WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
…
“Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
…
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
…
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
…
The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already.

I have probably read Nineteen Eighty-Four more often than any other novel. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite book. I probably like  Animal Farm more, so it’s not even my favorite Orwell novel. But Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the few books that I feel a need to re-read every so often. I last read it in 2017, a time when the dark and hopeless story felt a little less fictional than during any of my prior readings. I just reread it now in 2023 because I’m about to read  Julia—an Orwell estate-authorized retelling of Nineteen Eighty-Four from Julia’s perspective—and I wanted all the details fresh in my mind.

So what keeps me coming back to Nineteen Eighty-Four, besides the fact that it is a powerful story and beautifully written? It has probably been different things at different times. There are so many influential ideas here that have entered our lexicon: Big Brother, the Thought Police, Newspeak, Doublethink, Thoughtcrime, Room 101. Of course there are the scary parallels to recent contemporary politics—the people who seem to use this novel as a blueprint for fake news, the manipulation of hate, and a drive towards fascism. There’s something irresistible about the terrifying, soul-crushing ending, “He loved Big Brother,” although this last reading left me wondering if the use of the past tense in the Principles of Newspeak section is supposed to communicate that Oceania ultimately fell (in the same way that the last section of  The Handmaid’s Tale explained that Gilead fell sometime after the end of the main story). But what struck me the most during this re-reading was that so much of the story derives from Orwell's belief in the power of language to change individuals’ thoughts and society as a whole.

Nineteen Eighty-Four is not a hopeful story, but there is hope that Orwell's belief in the power of language could be used for good. It’s a doubleplusgood, absolute must-read.

This was the book that started my love affair with the dystopian genre. And maybe indirectly influenced my decision to do a politics degree. I was only 12 years old when I first read it but I suddenly saw how politics could be taken and manipulated to tell one hell of a scary and convincing story. I'm a lot more well-read now but, back then, this was a game-changer. I started to think about things differently. I started to think about 2 + 2 = 5 and I wanted to read more books that explored the idea of control.

الأخ الكبير الذى يعرف كل شىء و لا يسمح لنا بخطيئة التفكير فهو يفكر بالنيابة عنا و يعرف مصلحتنا أكثر مما نعرفها نحن
01
إننا ندرك أنه ما من أحد يمسك بزمام السلطة وهو ينتوي التخلي عنها.
إن السلطة ليست وسيلة بل غاية , فالمرء لا يقيم حكما أستبداديا لحماية الثورة , وإنما يشعل الثورة لإقامة حكم استبدادي.
إن الهدف من الأضطهاد هو الأضطهاد, والهدف من التعذيب هو التعذيب وغاية السلطة هي السلطة, هل بدأت تفهم ما أقول الآن ؟
02
إذ لم يكن من المرغوب فيه أن يكون لدى عامة الشعب وعي سياسي قوي , فكل ما هو مطلوب منهم وطنية بدائية يمكن اللجوء إليها حينما يستلزم الأمر
03
أن تعرف وأن لا تعرف ، أن تعي الحقيقة كاملة ، ومع ذلك لا تفتأ تقص الأكاذيب المحكمة البناء ، أن تؤمن برأيين في آن وأنت تعرف أنهما لا يجتمعان ومع ذلك تصدق بهما .

