1984

Well written and a very good look into the mind a someone is the ww2 era, however I fail to see the modern relevance. Seems like an excessive amount of fear mongering cos post war society.

A valiant take on totalitarianism. Orwell's oeuvre questions the norms that forms the very “backbone” of a working society in a very existential manner. The concept of “thought police” is a very distinctive illustration of such. A ghastly tale of demise of sanity and henceforth proving, sanity indeed IS statistical.

Best warning for mankind. Loved it. A must read!

I have never thought much of this novel - having it assigned three times in high school undoubtedly did not help.

No se que decir. Esperaba mucho más, quizás porque siempre me lo han recomendado.

Creo que me hubiera gustado mucho más si todo no fuera tan evidente, si en tu corazón siguiera existiendo la duda si el Gran Hermano es algo que la humanidad necesita para avanzar.

I can't say that enjoyed this book.
Mostly, because it's beyond disturbing and because it scared the living hell out of me.

But I can say with absolute certainty that this is one of the best written books I have ever picked up.
What a mind - both philosophical and scientifically analytical!
In this book you'll find knowledge, foresight, debt and a lot of food for thought.

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.”

i was so hyped for this book but wow oh wow it sucked so bad but just like everyone else i will point out that yes it made some great points on humans and power and yes our world is very fastly approaching an outrageous dystopia (oh who am i kidding? we're already there)

About the not dating thing in this book... already a thing in Australia and lots of other countries. In australia, if you're on welfare due to being disabled or unable to work.. you can't date without them kicking you off welfare or cutting your pay so much that you can't survive. “oh you went on one date with a man? well ask him to pay for your bills, rent, and food”
I heard this happens in other countries too. Just basically making sure disabled people stay poor and don't ask for any more essential stuff that will cost the government money.

I am a believer of free speech, we have nothing without it, we cease to be humans without it so i do find our world right now a bit.... yeah people shouldn't spew hate but it's when people have reasonable opinions and they get kicked from school, work and any future employment because of things they have said is just an evil thing. Forcing others to have the same opinion as you (like this book) will never turn out good. No one will switch sides to agree with you if all you do is yell at them, take away their jobs, doxx them all because they think differently about something.

This book is a surprise. After reading, I felt the need to organize my thoughts. I recommend the book

I didn't LOVE the story in itself. It was good, but not as incredible as I thought it would be since it's such a famous book.
What makes 1984 great is that it makes you question a lot of things you usually take for granted. George Orwell wanted us to have an existential crisis and I respect that.

Honestly surprised me, I've heard how much people rave over it but I did not think it would be my cup of tea. It ended up being pretty good. I think that so many modern forms of media have been so heavily inspired by 1984, that while this might have been the first occurrence, to me I've already seen these topics explored thoroughly throughout different books tv shows and movies. I think the book really picks up during the second half and that I wish there was more of it to consume. It would have been interesting to have seen the events from more perspectives maybe jumping through time and people but I see how that would have diluted the story we got.

4.5 stars

I won't attempt to say what smarter people and more eloquent writers already have. Instead, I'll simply say this book was very good, but I didn't exactly enjoy reading it. That's the only thing keeping it from being a full 5 stars.

man these books always end like that :(

I understand the societal importance of this novel, and the world is quite immersive. For me, it was a snooze fest, partly because I find political sci-fi really hard to enjoy. I tried.

Que livro espetacular.

É uma pena que não me foi recomendado antes. Acredito que todo jovem—especialmente esquerdistas e progressistas—deveria lê-lo. Ao contrário do que alguns dizem, não se trata de uma crítica direta ao comunismo. Orwell, como ex-combatente da Guerra Civil Espanhola, testemunhou na Europa os excessos da Revolução Socialista Russa e, posteriormente, sua radicalização em um Estado Totalitário. É essa a crítica central do livro: não a um regime ideológico específico, mas ao fato de que o ser humano é inerentemente egoísta e, por isso, busca o poder não como meio para alcançar algo, mas para perpetuá-lo.

Assim como ocorreu no período do Terror durante a Revolução Francesa, que culminou com a guilhotina de Robespierre, o livro mostra que fora da democracia existe a barbárie. Fora da liberdade de expressão, há o “crimepensar”. Estabelece-se a censura para proteger a revolução. Caçam-se opositores e, posteriormente, críticos dentro do próprio espectro ideológico para proteger a revolução. Chega-se a um ponto em que já não existe mais o objetivo da revolução; instaura-se um regime ditatorial para manter a “interminável revolução”.

