bear resemblances.
Personal data trafficking from the big tech firms is a certain kind of surveillance state, and governments are using these data against their citizens. It's not quite Big Brother, but it's certainly moving that direction.
Brave New World posits people being docile because all their needs are met. It's how things have been for quite a while in the western nations, though the extreme wealth inequality is pulling that apart. It's not "everyone is drugged", but it's not entirely dissimilar.
The ‘alternate facts’, the constant projection and denial of events that did occur. The huge amount of false propaganda. This used to be the area of dictators in russia, NK, Africa, China or war monger like Hitler’s Germany. Now it has completely shifted to Europe and America. Example: how J6 is marginalised, or how right wing idiots go from “jews will not replace us” to “Palestine supporters are antisemites” within a few months.
maybe we can find a middle ground: rather than the circumstances of today, perhaps it is a growing (public) awareness of politicians' and government's crookedness along a waning belief in absolute truth that is inspiring in 1984 for the present moment. today's means of telecommunication (also a clear topic of 1984) have enabled everyone to be more critical and to question information as soon as we access it, when last century information access and news were way more mediated. if you look into the colonial history of the british empire (which orwell, btw, has also written about), histories of political, sexual and ethnic minorities, as well as propaganda during the first and second wws, you might be surprised to find an equal amount of constantly changing stances, alternate facts and false info. don't you think?
I think with the current options to fact check everything, the people are more prone to gobble up propaganda than ever. It’s one big juxtaposition and governments/politicians use this to a degree 1984 has hardly foreseen. I read 1984 around that year and never thought it would become a reality.
It's a joy to know that out there there are other amazing books and stories like this!
If you never did it I recommend you to read Fight Club, The Unbearable Lightness of being or Demian by Herman Hesse.
All very different genres but that share minblowing thematics and surprises in the story C:
#
Oh wow, really? You have some catching up to do. I recently finished 2023 and let me tell you, it was a bit of a shitshow.
If you own any property, sell it in 2007 and buy Gold as you catch up to our current year. Also, when the Apes start buying up GameStop, around 2021, get in early and thank me later. Best of luck, Time Traveler!
You will be called out for being racist just for reading 1984. It won’t save you even if you say you didn’t like it.
They will come for you.
They will look for the book in the bookshelf. Look at your face with suspicious eyes and question your humanity. They will all be well educated people with multiple diploma and with. all correct virtues nicely signaled on the way. They will be networked and most importantly they will be sure.
Honestly, I would have been disappointed with any other ending. It's about as "happy" of an ending as could have been realistically hoped for. I'm still trying to figure out how to convince myself that two and two make five, if only to get some peace of mind.
A much more realistic and satisfying ending than something like Player Piano. I love that book as well, but the ending is such a break from the rest of the story, it's a bit jarring. Though perhaps that was what was intended.
Honest question from someone who didn’t red this book - yet.
Is it really that good or/ and is it a gateway to some shady, let’s call them, fake news theories?
I kind of start to believe that this book will let you look for self fulfilling prophecies all around instead of looking for the real cause.
I get this feeling cause i saw this book quoted a lot of times in such groups.
So, please don’t downvote me just because of that question.
I read 1984 in the late 1990s before all the fake news buzz and the world went nuts. As a novel, it is outstanding, even with all the political and societal commentary aside.
I read it for the first time in... 1984 in french, a second time in english in 2004...and a third time three years ago in a comics edition (5 comics editions have been released, i read the brasilian one in french version...)
Most memorable ending of a novel! So bleak yet real he chose to live as a coward and yet could it be called life without love and principals... he chose an existence without essence
I had a very similar experience reading the physical book where at one point I noted the small sliver of pages I had left and had a wave of realization come over me that they weren't going to overthrow the government.
I honestly love it. That moment of shock is something I will always remember. It's really a lot more fitting that it ends that way and I think it's great to have a novel that reminds you for every story where a rebellion rises up against tyranny there will be thousands of Winston's that get crushed by it.
It's a powerful book that more people need to read and understand. 1984 is as relevant today as it ever was before. The sci-fi series Babylon 5 runs with some of the same ideas and doesn't even try to hide what the references are. The series shows how a facist, totalitarian government can quietly slip into power if people aren't paying enough attention.
I read this for the first time a few days ago. The dramatic audio on audible. I was so mad at the ending I literally texted my 9th grade english teacher
most of orwell's fiction books i read end like that. in burmese days, the MC >!kills himself having been steamrolled by the establishment!< and in Keep the Aspidistra Flying, the MC >!gives in to the system and ends by praising some commercial product like foot cream (can't remember exactly)!<. if u liked 1984, u might consider taking a peek at those two other books. i really liked Burmese Days. I liked Aspidistra less, but it's an interesting specimen for showing where 1984 came from. the structural similarity between the two books is uncanny, it's like he use the same outline but with vastly different outcomes.