أن تجهض المنطق بالمنطق ، أن ترفض الالتزام بالأخلاق فيما أنت واحد من الداعين إليها ، أن تعتقد أن الديمقراطية ضرب من المستحيل ، وأن الحزب وصي عليها ، أن تنسى كل ما يتعين عليك نسيانه ثم تستحضره في الذاكرة حينما تمس الحاجة إليه ثم تنساه مرة ثانية فوراً ذلك هو الدهاء الكامل ، أن تفقد الوعي عن عمد ووعي ثم تصبح ثانية غير واع بعملية التنويم الذاتي التي مارستها على نفسك .
04
اوبراين: "كيف يؤكد إنسان سلطته على إنسان آخر يا وينستون ؟"
قال وينستون بعد تفكير: "يجعله يقاسي الألم"
رد أوبراين: "أصبت فيما تقول. بتعريضه للألم , فالطاعة وحدها ليست كافية , وما لم يعانِ الإنسان الألم كيف يمكنك أن تتحقق من انه ينصاع لإرادتك لا لإرادته هو ؟
إن السلطة هي إذلاله و إنزال الألم به , وهي أيضا تمزيق العقول البشرية إلى أشلاء ثم جمعها ثانية وصياغتها في قوالب جديدة من اختيارنا.
هل بدأت تفهم أي نوع من العالم نقوم بخلقه الآن ؟ إنه النقيض التام ليوتوبيا المدينة الفاضلة التي تصورها المصلحون الأقدمون, إنه عالم الخوف و الغدر والتعذيب, عالم يدوس الناس فيه بعضهم بعضا.
عالم يزداد قسوة كلما أزداد نقاء , إذ التقدم في عالمنا هو التقدم باتجاه المزيد من الألم.
لقد زعمت الحضارات الغابرة أنها قامت على الحب والعدالة أما حضارتنا فهي قائمة على الكراهية, ففي عالمنا لا مكان لعواطف غير الخوف و الغضب والإنتشاء بالنصر وإذلال الذات, واي شيء خلاف ذلك سندمره تدميراً..
05
ليس هنالك غير أربع طرق لإزاحة فئة حاكمة عن سدة الحكم ، فإما يتم قهرها من قبل عدو خارجي ، أو أن تحكم بطريقة تعوزها الكفاءة وهو ما يدفع الجماهير للثورة ، أو تسمح لمجموعة من الطبقة الوسطى القوية والساخطة بالتشكل والظهور أو تتزعزع ثقتها بذاتها وتفقد الإرادة في الحكم

~ 2 stars ~

TW/CW: talk of rape and homicide, physical and mental abuse / torture, misogyny

This has to be my most disappointing read of the year so far. Everything I expected, and everything I wanted never happened. I thought that the political aspect was interesting, and while I liked that part, it sadly was not enough to save this book.

I’ve been wanting to read this for a while as it’s considered such a staple in dystopian, and in general literature. I’ve even watched a school play which I enjoyed, but of course, that had excluded all the problematic aspects, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

This book takes on an authoritarianism and totalitarian government, propaganda, censorship, surveillance, etc. and I thought it dealt with that well enough, and making connections between current day and this book was an experience, i'll say that.

Having known this going in, it seemed like something I would love, and it checked off many boxes of what I was looking for at the time. I even had many quotes I had highlighted for this review that I thought were insightful, but my very smart self returned the ebook without recording them all. Other than the ones I used for my reading updates of course, but most of those were ones I used to complain.


But other than that aspect, it felt like a chore to read. So many things that I didn’t like, and so many things that angered me. I’m reading a story, I want to be immersed, and invested, not bored out of my mind. The writing was nothing special, and the story itself was blander than white bread.

The info dumps were absolutely painful too. I don’t know how I pushed through, though barely considering it took me almost 20 days to complete. There was one particular infodump that I especially suffered through, one that would serve to bring up some of these political discussions and simultaneously throw up a bunch of world building on me. It took up more than 13% of the entire book. 13 PERCENT. My brain felt all mushy by the end, and I’m not sure I properly processed any of it. What was the reason? It couldn’t have been any less digestible.


And then of course we have the characters. I would gladly fist fight Winston, who is our protagonist. I don’t care if some would consider that elder abuse, I would if I could. I have read from such unlikable characters before, but Winston is on another level of terrible. Again, must I ask, what was the reason? Why was he so absolutely horrible? He constantly sexualizes the women he “loves” in disgusting ways, and her youth, and has some weird grudge against anyone that is “pure”, whatever that means. No, sorry, he just hates women in general. Before knowing Julia, his love interest, he imagined raping her, and then slitting her throat for being, what he thought then, celabite. He contemplated smashing her head against the wall. And those weren’t solidary situations. He spends the entire book saying and thinking creepy, disgusting and irritating stuff. I hate him.

