edited Feb 15.
Jan 20, a few chapters in.
The first thing that struck me about this story, one which I have to admit I’ve never read before, is the writing. Maybe it’s because I’m in the midst of editing my latest novel and so more conscious of the word choices and description.
I’m loving the style and artistry Orwell put into these pages.
An interesting element that stood out to me is Winston’s characterisation, and supposed ‘hate’ of a young woman, who he clearly has some desires for. The parallels to the concerns there are for young men in this age who show the same negative outward expression against women, especially those who reject or ignore them was something I couldn’t miss.
It’s not a new thing, and I’m intrigued as to the line this thread will take.
Today in US time the next episode of bad reality TV occurs and I’m interested in the way the story I am reading points to the present. I’m aware of the socialist elements to 1984, but the aspects of Big Brother and rewriting history, controlling the narrative all feel eerily current.
Feb 15, 2025. The end.
So much of this novel feel current, and topical, which attests to the mastery of Orwell’s astute observation of life back in the 40’s and his ability to convey the ideas within it in a fashion that stand the test of time.
That a cycle has passed and so many similarities can be so easily extrapolated from within it to current society, albeit in a more diverse light, again highlights what a significant piece of work it is.
Of note:
If there is hope it lies in the proles.
A concept, faulted in the end, that any hope lies in the “ignorant masses” those deemed too low in the class structure to be worthy of even attention or policing.
The whole climate of thought will be different. IN fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think, Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
Perhaps that’s exactly where we are heading now but by other means. The consumption and “doom scrolling” of mindless materials much of which is purely for endless entertainment has already created concepts about the lack of modern attention spans etc. and the loss of critical thinking.
Has SMS speak, chat speak, become the Newspeak referenced in 1984 where so many words are lost and that meaning can be interpreted in whatever way you wish from the most minimal of characters and words.
Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.
How much “new truth” do we hear now following the cries of “fake news” creating a world of “truth only being what enough people will say out loud”. What measure is there for truth now, and do the masses care, or are they happy enough letting their lives disappear before their own telescreen that they carry around in their pockets and handbags and walk along the streets holding, ignoring the world around them.
Unpersons
People who no longer exist. Those whom ‘the party’ have deemed unnecessary and they disappear. The parallels to those on social media platforms who don’t comply with the rules, and become ‘unpersons’ on that platform, can’t be ignored. Certainly in a figurative sense at least.
Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low… Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself…
The aims of these groups are irreconcilable…
The primary aim of modern warfare is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living… it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction — indeed, in some sense was the destruction — of a hierarchical society. … I was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable…
… for if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves, and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away.
there’s so many quotes like those above, and concepts within that one can easily resonate with, especially at a time like 2025 when we see those with the greatest power openly flaunting it to subjicate more and enforce the differential between them and the ‘middle’ below to push the lowest so far out of reach…
A summary of 1984 by Brittanica.
Brittanica’s definition of Propaganda
dissemination of information—facts, arguments, rumours, half-truths, or lies—to influence public opinion. It is often conveyed through mass media.
A book worth reading, more than once, and at any time in history, perhaps now is the best time I could have read it.