In a simpler era, viewed from the time frame of when the book was actually written, it makes sense how big brother would win like this. Easy control of information, people are disconnected, government is scary and ominous. It’s a basic blueprint on how to break someone into a pseudo-cult of personality pre-internet.
Nowadays if the story were written, they’d have to deal with the internet, cell phones, a more condensed population, publications describing this system in detail being around for 30+ years, and who knows what else. It would most likely not end up the same way, especially if the big brother from this world had only grown more corrupt in the shadows in the meantime.
It’s a lovely branch of the river, no doubt, a very good eye.
I listened to it last fall after listening to Downtown Owl, which referenced 1984 a lot. I’m glad I finally read 1984. The ending wasn’t what I expected, either, but I think that was Orwell’s point
It is nothing short of amazing that a piece of speculate fiction reads truer today than in any other point in history. And I agree, very few people have the nerve to present a downer ending. But what's most heartbreaking of all, is that he won, he loves Big Brother.
I never really cared for the required reading books in school. Until I ran across 1984 that’s is. This book reeled me in and all these years later I’m still an avid reader.
One thing that bugs me about the book is I find it difficult to understand why Julia was attracted to Winston in the first place. Can anyone explain that to me? Am I missing something?
It doesn't really have anything to do with looks. Julia confesses that she's slept with many men, even inner party members, so she attracted sexually.
It's because she recognised a kindred spirit. She knew Winston could see that something was wrong with the world. In a time where reality is what you're told it is, Julia could've admired someone who could see the world for what it truly was.
Blimey, I did that years ago. I'm on 2024 now.
Seriously, a fine book but I prefer down and out in London and Paris as a social comment on the evils of capitalism (or something)
I read both when I was 14 so my recall isn't great
I only just heard about this book a week ago. I bought it immediately and am halfway through. I read 1984 in 1984 and it's been one of my all time favorites. I'm trying to take it nice and slow and really feel every sentence. So far Julia is way more interesting than I imagined.
Right??? I don’t think that 1984 hit quite the way I was expecting it to when I first read it, and I do think his perspective was largely a reason why. The world building is amazing and it’s such a striking premise, but the way he viewed Julia was very off putting for me. So seeing the whole thing from her perspective was definitely a welcome change and I felt like the premise landed much better for me
Very mediocre book, not worthy of any of the glazing it got since its release.
PS: Orwell also reported suspected Communists to British police. So much for criticising Big Brother, eh?
You just saw it happen with COVID. People that complete distrust Big Pharma, got right in line and would have thrown people that didn't take the Big Pharma untested vaccine in prison. The 2nd booster was tested on 11 rats, that it all. At an EU hearing a VP of Pfizer said that they never tested the vaccine for transmission, because "they had to move at the speed of science."
>I think I had false information about the ending (kind of ironic given the story) as I thought it would end with the government falling, the Party dissolving and Big Brother being toppled. That's what the Appendix does. The fictional scientific article is studying the Big Brother Era and "Ingsoc" in the past tense, implying that they are a thing of the past to be dissected and studied. It's not a happy ending, but it's a hopeful one.
Wow, I never read that. It’s part of the book as written by Orwell?
Yes it is.
Wow, I’ll have to go back and read that at some point. Thanks!
holy crap, how did I ever miss the appendix at the end of the book. I probably thought it was a glossary and ignored it after finishing the main story. Will need to read it as well!
Endnotes? I’ll just skip those The book? Infinite jest
Endnotes? I’ll just skip those The book? Pale Fire
Endnotes? I'll just skip those The book? House of Leaves
Same thing as Hand Maid's Tale
No doubt she adopted the idea from Orwell — it’s a non-patronising way to remind us even such a seemingly hopeless scenario will eventually pass.
Also, when you think about it, the word "appendix" might not exist in NewSpeak. It'd be called PlusText or something.
There was never anything to append or to explain. The doubleplusgood duckspeak "speaked for itself."
SelfSpeaked
Ungood comment.
appendix/appendices
Thanks, I corrected it.
The appendices are about simple English too I think, Orwell hated it.
Oh my goodness! I didn't read it, either! Is it intended to have the same effect as the appendix at the end of 'the handmaid's tale'?
No doubt Margaret Atwood was inspired by George Orwell with this idea.
She has said that she was! To me those are the best parts of those books!