And then we have Julia, the only female character that spoke more than one line. And her only role is that she is shallow and weak, existing solely for Winston and his pleasure, and his sexual fantasies. And that is all she cares about. Sex. That is all she lives for, and nothing else. She has no thoughts of her own, and her personality is as annoying as can be. It definitely plays into the whole “women are objects” thing, which of course angered me even more. I mean for goodness sake, the misogyny was so strong with this one. As in the overused trope, which in itself promotes that internalized misogyny. Julia outright says how she hates women. Excuse you?


And all the other characters didn’t matter, at least to me, so that neither hurt or helped my experience, but the two we knew the most made me want to chuck the book out the window more times than I could count.

And Winston and Julia together was even worse than I could ever imagine. Not only do they not have any chemistry, just a lot of possessiveness, but they are already confessing their love never having properly talked before. Winston spends a good chunk of the book hating on her, but then when she confesses her love, suddenly he is in love with her too. Winston even tells Julia about how he wanted to *coughs* murder her, and she just laughs it off as if it is something normal. If only this behavior was condemned, as it should be.


This is the most unromantic relationship ever. And obviously I am aware that perhaps I should not judge the book by it’s characters, and their portrayal, as that is not what the story is truly about. That’s not what is important. But don’t you think that if I’m going to be following their story, that I should at least be able to tolerate them? At the very least. I don’t think I am being unerasable. And perhaps I could have overlooked the characters, had I actually been interested in the story itself, but I did not. Little by little, any hope I had was crushed, and I was bored to no extent, so having to deal with an incel on top of it all did not bode well for



Final Thoughts: Overall, I dragged through this. It was not a good read. This is so highly praised and I just expected better. I can see where people who like it are coming from in some way, but it was a big no for me. I’ve also been informed that this is basically just a rip off of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which is a better book, so perhaps I will pick that up in the future. Maybe i’ll even read Animal Farm for the sake of it, and also because I’m curious to read about talking pigs.

Get this book away from me. Why is this required reading? I'm dropping out.

1984 is a stoopid and borring and depresing book they made me read in school that is clearly an attck on the Pressident of the United States Donald Trump. They think they are so smart they can call him Big Borther (Big? He aint fat, his dokter just sed he was fisicaly fit, so there!) and say he lives in Oceania instead of Amerika! You cant foowel me! We elected him, so get over it! God wants Him to be Pressident, my preachur even said so. You r living on the Greatest kuntry in the werld I don’t know what you got to wery about you must have been in the sixties with all those riots aginst the guverment you should all go back to your s***hole kuntries if you don't love Amerika.

Big Brother is watching you, it sez? Oh, come on. Why worry about that? If you just watch tv and football and have a couple drinks, why do you care if they watchin u?

One part that is stupid, the anti-sex league! In this Great kuntry you can grab anything and anyone you want and have sex with porn stras and nuthin bad kin happen 2 u. Why would we be aginst sex, if you can have anything you want?! All these wimin in the streets, they should be hapy men will even like them! And didn’t the Pressident just give them a tacks brake! Aren’t more women bein hired now?! Fox Nooze even said so. You odn’t need the ERA or whateve my teacher sez, I don’t think wimn should make what I do as a guy! They are wimmin! Comon!! I no for a fact you can’t make them happy! They are clearly mad for no rezin.

What I like the book 1984 sed is that Newspeak or whatever they call it will make the words smaller and ezier. My teacher said to put in kwotes it will be bttter in my repert so here goes

“The beauty of Newspeak is that each year the vocabulary is getting smaller and smaller! The range of thought gets smaller and smaller. When the language is appropriately small, the revolution will have become complete!”

“It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.” I agree with this cuz I hate werds I never speak I just want to wacth tv and toss a cupple back with my boys.

I don’t know what all those werds even mean, but I want smaller words, and less of them. I know they say Trump speaks on the 4th grade level, I dn’t even know what they mean, he is the Pressident, he can speak on any level he wants he needs to speak so we can understand him don’t he?

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength?” Is this stupid or what? I am strong and can ded lift like 525 pownds! Does that make me ignorant?

But did like the torture parts. I want to do that to people who are portestin our duly elected Pressident and old white libtards even a guy who sez he was a Repubican Jeff Flake who sez Trump talks like Stalin! Who is Stalin!? I don’t even think he exists! Buncha lies and fake nooze. I aktualy want to tortur this guy Orwell for writin this book and my techur for makin me read it its so stoopid.

