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I am a big fan of speculative fiction and in my literary travels I have encountered a myriad of dystopias, anti-utopias and places and societies that make one want to scream and.....n  n
...(with or without contemporaneous loss of bladder and other bodily functions)....

Simply put, George Orwell's 1984 is unquestionably the most memorable and MOST DISTURBING vision of a world gone mad utterly bat-shit psycho that I have ever experienced. Ever!!! Despite being published back in 1948, I have yet to find a more chilling, nightmarish locale than Orwell's iconic world of BIG BROTHER and INGSOC. The very mention of either of those terms invokes images of Nazis and Soviet gulags in my mind. Yet Orwell's creation is in many ways even more insidious than these real-world bogeymen.

I first read this book when I was 12 years old in 7th grade as a...get this...class reading assignment. Looking back on it, I have NO IDEA why on Earth we were reading this book at that age but I do recall we spent quite a bit of time discussing it. I wish I could recall the substance of those discussions because I can only imagine the kind of PIERCING INSIGHT that a group of hormonally challenged pre-teens thought up in regards to this book. Needless to say, I think that this is a book that is best appreciated AFTER your first pimple.

Anyway, I decided to re-read this book recently as an adult in the hopes that I would be able to gain a great appreciation for this classic. Well, the book did more than that. IT ABSOLUTELY FLOORED ME. From the very first sentence, "It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" to the unforgettable final sentence (which I will not give away here), this story sucked me in, beat the living shit out of me and through me out the other side a hollow, wasted wreck. I know, it doesn't sound very cheery, but it is a life-changing experience.

I have always thought that one of the best and most important qualities of science fiction is that it frees the author to take the controversial, politically charged issues and trends of the day and create a possible future based on exaggerations of such trends and in so doing present a compelling and critical argument for change. Well NO ONE has ever done a better job than better Orwell in showing the possible nightmare (and thus potential danger) of a society without basic civil liberties and a government with complete and unchallenged control.

This book is bleak, dreary, frightening, upsetting and absolutely BRILLIANT and one of my "All Time Favorite" novels. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!! 6.0 stars.

...........REMEMBER, BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.............

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3/8/2025 addendum: Fuck it, I'm just gonna say it: We told you so...

I hate to be the type to say "We told you so", but those of us who didn't vote for Trump and, in fact, warned people that Trump would be disastrous for the country, are now seeing the inevitable endgame of Trumpism. As more arrests are being made and more horrifying news is being revealed about the violence that actually happened at the U.S. Capitol building that day, many of us are simply shaking our heads in sad resignation. I am neither shocked nor surprised by what happened. I am simply disgusted and ashamed. Unfortunately, the person who should be the most ashamed, isn't.


“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power.”


Of all the horrific things to find in George Orwell’s classic dystopic novel “1984”---the two minutes hate, the continuous wars, the government propaganda, Newspeak, the torture scene, the pessimism---the one that disturbs me the most is a future in which bookshelves are completely empty due to the banning of all books.

Orwell, an obvious book-lover himself, most likely found this aspect of his future totalitarian London a horrific, albeit inevitable, result of the anti-intellectual fervor that accompanies most, if not all, totalitarian dictatorships.

Images of book-burning by Nazis were most likely at the forefront of Orwell’s consciousness when he wrote “1984” in 1948.

Sadly, today, such images are being recalled under the dangerously anti-intellectual presidency of Donald Trump, a man who admits to having never read a single book and admits that his favorite books are the ones that he supposedly wrote himself. (Publishers, editors, and his ghostwriters beg to differ on the actual authorship of these books, but that's neither here nor there.)

His antagonism towards the mainstream media and the free press, his removal of information from certain government websites, his blockage of new information, his total disregard for intelligence reports: all of these are red flags indicative of a fledgling dictator.

Not to mention the ridiculous rhetoric of Trump’s lackeys, Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer, whose “alternative facts” are virtually textbook Newspeak examples of Orwell’s word “doublethink”, a word that entered the contemporary political lexicon upon publication of “1984”.

Defined as “the simultaneous acceptance of two contradictory ideas or beliefs”, Trump’s doublethink is what allows him to view his inauguration attendance as “yuge” (it wasn’t), his executive orders as constitutional (they aren’t), and his role in the Russian interference in our electoral process as “no big deal” (it’s a huge deal, potentially treasonous, by nearly all accounts). It is a perfect word to describe a most frightening and cognitively dissonant concept: the person running our country is a fucking idiot and, quite possibly, insane.