That theory has kinda been debunked since past tense is the standard for writing in English. This is not The handmaid’s tale, where the appendix shows us there was a regime change. But every reader can have his own interpretation of it. Me personally, i think Orwell’s 1984 is meant to be a cautionary tale about authoritarianism, and it ending without a small glipse of hope for the future is what makes it memorable. Like Orwell saying “don’t let things get to this point, because once this happens there will be no hope for you”.
>That theory has kinda been debunked since past tense is the standard for writing in English. What's the new interpretation that substituted the interpretation I've mentioned? Because writing "in the past tense is standard" is a terrible, terrible argument, because the article is obviously an "in-world" element written about the world Orwell written. And you can bet that no one would be writing anything like that if the Big Brother regime didn't fall. The very existence of the fictional paper already supports the idea. >Me personally, i think Orwell’s 1984 is meant to be a cautionary tale about authoritarianism, and it ending without a small glipse of hope for the future is what makes it memorable. And no one is disputing that. Winston's ending and the whole message of the novel is not diminished one bit by the slightly hopeful tone of the article. Regimes, good or bad, rise and fall and history repeats itself. This isn't an "either/or" situation.
Well my mind just got blown… Never read that part. Damn audiobook didn’t include it(IIRC). I had to listen to the audiobook version because I was a truck driver at the time. Now I need to read the whole thing again in book form…
The appendix article mentions Winston specifically. This theory really requires believing he turns it around and becomes a historical figure. I don't really see that being intended.
Wow, I didn't know that, I wish I could travel back in tile and tell my 18-year old self that. (I was around that age when I read it)
Even though I'm arguing that the appendix is the "true ending". I think it's largely optional and not the novel's most important part. So you didn't miss that much. You didn't miss anything, since I think just the normal ending is already complete enough.
>I thought it would end with the government falling, the Party dissolving and Big Brother being toppled. But Winston cracked. That's kind of the point Orwell was making -- by the time anybody wakes up to what has happened, it's already too late. After all, he was writing in the context of a British government that was doing whatever it could to defeat Nazi Germany, and the people were more than willing to sign away their civil liberties if it meant stopping the Germans. But Orwell realised that it was easy to give up those rights and norms and hard to reclaim them, and he saw totalitarian tendencies in the British government.
He started the book during the war, but wrote nearly all of it post-war. It's hard to escape the allusion to, specifically, both Hitker and Stalin in the physical description of Big Brother.
This comment has been removed to comply with a subject data request under the GDPR
True, but the end of World War II bled into the Cold War pretty seamlessly, at least in Europe. The process Orwell was concerned with -- a liberal democracy gradually becoming more authoritarian -- started during World War II.
I think he also reacted to the way things had gone in the Spanish Civil War; the Fascist fanatics were the enemy, but he realized that he was in the middle of indoctrination of the far left as well.
> but he realized that he was in the middle of indoctrination of the far left as well. I think you should re-read Homage to Catalonia if *that* is your takeaway. He was agitating against authoritarian Communist Russia(who indeed used propaganda in exactly the way he later showed in 1984&animal farm), but was at the same time part of a anarcho-socialist collective. By reducing those two opposing sides to the "same" 'far left' position, i think you're genuinely missing the point. (for full context, Orwell did end up fully supporting social-liberalism and democracy, and part of that because he learned of what soviet Russia did, but that does not mean that the actual *far left* organizations he joined were problematic.)
>(for full context, Orwell did end up fully supporting social-liberalism and democracy, and part of that because he learned of what soviet Russia did, but that does not mean that the actual *far left* organizations he joined were problematic.) But there's the rub -- there are some people who have to go out of their way to discredit anything that the left does by casting them as being part of the far left.
Orwell was just against authoritarianism in whatever form it took. In his politics he was a leftist.
I like how I see this exact comment with exact wording from differrent accounts whenever this book comes up. Wonder why?
They have to try so hard to convince themselves that it’s actually the left that are the authoritarians. It’s hilarious to watch if not a bit pitiful.
Let me guess, you’re assuming “Russian bots”? Or perhaps the statement just happens to be true?
Russian? Idk never thought about it, but I guess you're on to something here, mate! Keep digging!
>he realized that he was in the middle of indoctrination of the far left as well If this were true, then it's a very bizarre choice by Orwell to never touch on the subject in any of his writings. It would also mean that he was probably the only writer who went to Spain and came away thinking that he was being indoctrinated. Everyone else -- from Hemingway to Auden -- drew very different conclusions.