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.” I say good some people need to be stamped on like people from s***hold kuntries.

I like how they ban books in it because all I watch is tv my football and Fox news with my beer and I am good. Books are too hard they need to make things ezier so this kuntry will be Great again. I am so hunover aftir that game but I perfer that because thinking is hard and makes me sad sometimes.

This book was like anuther book the libtard Englsih techur Mz jones Forced us to read, Farunhite 451 where they burn books which was stupid 2 they call the guy a firman and he burns books haw so stoopid! How do they come up with this crap?!

But it made me think this is whut we shuld do is burn this book, it only makes some people mad and confoozed!!

Like these kwotes I hope will get me a btter grade tho I don't understand them:

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Like huh?!

“The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.” Like The Art of the Deal, maybe?!

“We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. . . Power is not a means; it is an end. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. . . Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

Huh? I say agin: Why kant they use ezier werds like in newspeak they said they were gonna use smaller wrds! Liars!

Here's one I really don't git: "The only way to preserve a hierarchical society is through poverty and ignorance."

Another kwote I don’t understand:

“To think is the only hope.” Winston said this. What could he possibly mean?!

(With a tip of the hat to Paul Bryant)

n  n

الدوستوبيا أو ما يُعرف بأدب المدينة الفاسدة
حيث النظام الدكتاتوري والحزب الحاكم المستبد المسيطر على كل شيء، ووجه الأخ الكبير يلاحقك أينما كنت وفي أي وقت.
العيش في عزلة فردية لا وجود للأخلاق والعواطف الإنسانية.. حياة مجرّدة من كل ما هو إنساني.

"ما كان لعضو بالحزب أن يكون لديه وقت فراغ أو أن ينفرد بنفسه إطلاقاً إلا عند نومه"


عالم يخلو من العلاقات الأسرية، فالآباء والأمهات يخشون بأن يشي بهم أبنائهم للسلطات، الأزواج مجرّدين من كل عاطفة، حتى العلاقات الجنسية يتحكم بها الحزب وتصبح عملية تقتصر على إنجاب الأطفال لخدمة الحزب، تخلو من كل ما هو حميمي وإنساني.


"ولمّا كانت ممارسة العملية الجنسية على طبيعتها تعتبر عصياناً فإن مجرد الرغبة الجنسية تصبح جريمة فكر"


أن تعيش في عالم قائم على الكراهية والغضب وإذلال النفس والولاء المطلق للمخلّص والحامي الذي يتجسد بشخص الأخ الكبير والحزب الخالد فتصبح مجرّداً من كل فكر فردي مستقل


"إن جريمة الفكر لا تفضي إلى الموت، إنما هي الموت نفسه"


فبمجرد أن تسمح لنفسك بالتفكير فقد حكمت على نفسك بالموت المحقق.


"فالولاء يعني انعدام التفكير، بل عدم الحاجة للتفكير، الولاء هو عدم الوعي"

أن تعيش في عالم لا تدري فيه ما هو تاريخ اليوم، ما هي هذه السنة بالتحديد، ما الذي حصل بالأمس، فالحزب يختار ما الذي سيُسجّل في التاريخ ويشكّل الماضي بحسب ما يريد، ليصنع عالماً مؤسّساً على الكذب والخداع وعليك أنت أن تكذّب عقلك وحواسك وقلبك بما يتماشى مع ما يراه الحزب، وقد يختار الحزب أن يصفّي مجموعة من الأشخاص ويمسح وجودهم من الحياة ويستأصل شأفتهم وعليك أنت تصدّق وتقتنع بأن زميلك الذي يجلس دوماً بجوارك أصبح غير موجود ولم يكن له وجود من الأصل!


"فكل شيء يتلاشى في عالم من الظلال إلى حد يصبح معه حتى تاريخ السنة أمراً مشكوكاً فيه"


"إن كان هنالك من أمل، فالأمل يكمن في عامة الشعب"


عامة الشعب، السواد الأعظم من الأمة، الطبقة العاملة (البروليتاريا)... في عالم طبيعي، هم الذين يقررون ويختارون طريقة حكمهم لأنفسهم ومَن الأجدر بحكمهم (الديمقراطية)، لكن في عالم من الرعب والتحكم والسلطة، فإنهم يرزحون تحت وطأة المرض، الجهل والفقر لا يفكرون إلا بما يسد رمقهم، أفي عالم كهذا يمكنهم أن يدركوا حقيقة واقعهم ويثوروا!