Orwell’s concept of Newspeak is something that, as a writer and book-lover, I’m sure he found both intriguing and terrifying. It is a language founded on the totalitarian belief that simplistic and limited knowledge among the majority of proletariat (“proles”) will mitigate attempts at uprising and subversive behavior. A person can’t know that he is a slave if he doesn’t even have the words “freedom” or “liberty” in his vocabulary. Or, rather, he may feel like a slave but he will never be able to articulate his feelings.

Newspeak is an attempt by the higher Party officials to ensure that they remain in power forever. Power, after all, is the ultimate aim of a totalitarian system.

Orwell, himself, liked the idea of an economy of language. It is evident in his writing style. His prose is straightforward, succinct, and powerful without being grandiose. Not one to overuse or abuse adjectives and adverbs, Orwell believed in a philosophy of “less is more” in his writing. This is, it should be noted, distinctly opposite the purpose of Newspeak, which adheres to a “less is less” philosophy.

“1984” is an unbelievably good novel, assuming one enjoys stories of dystopian futures and political diatribes masquerading as tragic love stories. One must probably already have a fatalistic worldview going into “1984” in order to truly enjoy it, because one thing that Orwell provides very little of within the novel is hope.

FIVE BRILLIANT AND TERRIFYING STARS!

Well, that’s just horrifying with what I just read!!

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

You’re wondering if you should read this? YES, without a doubt! It’s one of the best books written about a tyrannical government and the propaganda they instill on their citizens.

The beginning of 1984 starts off slow. But settle in because it it's a slow burn to a frightening conclusion.
We’re introduced to the character of Winston Smith and he works for the Ministry.
The Ministry is controlled by Big Brother. Big Brother not only controls what you can read, but whether history is really history, what to watch, who to hate, to not having sexual intercourse.
It’s not a healthy or rewarding environment to live in.

Any feelings of love, freedom or intellect are stamped out of you.

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”

Winston feels that there is more to life then the constant propaganda and lies of Big Brother and starts an intellectual quest to find out the TRUTH!

This is not a happy book. This book does not make you sleep better at night.

I believe George Orwell did a wonderful job writing a cautionary tale of what could happen if society gets lazy with democracy, not finding out the truth and starts believing government propaganda.

This book introduces you to the subtle and frightening ways in where government will control all thought, all decisions, introduce doublespeak or fake news and must always be in control of power.
The poor, the disenfranchised and anyone questioning decisions of the government will be taken care, reprogrammed to LOVE Big Brother and THEN disposed of. No martyrs in this system because then the downtrodden would have someone to fight for!
Democracy and voting does not exist in this dictatorship and freedom will be destroyed.

Seriously, if you want a good example of what a dictatorship looks like that controls the press, introduces lies and keeps the poor down with governmental decisions, look no further then this book. GO READ IT NOW!

I've put off writing a review for 1984 because it's simply too daunting to do so. I liked 1984 even better after a second reading (bumping it up from a 4 star to a 5 star) because I think that, given the complexity of the future created by Orwell, multiple readings may be needed to take it all in. I thought it was genius the first time and appreciated that genius even more the second time.

Orwell had a daunting task: creating a future nearly half a century away from the time period in which he was writing. This future had to be its own complex, independent society, but it also had to be the natural end result of the totalitarianism Orwell witnessed in the communist and socialist regimes of World War II. That's part of the horror of 1984: this future is a recognizable one, even in the 21st century. It's easy to see how those in control can, through manipulation and propaganda, maintain that control simply for the sake of sating their own power hunger. It's easy to say "no one could ever tell me what to think or what to do," but the Party's use of Big Brother, the Thought Police, the Two-Minute Hate, and Doublethink make it easy to see how a person's ability to think independently and discern fiction from reality can be eroded when there is no touchstone to fact. Revising and rewriting the past to make certain that Big Brother and the Party are always correct has effectively eliminated historical accuracy. How can one think and reason in a society where everything is a fabrication?