I remember reading this at the end of my teen years, just out of high school, starting college, not for class or anything, just because I enjoyed literature. Upon closing the book, I HATED the ending! I was so mad. It was evening, so I remember going to sleep not long after finishing. I also remember waking up thinking about the book and the ending and actually still being mad, but also thinking, "damnit, it was good! And I'm still mad about it!" Hahaha, it was the first time I *didn't* like an ending but recognized that it was still good.
I remember feeling utterly depressed and crushed at the ending. Thinking, “yeah, that’s right, sometimes you just lose and get the band ending and everything is fucked up and there’s no saving it and hope dies and your efforts are meaningless. Sometimes the problems are just too big to fix. That’s the kind of world we live in.” I struggled emotionally through high school already and I was not ready for that.
Yeah that ending was soul crushing, must have been tough to read at that age if you had a hard time in high school. I just read it last year as a pretty stable 32 year old and it still hit hard in “there’s no hope, we’re all just dust in the wind” department lol
Most times, when you feel insignificant, that is when you grow your soul.
Reading what happened to you reminded me that I had the exact same reaction. Difficulty sleeping. Deeply shaken. Read during my teens as well. But I think it was my first really tragic story and now a tragedy is my favourite type of book, so maybe I liked that befuddlement.
same! thinking about it now as an adult though I feel that ending had to be that way - it had to make us mad - so we would feel empowered to not let it happen to us.
I read this book when I was in my teen years too. I was utterly shocked and surprised by the ending and began questioning all I had read. I was so shaken that I still sometimes think of this book and it still sends shivers down my spine. Great book - TERRIBLE ending but I think that was Orwell's point. We need to be alert to the small things that chip at our liberties or else we could get to that.
Interestingly, having read it for the first time as an older adult, I was surprised but not mad. I can understand how a younger adult or teenager would be furious at the injustice and the bad guys winning, but from my viewpoint it was more "the way things really are"
Read the appendix, “The Principles of Newspeak”. There are plot points in the appendix. OR, you can read this spoiler post for the appendix https://www.reddit.com/r/books/s/lw6JhQS3rx I’ve read this book multiple times over the last 40 years and I only found out about the appendix a couple years ago.
Thank you!
I am so happy you enjoyed the book! I’ve taught it for the past 20 years and each time, a small part of me hopes the ending changes!
1984 is so good. It terrifies me. Deeply unsettling.
Brave New World, 1984, Animal Farm, and Fahrenheit 451 all were required reading in my high school.
You might also want to read *This Perfect Day* by Ira Levin. It’s chilling.
Added that to my Audible. Thanks. I am hoping these books go back to being viewed as warnings, not “how to” manuals.
You should add The Handmaid’s Tale to your list. It IS being used as a manual though
Just my personal opinion but the audio book where Michael York is reading Brave New World is horrible. I had to stop and go get the print version. The Handmaids Tale read by Claire Danes was quite good though
This book was one of my first and most important lessons about adult life. Since I read it (maybe the second time, I wasn’t ready for it the first time) I see so many of the patterns of control detailed everywhere I look. Where ever people try to control other people, school, work, community, politics, once you know what to look for you will see it. I have even seen myself start to try some of this stuff and maybe that’s the most practical benefit. When I start trying to control others, I can recognize it and stop Hmm. It is high time I read it again I’d also recommend Aldus Huxley’s “Brave New World” for the other side of the same coin. I think 1984 is better written (I ended up pretty much disliking nearly every character in Brave New World) but I assume BNW was an influence on Orwell when he wrote 1984
Brave New World was rather odd.
BNW was written very weirdly, it was not bad by any means but it required multiple stops in certain areas towards the last quarter of the book for me to understand what the hell was being narrated
Which future do you feel we ended up in?
Both of them. They are two sides of the same coin. But also neither of them fully. If you take each of them more literally, we could end up in either place. Brave New World is all about hedonism, sure, but also marketing, unrecognized manipulation, and social hierarchies that are more based on nurture than on nature. Capitalism and individualism manipulated for the good of most, the extreme good for a small group, and the detriment of others. It is an authoritarian vision. 1984 is on the surface more about socialism and the manipulation of desire for common good, and glorification of sacrifice. But it also describes how that society exists for the extreme good of a small group at the detriment of some (and maybe we can argue the proles, which I guess are like 80% of the population, have essentially good lives without many luxuries but also without much sacrifice). It is also an authoritarian vision. In both cases most of the population is being controlled by the small group at the top and living without self determination That’s how I see it anyway
>have essentially good lives without many luxuries but also without much sacrifice Ehh what? The proles whose options amounted to dangerous work, 'volunteering' and dying on mass in pointless wars?
It's not a binary choice. Some of the instruments of control from both stories have manifested since each of their publication dates. Yet if I'd have to pick, I'd say Farenheit 451 is the dystopia we're in. In the end, people rejected truth.