"لن يثوروا حتى يعوا ولن يعوا إلا بعد أن يثوروا"

بما أن الحزب يستند بسلطانه على جهلهم ومرضهم فلن يسمح بأن تنبت هذه البذرة في نفوسهم وإدراكهم.


"لم يكن من المرغوب فيه أن يكون لدى عامة الشعب وعي سياسب قوي؛ فكل ما هو مطلوب منهم وطنية بدائية يمكن اللجوء إليها حينما يستلزم الأمر"

في عالم كهذا تنعدم معاني كلمات كالحرية، الوجودية، الإنسانية، الذات، العقل والفكرة، عالم يلفه الضباب والطاعة العمياء والتجرّد من الإنسانية وتشرّب أفكار الحزب والإيمان المطلق بها


"فمن الممكن في نهاية المطاف أن يعلن الحزب أن اثنين واثنين لا يساويان أربعة وعليك أن تصدق ذلك"

ليس الرعب أن تحيا في عالم كهذا، بوجود "الأخ الكبير يراقبك" أينما ذهبت، ليس الرعب في وجود شاشات وميكروفونات تترصدك وتسمعك وتحصي خلجات نفسك وتعد أنفاسك ليل نهار، ليس الرعب أن يقتلوك، ولكن المرعب هو:


"المرعب في ذلك ليس قتلك بجريرة التفكير بطريقة مغايرة، بل احتمال أن يكونوا على صواب، إذ كيف يمكنك بعدها أن تعرف أن اثنين واثنين يساويان أربعة؟ أو أن قوة الجاذبية موجودة؟ أو أن الماضي لا يمكن تغييره؟ فإذا كان كل من الماضي والعالم الخارجي لا يوجدان إلا في أذهاننا، وإذا كانت أذهاننا نفسها يمكن التحكم فيها- فماذا تكون نتيجة ذلك؟"

1984
رسالة كتبها جورج أورويل للمستقبل... لنا نحن... لعالم اليوم

لنقف ونسأل أنفسنا سؤلاً واضحاً وصريحاً:
ألا نرى ونشاهد ونعاين مبادئ الحزب الثلاثة في حياتنا؟
الحرب هي السلام
الحرية هي العبودية
الجهل هو القوة


1984
لم تكن رواية خيالية بقدر ما هي تحذير لكل ذي عقل!



...

One of the goals I set for myself this year was to revisit some of the classics of the 20th century. And where better to start than an audiobook of 1984? I was probably in high school when I read this. I wanted to see how well it has held up. Yes, parts of it are dated and it’s obvious that the book is based on Stalin and Russian Communism. But other parts just ring way too true, especially the constant lies of those in power and how our every move can be tracked. I mean, in a world where Rudy Giuliani says “truth isn’t truth”, 1984 seems almost prescient. The humor is scary. I found myself shuddering. A lot. When Winston explains how he found himself drawn in by the hate exercises, it reminded me of the yelling that occurs at a Trump rally.

I also appreciated the comments about Julia and how she only cared about things that impacted directly on her life. Changes to history are brushed aside. As Winston says, “you’re only a radical from the waist down.”

This book is truly a classic. There were so many phrases that just grabbed me. “The heresy of heresies is common sense.” “Freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2 is 4.” The whole idea of Doublethink. That willingness of politicians to say that black is white. The willingness to hold two contradictory beliefs in your mind at the same time and accepting both of them. Something the White House officials have obviously gotten very good at doing.

It’s not perfect. It’s didactic. It drags in parts. But it’s still so important that everyone should read this as an adult.

The narrator, Simon Prebble was phenomenal.

I'm gonna ask myself a mandatory question and say nothing more.

Why the fuck had I not read this book before?

CW/TW: physical violence, physical torture, mental torture

"Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four. If that is granted, all else follows."