Another facet of 1984 that I find fascinating is the relationship between Winston and Julia. Winston claims Julia is a "rebel from the waist down," engaging in promiscuity and hedonistic indulgences forbidden by the Party. She doesn't care about social injustice or defining "reality"; she only longs for what will make her feel good in the moment and only rebels far enough to get what she wants. By comparison, Winston is an intellectual rebel, constantly worrying over the issues of truth and freedom and the real, unvarnished past, but limited in how far he's willing to push the boundaries (until he meets Julia). Together, they make a complete rebellion--physical and mental, but apart they find themselves impotent to stand up to the Party.

A cautionary tale, social commentary, and exemplary example of dystopian fiction, 1984 is one of those perfect novels that not only entertains, but forces one to think about the danger associated with giving any one person or entity too much power or control over our lives--issues well worth consideration in post-9/11 America.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder

1948: Europe was only starting to recover from the slaughter of World War II. Nazi Germany had been crushed by the Russian army in the East and by the Anglo-American forces in the West. The totalitarian regimes of Hitler, Mussolini and Imperial Japan were defeated. Stalin was going strong. Franco was undisturbed. However, the war was not quite over: the victors, Russia on one side, the USA on the other, were now superpowers staring stonily at each other, their hands loaded with a new and deadly arsenal.

Orwell wrote 1984, right after Animal Farm, in this ominous post/cold/perpetual-war context, and many aspects of it are steeped in the horrors of tyranny, dehumanisation and disaster. Winston Smith, the wretched protagonist, lives in an alternate history where everyone is under constant surveillance (via “telescreens” and widespread denunciation). A place where propaganda, misinformation, history re-writing, language and thought manipulation, “reality control” (2+2=5) are pervasive tools to make every individual conform with the “Ingsoc” Party’s ideology. The result is a diehard totalitarian state, a perfect hell on earth, where individuality is “vaporised” at the whim of a spectral Big Brother and where even love is impossible.

Worth highlighting in the novel: the long interlude about “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism” (II, 9) — inserted within a slightly incongruous romance episode — and the appendix on “The Principles of Newspeak” — written as if from an unknown point, far in the future, when the madness has eventually subsided. Both sections are stupefying. Yet, the last third of the book is probably one of the worst nightmares in literature: a prolonged torture and brainwashing session that plunges into utter insanity.

Erich Fromm’s afterword (included at the end of the Signet Classics paperback edition) rightly puts 1984 in perspective with its historical context and other works of speculative fiction, like Brave New World. Still, while Huxley’s satire is substantially ironic, almost jovial, the general tone in Orwell’s book is dismal, revolting, at times practically unbearable. At any rate, this novel has become one of the canonical landmarks of political dystopia. Hannah Arendt possibly read 1984 when writing The Origins of Totalitarianism a couple of years after Orwell’s death. Its influence after that, on works like The Handmaid’s Tale, is manifest as well.

Michael Radford’s heartrending film adaptation is very faithful to the novel. But my favourite film “free-adaptation” remains Brazil by Terry Gilliam. Blade Runner, too, borrows much of its 2019 Los Angeles architecture from 1984’s Miniluv pyramidal building descriptions.

The days of Hitler and Stalin are long gone now. Even so, almost a century later, in a time of political paralysis and corruption, where the most prominent “doubleplusgood duckspeaker” politicians of the world make ample use of a new form of newspeak and doublethink; in a time of threatened privacy and increasing digital surveillance and mindfuck, Orwell’s prophetic warning is as relevant as ever.

★★★★ /5
This was a very interesting and fascinating read.

I read this for the second time (this time for university) and I enjoyed reading this much more than the first time around. Then I read it for the first time I missed a lot of important and clever parts which makes this book great. From word choices to the world itself, this was great in many ways. What I particularly enjoyed about this book is that everything comes full circle and you can see who even the smallest chose effected things in the future.

From my point of view, characters felt realistic for this specific time and society. But sometimes they felt too simplistic and one dimensional.

It was a truly fascinating book and I had to spend a long time to fully appreciate.

الحرب هي السلم
الحرية هي العبودية
الجهل هو القوة

هذه الشعارات للحزب الحاكم في رواية أوريول. هل هي كلمات على ورق؟! معضلات منطقية؟! متناقضات أدبية؟! ام اسلوب عيش يحصل وقد يحصل في العديد من بقاع العالم؟!...