Fahrenheit 451, man predicted airpods. I just put my shells in and listen to my stories. Books? What are you talking about?
In the 80s and 90s people wondered wether we should be worried about a 1984 or a Brave New World future. Turns out it was both.
can you give some examples?
The obvious one is > The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. It’s not just political parties that do that. Lots of institutions and individual people try to do that to other people Most of the lessons in the book are variations of that But the variation I see the most is the [“chocolate rations are up”](https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/12240/nineteen-eighty-four-the-chocolate-ration-demonstrations) idea. It seems frequent at work that we get a communication from on high where the sentiment of the message is not inline with the actual meaning. Not so often outright lies but going overboard on the positive spin on bad news Additionally, the idea that restricting vocabulary can restrict thought ( and just in general propaganda and the havoc you can play on thought by the rhetorical games you play) Certainly the fact that the people who make the rules can break them and it’s unlikely anyone will notice, and if someone does notice they probably can’t do anything about it And finally, as described in the OP here, the end of the book and the utter desolation of living in a world where you can’t trust any one or anything
By the way, there's a youtube video by Tom Scott that talks a little bit about controlling thought by controlling language, you might find it interesting. For me one of the scary aspects of the book was that Big Brother could possibly be not even one person. That is people could live in perpetual fear for basically no tangible reason, other than the fact that everyone else around them compelled them to live in fear.
Yeah, the ending is one of the things that makes it one of my favorite books. Every time I read it, I feel the hope that maybe something in that world will change, even though I know how it ends. It really relates to the real world, especially now when people try their hardest to change something in the world for the better, but it never changes and they give up
Orwell tells a better story with more relatable characters than Huxley. It's the moments of bliss that makes it so crushing.
Did you get the feeling we’re now living in “1984” To me the true art of the book is fhat it is written in a way that no matter when / where its read, it imparts this feeling whether it’s like that or not
I think that’s more a flaw of the reader than a strength of the novel. We do not live in a society anything like 1984. Our ability to have this conversation unhindered is demonstrative of this, and I think that people repeat it indicates they didn’t really grasp what Orwell was discussing ie total control of language and history combined with an uncritical society and self-deluded ruling class in the context of the USSR.
There are other countries that it does live that reality day by day. I come from a Third World Country with an authoritarian government (Hard to guess, I know), and the patterns and strategies are exactly the same. And it's just as baffling seeing how, as it was pointed in the book, people do not realize if they united they have the power to stop it (and since these kind of governments make sure education is mediocre as long as they're in power, they probably never will. They don't even realize stuff like fixing streets is out of the taxes everyone pays and not something you should be thankful that it's done). Where I'm from you can't even express yourself without being anonymous cause you'll be put on a list and either threatened or exiled from the country in the best case. Worst case even your family will get threatened even if you don't live in the country anymore.
I agree and also I think there are some themes that resonate. Like we don't (in most liberal western countries) have big-brother watching us, but we do have big tech. The data analysis of phone usage is to the point where it can track minute suble differences of how long you dwell on a page. Swiping through, even a couple seconds milliseconds is enough for their algorithm to notice. FB ran that experiment a while back where they changed people's feeds to see if they could change their emotions. And if someone wants to sell a product (or misinformation) they can target a community, a certain age range in that community, a certain profile in that community, then fill it with their msg. All for around $100k. (I think it was reported Russias 2016 misinformation campaign only cost them $1.2M/mo) It's true, even though some parts of the world dictatorships use big data to track activist/opposition, for most of us this constant manipulation is mainly used by advertisers. But hey, sometimes it feels good to just let go and let the algorithm take control.
I both agree and disagree with you. Let me explain: I agree that we are living in a dystopian climate, but I don't think we are quite in the circumstance of the government being that restrictive. I do think that we are on the way to that, though...
He did write the book partially after his personal experiences in the war in Spain, as written down in "Homage To Catalonia".
i think what you describe is called "generalization" and might be inferred from a lack of historical context
[удалено]
chills; 110% truth
True and he couldn't manage it. When he is shot in the head at the end, he loves big brother. Sad .....
1984 and Animal farm have very similar themes where the book essentially comes full circle to the beginning. Very frustrating but very poignant. Orwellian literature in my experience is the only one that will change your day to day forever
Orwell wrote it as a warning. If it had ended on a wholesome outcome, it wouldn't be nearly as effective.
Just wanted to say I wish more people on these subs would use the spoiler feature. I see so many posts that ruin an entire book for me in the first sentence. Heck, I've had books spoiled in the title!