Airstrip One, Oceania (1984) — In the year 1984, human civilization has suffered damages brought by war, civil conflict, and revolution. In a postrevolutionary era caught in the midst of political unrest, the world is ruled by and is divided into three totalitarian super-states: Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania. Following the ideology of Ingsoc (their own term for English Socialism), Oceania is ruled by the Party headed by their omniscient leader known as Big Brother. Under this totalitarian regime, the citizens are constantly watched through telescreens which exist everywhere, flashing Big Brother's face. To prevent political rebellion, the Party aims to enforce their invented language called Newspeak which eliminates all the words which may incite an uprising.

Winston Smith works as a member of the Outer Party, under the Ministry of Truth where he is tasked to rewrite historical records to support the perpetual revisionism done by the state to its history. As he becomes more aware of the Party's oppressive and rigid control over its citizens, Winston's frustrations grow deeper due to his struggles on the prohibition of free thought, sex, and expression of individuality by the Party. But he can only secretly oppose the Party's rule because in 1984 Oceania, having rebellious thoughts is illegal and thoughtcrime is considered the worst of all crimes.

With his profoundly harrowing dystopian satire Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell distorts our comfortable realities as he exposes the novel's distressing parallels on real-life mishaps concerning propaganda, surveillance, totalitarianism, historical revisionism, and censorship which still are pressing problems 71 years after the novel's first publication.

The intricacies of Orwell's concept of a dystopian society siphon the reader into an interestingly tormenting foreign world of amplified oppression, espionage, and torture, which as one turns the pages does not seem unfamiliar after all. This is due to the inspiration of the novel which is rooted in Orwell's fear of the totalitarian dangers that plagued democracy even after the defeat of the Nazi. As a warning to the British and US societies, Orwell wrote in his letters before and after the novel's publication that constant criticism is the key to ensure that the pitfalls of a totalitarian government are mitigated because "[t]otalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere." This reminder may have been said decades ago but its weight still holds today, and readers around the world think the same as the book shot to the top of Amazon's best-seller list in January 2017.

The genius of Orwell in crafting a vividly horrifying setting alongside critiquing surveillance and oppression eventually led to the ascription of the concept of a perverted and destructive societal condition to his name, which is commonly used in its adjective form "Orwellian." These atrocious details established in Orwell's dystopian world are manifested throughout the novel, with the profundity of these issues depicted in as early as the first chapter:

n  On each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.

[...]

How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.n

If these aren't alarming enough, Orwell goes steadfast in his portrayal of a decaying society as he ingrains the extremes of oppression into one of the reflections of human society and culture: the nation's language. Orwell devises a euphemistic, circumlocutory, and propagandistic language called Newspeak, going so far as to create a simple grammatical sketch of it appended in the book:

n  There was, for example, no such word as CUT, its meaning being sufficiently covered by the noun-verb KNIFE. Adjectives were formed by adding the suffix -FUL to the noun-verb, and adverbs by adding -WISE.

[...]

In addition, any word—this again applied in principle to every word in the language—could be negatived by adding the affix UN-, or could be strengthened by the affix PLUS-, or, for still greater emphasis, DOUBLEPLUS-. . . . It was also possible, as in present-day English, to modify the meaning of almost any word by prepositional affixes such as ANTE-, POST-, UP-, DOWN-, etc. By such methods it was found possible to bring about an enormous diminution of vocabulary. Given, for instance, the word GOOD, there was no need for such a word as BAD, since the required meaning was equally well—indeed, better—expressed by UNGOOD.n

Amidst these significant strengths, the narrative has tendencies to teeter especially during the second part of the novel where Winston spends time with his new-found girl Julia. In the sense of his desire to highlight the importance of satisfying one's primary needs and the toll it makes when such are left suppressed, Orwell overcompensates with his lengthy addition of the intimate scenes between the couple that may still have worked even if trimmed down.

In addition, the prose suffers from technical disintegration when Orwell decides to include chapters from Emmanuel Goldstein's book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchal Collectivism, which read like uninspired writing and if not, just plain didactic. This may be argued as a part which holds immense importance in the plot, although it could have brought more impact when a more creative technique is used to integrate the said manifesto.