Assim como Orwell, ainda sou um esquerdista, mas um esquerdista conservador—não no sentido distorcido que bolsonaristas, trumpistas e reacionários perpetuam hoje, mas no sentido clássico. Um conservadorismo voltado para a preservação das instituições—no nosso caso, como brasileiro, a nossa (im)perfeita democracia. Com todos os seus desafios, ainda é o melhor sistema que temos. E, apesar do caminho difícil, acredito firmemente que tornar nosso país menos injusto socialmente e com mais igualdade de oportunidades é mais seguro pela via republicana. Evitar excessos, garantir direitos inalienáveis e combater qualquer tipo de autoritarismo são fundamentais.

Terminei a leitura após o fatídico 8 de janeiro—um “6 de janeiro” para chamar de nosso. Hoje, torço para que os envolvidos nesse ato golpista, que começou quando aquele político começou a questionar os Três Poderes em maio de 2019, sejam punidos de acordo com a lei. Nada mais, nada menos. Que seus direitos de defesa sejam assegurados, afinal, ninguém merece outra Lava Jato.
SEM ANISTIA.

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.

A really good dystopian classic

Era pra ter lido esse na escola, mas não me arrependo de ter demorado tanto. Seja pelo meu momento pessoal de vida, pelo contexto político atual ou por essa edição da Antofágica, sinto que tive uma experiência muito mais interessante que teria em qualquer outra circunstância até hoje.

É deprimente, apesar de instigante, identificar tantos aspectos de 1984 e do Partido no meu entorno, desde a apropriação e ressignificação de símbolos e palavras, até a perda da privacidade e alienação do indivíduo. Mas observar os pequenos momentos de fuga e rebeldia de Winston dão alguma esperança que, apesar de esmagada no decorrer dos capítulos, continua existente, enterrada e insistente. Ele procura liberdades na mente, no amor e na memória que acabam sendo amplificadas por sua destruição.

Quanto à estrutura, o ritmo e escala dos eventos vão aumentando a cada seção e há momentos que me deixaram realmente em agonia. A escrita de Orwell é relativamente neutra em tom, o que, acredito, recebeu extremamente bem as várias intervenções de diagramação da edição da Antofágica. Com essa nova dinamicidade do texto, acompanhada das ótimas ilustrações, minha experiência de leitura foi amplificada em várias vezes.

No geral, foi uma ótima leitura, como um (re)encontro com um parente distante do qual só ouvi comentários promissores.

Expected way too much, I imagine this would've been my favorite book, if I'd have read it 1949-2000 but now all of those dystopian thoughts are not that unrealistic anymore. I missed content in the book, read 300 pages but it felt like only 50 but in the way of it just lacking content. Not sure what to think about it.

An awesome critic of society.

Orwel is an awesome writer for social critics and 1984 is no exception. We are set in a world where the government has a absolute power over the life's of the people. With power over the media and even language.

The book is divided into 3 parts.
The first is an exposition where we are presented this government and all its power over day to day life from the view point of an insider.
The second one is the story on it self. Heavily inspired by romeo and Juliet and the concept of prohibited love.
And the last part is a reflexion about the consequences of such a government. It is a very scary part, primarily because it is a very plausible state. This is personally my favorite part since it got me thinking, something not many books have accomplished...

All in all it is an awesome book. But it does not get a perfect score because some chapters are too long and may turn some readers down. Don't be scared of the long chapters, it is worth.

Honestly felt like I was spiralling reading this book. Anyways winston x obrien endgame

The fact that it took me 6 days to read this 300-pages book says it all I think.

I decided to read nothing but the classics for August and 1984 was on the list. I don't remember reading this in school as most people did (and having completed it, I'm sure I would remember the rat scene if nothing else!).
Since I've finished it, I understand why it is so picked apart in school. There were so many unanswered questions at the end, I longed for a group of people I could discuss the whole thing with.
Sigh.
It is also scary how true it felt for our present day. A parallel with the media divisiveness comes to mind. I am glad I read it, but it will sit with me for a long time. Guess that's the point.

I have read 1984 before, but this was my first read that conferred real meaning and ability to draw terrifying parallels into the present. Astutely representative and profoundly depressing.

a classic!! i'm convinced orwell was a time traveler bc the themes in this book are as relevant as ever to our current times

I think the only thing I didn't like much about this book was that it talked a lot about politics and I am not that into it. That being said, I loved the way Orwell delved into the narrator's mind, it felt fresh. The world building was great, too. But the book handled politics and problems that aren't relevant today. I will recommend it to anyone slightly interested in politics. It's a great book.