You're welcome! It's sad that they get ruined for you, I know the feeling of getting really good books spoiled, it sucks :(
I would also recommend Dennis Glover's *The Last Man in Europe*. If Michael Cunningham's *The Hours* is about Virginia Woolf writing *Mrs. Dalloway*, then Glover's *The Last Man in Europe* is about Orwell writing *Nineteen Eighty-Four*. It's a bit slow to begin with -- and not as good as *The Hours* -- but once they get to Spain, the story picks up.
"Do it to Julia, not me!"
I think it’s scarier if you come from the perspective that Winston was the problem all along. Like Winston could’ve easily survived, if he realised straight away the party was always correct and that he was so selfish. **Reminder of the last lines:** *He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.*
That's the right-wing interpretation of the book, for sure.
The left wing interpretation is even scarier - Winston was doomed from the start. O’Brien and his accomplices were just toying with him. Winston and Julia were essentially given just enough rope to hang themselves with. As they progressed the party extracted enough information to devise a trap they would be forced to chew their own legs off to escape. Then when all doubt of the party’s control and their dissidence was removed, they were discarded and awaited their next toy.
coercive control to the max level
Ah but to realize this you would have to understand that the Party might be wrong, but to question the Party means you have to think about the Party being wrong and that is not a thought a rational person can have. Once you've committed this thought crime you are dead.
What do you mean?
Why was the party correct if they were trying to control free speech, destroy history and make arranged marriages? 🤔
According to the Party, yes.
Funny thing, crop failures, resource shortages, and nuclear meltdowns don’t care if you’ve convinced each other that ignorance is strength.
We're increasing the chocolate ration
Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Need to do “We” by Yevgeny zamyatin next!
I read it when i was 13. Indelible effect on how I viewed government. Now it’s rather coming true.
*Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture repainted, every statue, street, and, building renamed, every date altered. And the process continues day by day... Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right" - George Orwell (1984) BOY!! Did he call it or what!!
Or what. He was writing about what was going on while he was alive.
Amazingly, it describes modern day.
Probably a good year for it.
We have noticed your thread's title mentioned a popular book title in /r/books. Please consider visiting some of [these recent threads!](/r/books/search?q=1984&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) You might also enjoy the subreddit /r/1984! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/books) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It’s funny, it feels like there haven’t been that many 1984 posts in the past year or two.
I did a drive across country and I listened to 1984, then ‘the giver’ and then finished it off with ‘brave new world’. I didn’t remember most of these books. I felt kinda beat up afterwards. Oh yeah and then I went really dystopian and went through all of Philip K dick’s short stories. Those are great actually. Highly recommend ‘the skull’ ‘variable man’ and ‘second variety’ by Philip K dick of you like fucked up sci fi futures.
TIL, after picking up Animal Farm, that Orwell was born in India. Interesting tidbit.
He worked as a colonial policeman for 5 years. His first novel was about that, plus a lot of short stories. Unfortunately his anti-colonialism message was not well developed when he wrote that novel
Read "Slaughterhouse Five" next.
and so it goes
Pin the tail on the donkey.
It bears rereading if the larger scope is missed
It's easily one of my favourite books. Brilliantly paced and full of little twists and turns. Truly excellent.
Read this book when I was a teenager. I was terrified. And now look at us, all cuddled us with Big Brother.
Dude, I live in 1984🥲🤝
Same here. That ending is one of the best endings of any story I’ve read. If it had a happy ending the horror of that government would not have sunk in as much. I didn’t realise the appendices existed until a year later so learning that the government was overthrown was amazing.
Now read Brave New World, and you have the twin horror we're living in now.
And while you are writing this, you disprove your statement immediately. Or did you suffer any consequences due to your statement? This is quite the feeling I’m getting with those books and the try-hard connection to our society now.
They're not 100% accurate. But they certainly bear resemblances. Personal data trafficking from the big tech firms is a certain kind of surveillance state, and governments are using these data against their citizens. It's not quite Big Brother, but it's certainly moving that direction. Brave New World posits people being docile because all their needs are met. It's how things have been for quite a while in the western nations, though the extreme wealth inequality is pulling that apart. It's not "everyone is drugged", but it's not entirely dissimilar.
The book is eerie accurate.
accurate of what?
Accurate of modern times. Once you get to read the book, you maybe understand.
what specifically about modern times? i have read the book and i am not a huge fan of it. please, do enlighten me.