Visiting George Orwell's 1984 is a worthwhile journey to the future that is once told in the past, with its lessons standing as consequential warnings and reminders to help improve the world's present.

Personal Enjoyment: 5 stars
Quality of the Book: 4.4 stars
- Use of Language: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Plot and Narrative Arc: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Characters: ⭐⭐⭐+
- Integrity: ⭐⭐⭐⭐+
- Message: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

AVG: 4.7 stars

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[Some comments in this review are for the pre-review I posted which contained highlighted reactions from my status updates. You may check the actual status updates through the links below to understand the context behind the comments.]

Status Updates:
START | Orwell got the present right | being a politics fanatic | EAT THE RICH | classics are classics for a reason | the activist in my soul is alive | MY BLOOD PRESSURE IS NOT OKAY | Newspeak is literally the nightmare of every linguist | END

Este libro me sigue atormentando...

Antes de hablar de la historia, primero quiero hablar un poco sobre géneros literarios, si yo se debería enfocarme en el libro pero denme un momento, nunca he sido fanático del género del terror, por dos razones: asustarse para divertirse no me parece muy lógico, y la otra razón es que siempre hay una vocecita en mi cabeza que, cuando se trata de monstruos, fantasmas, demonios, vampiros, posesiones, etc. me dice esto no es real, como te vas a asustar de lo que no existe ni existirá, y termino haciéndole caso, entonces me encuentro con este libro, que según GOODREADS me dice es un clásico, de ciencia ficción distópico, - y una mierda – este libro es de terror, este es el libro que me mantiene despierto en las noches, pensativo y con miedo porque todo lo que dice es casi (un insignificante casi) real.

Ahora si la reseña la dividiré en tres partes, porque el libro está dividido en tres partes a su vez, así que será algo larga, espero la leas, sino me conformo con que hayas leído el párrafo de arriba, en la tercera parte incluiré spoiler, así que si no han leído el libro recomiendo leer solo hasta la segunda parte.

Primera parte: Conocemos a nuestro personaje principal Winston Smith y el nos ira describiendo que tan jodido esta su mundo.

Era un día luminoso y frío de abril y los relojes daban las trece.n

El mundo está dividido en tres grandes potencias en guerra, Winston pertenece a Oceania, la cual esta comandada por el partido INGSOC y su líder es el Gran Hermano, uno de los lemas del partido es n  “El gran hermano siempre te vigila”n y esto, lamentablemente es verdad, ya que en todas partes hay unas maquinas llamadas telepantallas, que se encargan de emitir publicidad para el gobierno, todos los logros de este, y por supuesto también mensajes de a quién debe odiar la población, esto es llevado al extremo en un acto, los "dos minutos de odio", donde toda la población se reúne a declararle su odio a los enemigos del partido. Pero las telepantallas no solo sirven para eso, las telepantallas vigilan, graban todo lo que sucede a su alrededor, para que, la población no pueda cometer ningún crimen sin que se sepa, y aquel que cometa un crimen, como hablar en contra del Gran hermano o del partido, “desaparecerá”, esto tendrá más sentido si conocemos en que trabaja Winston.

n  «El que controla el pasado —decía el slogan del Partido—, controla también el futuro.El que controla el presente, controla el pasado.»n

Winston trabaja en el Ministerio de la verdad, que irónicamente, o doblepensando, se encarga de acomodar el pasado, cambiarlo al antojo y necesidad del partido, Winston se da cuenta por ejemplo de que Oceanía aunque siempre está en guerra, no siempre está en guerra con la misma potencia, a veces esta aliada con una de las potencias y peleada con la otra, pero estas posiciones suelen invertirse, entonces el ministerio de la verdad acomoda todo el pasado a su conveniencia, modificando todo periódico, libro o revista, para que digan que siempre se ha estado en guerra con digamos Eurasia.

Además de esto, cuando se encuentra un criminal que sea perteneciente al partido, todo su pasado es cambiado para decir que dicho criminal siempre fue malo y tuvo intenciones en contra del partido o “desaparece”, cuando una persona desaparece, no es que solamente ha dejado de vivir, no, se elimina todo información que haya sobre la persona, virtualmente nunca existió. Esta primera parte es un monologo casi ininterrumpido de Winston donde nos muestra su desacuerdo con la situación y sus intenciones de formar parte de la rebelión.
Segunda Parte.

