1984

Assigned reading for some high school class. I enjoyed it very much. I remember we were forced to watch the movie, which was terrible.

Orwell wonderfully describes a society that unquestioningly obeys.

“They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself, remained impregnable.”

THE book!

Hay muchos libros que se dicen imprescindibles, muchas listas de libros que leer en tu vida. Pero creo que este es EL libro. Si no lo has leido aun, no puedes hacer nada mejor con tu tiempo de lectura que leerlo.

Lo lei en mi adolescencia y cambió cómo veo el mundo. El libro es una distopia tan directa y cruel que obliga al lector a plantearse muchas cosas y ese es su gran poder.
Ademas presenta una sociedad con unas caracteristicas tan unicas que se quedan en la imaginacion. La influencia del libro en practicamente todo libro que trate sobre una distopia, en muchisimas peliculas e incluso uno de los mejores discos de David Bowie (Diamond Dogs) dan fe de que es un clasico necesario para comprender que somos y como pensamos.

This is the first dystopia I've read and it's one of the most influential books I've read. It's harrowing and prescient. It's also a great story.

I read this novel in Grade 9 as it was required reading, along with Diary of Anne Frank, Romeo and Juliet, The Stone Angel and A Handmaid's Tale. My children have now entered high school and their required reading still includes Romeo and Juliet and Anne Frank however 1984 has been replaced with The Hunger Games, The Giver and Divergent. I am not against any of the new additions. I just believe it would be so valuable to have 1984 and Fahrenheit 465 (I think, it's been 30 years forgive me) as initial backdrops to these new and Hollywood fuelled novels. What is there to say about 1984? A classic and a must read. I have to say...I happened to be in grade 9 in 1984 so....even more thrilling time to read the novel!

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

It's an alternate world and it's not a pretty one. Our main character, Winston, is a party official in a totalitarian world:

“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”

Big Brother is always watching. Winston is not totally under the thumb of Big Brother, however; soon he is sought as a “thought criminal,” for his acts of insurrection that include such simple acts as keeping a journal and thinking for himself.

And always 1984 will remain as a warning, a caution, a reminder.

Read in 10th grade for school. Thought it was cool then, still think so now.