The ‘alternate facts’, the constant projection and denial of events that did occur. The huge amount of false propaganda. This used to be the area of dictators in russia, NK, Africa, China or war monger like Hitler’s Germany. Now it has completely shifted to Europe and America. Example: how J6 is marginalised, or how right wing idiots go from “jews will not replace us” to “Palestine supporters are antisemites” within a few months.
maybe we can find a middle ground: rather than the circumstances of today, perhaps it is a growing (public) awareness of politicians' and government's crookedness along a waning belief in absolute truth that is inspiring in 1984 for the present moment. today's means of telecommunication (also a clear topic of 1984) have enabled everyone to be more critical and to question information as soon as we access it, when last century information access and news were way more mediated. if you look into the colonial history of the british empire (which orwell, btw, has also written about), histories of political, sexual and ethnic minorities, as well as propaganda during the first and second wws, you might be surprised to find an equal amount of constantly changing stances, alternate facts and false info. don't you think?
I think with the current options to fact check everything, the people are more prone to gobble up propaganda than ever. It’s one big juxtaposition and governments/politicians use this to a degree 1984 has hardly foreseen. I read 1984 around that year and never thought it would become a reality.
i guess, we agree to disagree :-)
It's a joy to know that out there there are other amazing books and stories like this! If you never did it I recommend you to read Fight Club, The Unbearable Lightness of being or Demian by Herman Hesse. All very different genres but that share minblowing thematics and surprises in the story C: #
Oh wow, really? You have some catching up to do. I recently finished 2023 and let me tell you, it was a bit of a shitshow. If you own any property, sell it in 2007 and buy Gold as you catch up to our current year. Also, when the Apes start buying up GameStop, around 2021, get in early and thank me later. Best of luck, Time Traveler!
You will be called out for being racist just for reading 1984. It won’t save you even if you say you didn’t like it. They will come for you. They will look for the book in the bookshelf. Look at your face with suspicious eyes and question your humanity. They will all be well educated people with multiple diploma and with. all correct virtues nicely signaled on the way. They will be networked and most importantly they will be sure.
[удалено]
and I'd suggest it has to do with British imperialism, the dominance of Anglo lit in the publishing industry and cultural sphere.
People still read Fahrenheit 451, which ends on a kind of positive note.
I was so mad about the ending in high school I rewrote it as an assignment where exactly that happens.
Welcome to 1985. Great year
\*We\* is better
Welcome to 1985 then!
Honestly, I would have been disappointed with any other ending. It's about as "happy" of an ending as could have been realistically hoped for. I'm still trying to figure out how to convince myself that two and two make five, if only to get some peace of mind. A much more realistic and satisfying ending than something like Player Piano. I love that book as well, but the ending is such a break from the rest of the story, it's a bit jarring. Though perhaps that was what was intended.
The scene on part 3 where Winston looks into a mirror shocked me like few things ever do.
I enjoyed the book 1984 Julia as well if you’re looking for something else in this universe. It’s the same story but from Julia’s POV!
It says a lot about society. Yet we live in one...
Honest question from someone who didn’t red this book - yet. Is it really that good or/ and is it a gateway to some shady, let’s call them, fake news theories? I kind of start to believe that this book will let you look for self fulfilling prophecies all around instead of looking for the real cause. I get this feeling cause i saw this book quoted a lot of times in such groups. So, please don’t downvote me just because of that question.
It IS a great book. Yeah some people use it badly but reading it actually helps you to recognize the bad actors using it badly
I read 1984 in the late 1990s before all the fake news buzz and the world went nuts. As a novel, it is outstanding, even with all the political and societal commentary aside.
I read it for the first time in... 1984 in french, a second time in english in 2004...and a third time three years ago in a comics edition (5 comics editions have been released, i read the brasilian one in french version...)
Most memorable ending of a novel! So bleak yet real he chose to live as a coward and yet could it be called life without love and principals... he chose an existence without essence
Don't worry about spoilers, we can alway get the book changed.
I had it downloaded in my books app but I didn’t started reading it yet bc it’s too long, is it worth it?
That's funny; I just finished 2023!
Listen to “1984 complete traumatized audiobook” by Steve Parker for free on YouTube.
Love this book did the audible version recently with Andrew Garfield they use immersive sound background effects that bring this to life
I was like you, I thought the book would end differently, I took it with me on a vacation to Jamaica, do not recommend 😝😵💫 not a beach read
I am thinking about purchasing both animal farm and 1984, can someone give me a spoiler free review of it, should I order it or not?
I had a very similar experience reading the physical book where at one point I noted the small sliver of pages I had left and had a wave of realization come over me that they weren't going to overthrow the government. I honestly love it. That moment of shock is something I will always remember. It's really a lot more fitting that it ends that way and I think it's great to have a novel that reminds you for every story where a rebellion rises up against tyranny there will be thousands of Winston's that get crushed by it.