LA GUERRA ES LA PAZ

LA LIBERTAD ES LA ESCLAVITUD

LA IGNORANCIA ES LA FUERZAn

En esta parte cambia un poco el tono de la historia, Winston conoce a una chica llamada Julia, de la cual se enamora, ella también está en contra del partido, pero quizás con menos fervor que Winston, empiezan a reunirse en sitios clandestinos y a protestar a su manera en contra del partido, teniendo relaciones, cosa que, si se disfruta, en este mundo también es un crimen. Winston conoce a otro personaje acá, O’Brien un hombre que solo con verlo le inspira admiración y confianza, y que él cree forma parte de la Rebelión. Cosa que se confirma más adelante.

Winston y Julia logran reunirse con O’Brien y este los introduce a la rebelión y le entregara un libro a Winston donde se explica todo el movimiento y todas las razones de porque el mundo está en las condiciones en que esta.

Debo decir que esta fue mi parte favorita del libro, hay tanta filosofía política, tantas explicaciones que incluso siendo parte de esta historia se aplican perfectamente a nuestro mundo, entenderemos ese otro lema del partido LA GUERRA ES LA PAZ / LA LIBERTAD ES LA ESCLAVITUD/ LA IGNORANCIA ES LA FUERZA, todo está explicado tan clara y perfectamente que me hace pensar que el escritor n  George Orwell era un genion, subraye muchos párrafos y frases de esta parte, pero creo que es conveniente que ustedes los lean personalmente junto a la historia.

Tercera parte: léase bajo su propio riesgo, de acá para abajo vienen los spoilers

Winston y Julia son capturados, la verdad no duraron mucho como espías, pero resulta que O’Brien no era de la Rebelión sino del partido.

Winton es separado de Julia y empieza la tortura física y mental por parte de O’Brien, verán O’Brien no quiere matar a Winston, no, no eso sería muy sencillo, el lo quiero destruir psicológicamente, hacer que ame al gran hermano y al partido, que todo pensamiento que ha tenido en contra de ellos sea admitido como erróneo por parte de Winston y que nunca vuelva a pensar en contra de ellos.

Esta es la parte más cruel del libro, odie a O’Brien es un sociópata, sicótico con el poder de hacer mucho daño a Winston y a todos en general, el representa al partido, EL es el partido o ¿debería decir todo es el partido?.

El final, aquí llegamos te felicito y agradezco si has leído lo que escrito hasta este momento,

El final es lo más triste y la razón por la cual le baje una estrella al libro, Winston es sometido, Winston pierde su persona y llega a amar al Gran Hermano



En este momento la voz de George Orwell (que suena extrañamente similar a la de su tocayo George R. R. Martin) dice en mi cabeza, “si creías que habría un final feliz era que no estabas prestando atención”

No, no creía que el final fuera feliz, ya había aceptado lo contrario, pero tonto, inocente de mi pensé que Winston haría algo, que la humanidad prevalecería, que de alguna manera ante toda esta catastrófica situación algo, aunque fuera mínimo, se podría hacer.

Winston no tiene importancia en la historia, su única función es ser narrador, pero no cambia nada, no hace nada, el mundo queda igual de jodido que como nos presentan al principio. Esto me aterra, me atemoriza, me niego a aceptarlo, si pierdo la fe en la humanidad (aun en la humanidad ficticia de un mundo cuasi ficticio) no podre dormir jamás.

Este es un libro que todo el mundo debería leer, y reflexionar sobre él, una vez mas lo recomiendo mucho.

It’s terrifying how we are living this story at the moment.

Every single person needs to read this book. Will clearly show how we are being manipulated and how our privacy is being violated. How the so called government strip you away from being human and there’s nothing you can do about it.

It’s just not about the people and the government but also we as human are changing for the worse because of our lifestyle and lazy choices.

I find the writing really accessible and I do feel even teenagers will find this story fascinating/thought provoking.

Just grab this book if you haven’t already!