- 1984"، رواية تحذيرية في زمنها وفي حاضرنا وربما في مستقبلنا ايضاً! رواية تحذّر الفرد من السيطرة الشمولية للدولة وما يمكنه ان ينتج عن هكذا سيطرة وكيف ستتغير ملامح الوجود الإنساني للناس داخل هكذا نظام، فالطعام والشراب والنوم والكلام والإنجاب و"الحب" والعقل والتفكير والأطفال واللغة والماضي والحاضر تحت سيطرة الدولة بمختلف اجهزتها من "وزارة الحب" الى "وزارة الحقيقة" والوفرة وشرطة الفكر وغيرها...

لا مفرّ! لا شيء يخصك أنت وحدك إلا بضعة سنتيمترات مكعبة في داخل جمجمتك

- تطرح الرواية العديد من المفاهيم الإيديولوجية والوسائل التي تعتمدها دولة "اوقيانيا" من اجل السيطرة وبقاء نظامها في الحكم، فإلى جانب المراقبة الدائمة للأعضاء وغسيل الدماغ الذي تتبعه على كل من تسوّل له نفسه التفكير او التساؤل، هناك بعض الأفكار الشيطانية الأخرى:

- التحكم بالتاريخ، هذه اليوتوبيا التي يحلم الكثيرون بإمتلاكها في الواقع، امتلكتها الدولة في الرواية، واخذت تغيّر الماضي على هواها

اذا كان الآخرون يقبلون الكذبة التي يفرضها الحزب... واذا كانت السجلات كلها تسجل الكذبة نفسها... فإن تلك الكذبة تصبح تاريخاً، وتصبح حقيقة. من يتحكم بالماضي يتحكّم بالمستقبل: ومن يتحكم بالحاضر يتحكم بالماضي."

لعل من الممكن تماماً ان تكون كل كلمة في كتب التاريخ محض خيال، حتى تلك الأشياء التي يقبلها المرء من غير سؤال

- التحكم بالمصير:

ان البشر المستعبدين يسمحون لإيقاع الحرب المستمرة بالتسارع. لكن بنية إقتصاد العالم والعملية التي يستمر من خلالها تظل من دون اي تغير اساسي حتى اذا كفّ هؤلاء الناس عن الوجود

- مفهوم السلطة:

ليست السلطة أداة، بل غاية! لا يقيم المرء ديكتاتورية حتى يحمي ثورة... يقوم المرء بثورة حتى يبني حكماً ديكتاتورياً! دافع الإضطهاد هو الإضطهاد ودافع التعذيب هو التعذيب ودافع السلطة هو السلطة

السلطة هي انزال الألم والإذلال بالآخر. السلطة هي تمزيق عقول البشر إرباً ثم تركيبها من جديد في أشكال اخرى تقررها انت

- مفهوم الأخ الأكبر:

ان الأخ الأكبر قناع يقدم الحزب نفسه من خلاله الى العالم. ووظيفته هي ان يكون نقطة يتركز فيها الحب والخوف والإجلال

ان النمط القديم من الإشتراكيين، ممن اعتادوا النضال ضد شيء يدعى الإمتيازات الطبقية افترضوا ان ما لا يكون وراثياً لا يمكن ان يكون دائماً... ولم يتوقف هؤلاء الناس قليلاً ليفكروا في ان الارستقراطيات الوراثية كانت قصيرة العمر دائماً في حين ان المؤسسات التي تستطيع ادخال اشخاص جدد، كالكنيسة الكاثوليكية مثلاً، استطاعت الإستمرار مئات السنين او آلاف السنين!

- رواية سوداوية ومحبطة خصوصاً مع تلك النهاية "انه يحب الأخ الأكبر"، لكنها واقعية بالغاية ولو تعددت الوسائل! واذا قمنا بعقد مقارنة بين الرواية والواقع فبعضنا لن يصاب بأي دهشة!.. من يدري

When I was a high school freshman, I picked up 1984 off the shelf at the school library. Older kid I didn't know came up to me--Hispanic guy from some big city in a maybe 90% white, small-town Montana school, always dressed like a gangster, ran with a rough crowd--I'll admit I felt a little threatened. He said, "Hey man, you gotta read that. My dad told me when he first read that book, he'd take two hits of acid, read a chapter, and then take two more hits of acid. He didn't leave the house for a week."
It's still the most memorable pitch for a book I've ever heard.
Turned out, that kid was a huge reader. Gave me lots of great book recommendations.

