1984

1984 is a good novel dragged somewhat by modern context. Orwell wrote this novel in post-war England and depicted a future where: people live in a surveillance state, the public's perception of “truth” is clouded by misinformation, and humanity loses itself due to war hysteria and thirst for power.

Winston's (the main protagonist) monologues on the Party's use of misinformation to manipulate the public happens to be a hyperbolic reminder of today's political climate, yet to me it felt somewhat stale and long winded. He also explains the surveillance state and “new” technology in great detail, but once again this sounded like something I've heard before. The idea of society being under constant watch by a government entity is now a mainstream topic of debate, and the technology to do it already exists. This made even more of the book slightly tedious to read for me, although, my casual boredom speaks to Orwell's uncanny foresight on how these topics fit into modern society, and if I had read this 10 years ago I might be writing a different review.

Orwell also makes a point that we could lose our humanity by becoming cogs in a destructive, power-hungry machine, despite (or because of) the emergence of new technology and the abundance of resources provided by manufacturing. This would be a palpable prediction coming out of the World Wars and it's even more interesting because it's basically true during the Cold War era in the last half of the 20th century. Americans squirmed under the pretense of nuclear war and destruction, yet it became an ordinary part of life and people went about their lives. But now, in 2022, I believe that we've mostly avoided this fate. War has largely fallen out of favor (I'm thinking of the loss in Vietnam, nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from Afghanistan, and economic globalization) and, more or less, the pretense for war has withered. Now, our generation's hurdles are consumerism, equity, and climate change. In my opinion, if we lose our humanity it will be due to mindless scrolling, a corporate job, or obscurity in history.

As a casual reader, 1984 dragged in bits throughout, shined in the last quarter, and provided some interesting introspection, so “I liked it” at 3/5 stars.