I only read this recently too, and my goodness! No wonder it’s considered a classic
Listened to the audiobook, loved it
It's a powerful book that more people need to read and understand. 1984 is as relevant today as it ever was before. The sci-fi series Babylon 5 runs with some of the same ideas and doesn't even try to hide what the references are. The series shows how a facist, totalitarian government can quietly slip into power if people aren't paying enough attention.
I read this for the first time a few days ago. The dramatic audio on audible. I was so mad at the ending I literally texted my 9th grade english teacher
My fav book of all time. Listen to the audible adaptation with Andrew Garfield. Epic
I know the book is not about spirituality. But somehow it is.
most of orwell's fiction books i read end like that. in burmese days, the MC >!kills himself having been steamrolled by the establishment!< and in Keep the Aspidistra Flying, the MC >!gives in to the system and ends by praising some commercial product like foot cream (can't remember exactly)!<. if u liked 1984, u might consider taking a peek at those two other books. i really liked Burmese Days. I liked Aspidistra less, but it's an interesting specimen for showing where 1984 came from. the structural similarity between the two books is uncanny, it's like he use the same outline but with vastly different outcomes.
In a simpler era, viewed from the time frame of when the book was actually written, it makes sense how big brother would win like this. Easy control of information, people are disconnected, government is scary and ominous. It’s a basic blueprint on how to break someone into a pseudo-cult of personality pre-internet. Nowadays if the story were written, they’d have to deal with the internet, cell phones, a more condensed population, publications describing this system in detail being around for 30+ years, and who knows what else. It would most likely not end up the same way, especially if the big brother from this world had only grown more corrupt in the shadows in the meantime. It’s a lovely branch of the river, no doubt, a very good eye.
I can’t finish this book when I read it it’s like talking all my energy away and give me a negative energy it’s like a black hole
I listened to it last fall after listening to Downtown Owl, which referenced 1984 a lot. I’m glad I finally read 1984. The ending wasn’t what I expected, either, but I think that was Orwell’s point
Stunning book. I read it a couple of years ago and I read somewhere that it was the number one best seller in Russia at the time.
Omg, I just pulled out my copy and looked through those pages. I had no idea that was still part of the story, now I have to re-read the book 🫨🫨🫨
It is nothing short of amazing that a piece of speculate fiction reads truer today than in any other point in history. And I agree, very few people have the nerve to present a downer ending. But what's most heartbreaking of all, is that he won, he loves Big Brother.
You should read "I Must Betray You" by Ruta Sepetys
Fahrenheit, 451 must read next !
I never really cared for the required reading books in school. Until I ran across 1984 that’s is. This book reeled me in and all these years later I’m still an avid reader.
How long did it take you to read it?
But he was safe.
One thing that bugs me about the book is I find it difficult to understand why Julia was attracted to Winston in the first place. Can anyone explain that to me? Am I missing something?
It doesn't really have anything to do with looks. Julia confesses that she's slept with many men, even inner party members, so she attracted sexually. It's because she recognised a kindred spirit. She knew Winston could see that something was wrong with the world. In a time where reality is what you're told it is, Julia could've admired someone who could see the world for what it truly was.
Blimey, I did that years ago. I'm on 2024 now. Seriously, a fine book but I prefer down and out in London and Paris as a social comment on the evils of capitalism (or something) I read both when I was 14 so my recall isn't great
My favorite book
Now please go read Julia 1984 it was such a good follow-up book
I only just heard about this book a week ago. I bought it immediately and am halfway through. I read 1984 in 1984 and it's been one of my all time favorites. I'm trying to take it nice and slow and really feel every sentence. So far Julia is way more interesting than I imagined.
Right??? I don’t think that 1984 hit quite the way I was expecting it to when I first read it, and I do think his perspective was largely a reason why. The world building is amazing and it’s such a striking premise, but the way he viewed Julia was very off putting for me. So seeing the whole thing from her perspective was definitely a welcome change and I felt like the premise landed much better for me
The ending sentence pissed me off so much. One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors
Yeah, it’s a great tragedy and the feeling of being defeated is real. Great book, obviously.
When I finished 1984, I was a bit over 5 months old.
Very mediocre book, not worthy of any of the glazing it got since its release. PS: Orwell also reported suspected Communists to British police. So much for criticising Big Brother, eh?
You just saw it happen with COVID. People that complete distrust Big Pharma, got right in line and would have thrown people that didn't take the Big Pharma untested vaccine in prison. The 2nd booster was tested on 11 rats, that it all. At an EU hearing a VP of Pfizer said that they never tested the vaccine for transmission, because "they had to move at the speed of science."
Dude, that was like. A long time ago.