As soon as I saw “1984ishere” is trending on Twitter and realizing many people who never read the book making such nonsense comments, I decided to choose this brave, thought provoking, compelling, unconventional book as my flashback Saturday read!

Imagine a superstate Oceania is enforced by privileged Inner Party and Thought Police with a main purpose to restrict freedom of independent thinking by manipulating its citizens who are restrained, forced to shut their mouths and thoughts, turned into sacrificing lambs obey what their government told them to do! Big brothers watch every step they take, every action they plan! They slowly lose their identities by the mental and physical pressure, turning into human wastes.

Orwell created such a dark, grim, ruthless world governed by totalitarian system based on his own experiences by fighting as Franco’s fascism. But as we read some passages of the book and witness how the party intervene the people’s lives and growing hatred against the unfairness, inequality, injustice are reflections of today’s world! He truly foresaw so many things before which makes this book more terrifying, haunted but also realistic!

I was too young to fully understand and give the praise the book deserved when I read it at high school. In my opinion best thing to absorb everything written in this novel is experiencing life, observing more, aging more, learning more. It’s like mentally and culturally updating yourself. After that you’re all prepared to read this book, to understand the deep meanings between the lines, see the resemblances with the new world system you are already entitled! That’s what makes this book a brilliant and all time favorite masterpiece!

My favorite quotes from the book are:

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

“Who controls the past controls the future.Who controls the present controls the past.”

“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”

“We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.”

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

“Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”

“Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes.”

“Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you-that would be the real betrayal.”

„Nimic nu este ilegal de vreme ce nu mai există legi”.

Nici Întuneric la amiază nu-ți lasă gustul acesta de zădărnicie și inevitabil. Romanul lui George Orwell interzice orice speranță și orice iluzie. Răul devine ceva de ordinul firescului. Și mai trist este faptul că O mie nouă sute optzeci și patru nu descrie doar o lume trecută (comunismul sovietic, nazismul german) și nici nu prescrie una nouă, construită de o închipuire malefică. Lumea din roman este, pentru milioane de oameni, însăși lumea în care trăiesc. Astăzi.

Să presupunem că e ora 13, într-un an pe care Winston Smith nu-l poate stabili cu precizie. Protagonistul lucrează ca funcționar în Ministerul Adevărului, trebuie să rescrie trecutul și să-l facă imprevizibil. Se află în slujba lui Big Brother, un individ ipotetic, un conducător luminat, un tătuc amabil. Nu l-a văzut niciodată aievea, deși chipul lui opac, afișat peste tot, îi este foarte cunoscut. E un membru din familie, un bătrînel benign și simpatic, un frate mai înțelept. În definitiv, Big Brother nici nu trebuie să existe, e suficient să se discute mereu și mereu despre el: cuvintele au puterea de a da viață oricărei fantezii utile.

Winston Smith face parte dintr-o elită, poartă uniforma prestigioasă a Partidului și el însuși contribuie la perpetuarea societății. Rescrie date, planuri, mistifică realitatea și stabilește, împreună cu alți funcționari, Adevărul, fiindcă Adevărul provine întotdeauna din însumarea minciunilor. Și chiar dacă lucrează conștiincios, Smith are neșansa să-și amintească vag - și, uneori, să viseze - scene dintr-o viață complet diferită. Cîndva a avut o mamă, o soră. Londra arăta altfel, se plimba printr-o pădure.

Winston Smith e, prin urmare, un cetățean vulnerabil, un credincios cuprins de îndoieli. Și-a păstrat o identitate. Mai are un sine. Încă nu a cunoscut camera 101 și nici metodele folosite în Ministerul Iubirii. O întîlnește pe Julia, se îndrăgostește de ea (mai întîi, fac dragoste într-un luminiș din pădure, apoi în clopotnița unei biserici ruinate), cunoaște un grup de „eretici”, speră. Sfîrșitul aventurii sale e cuprins în această frază:

„Două lacrimi cu iz de gin i se preling de o parte şi de alta a nasului. Dar gata, totul este bine acum, lupta s-a sfîrşit. A cîştigat bătălia cu el însuşi, îl iubeşte pe Fratele cel Mare...”.

I know this is a well loved classic and I definitely enjoyed some parts... but some times I found myself a bit bored :S