1984

This books made me so much more aware of my surroundings and the world around me and it constantly has me thinking about how we could actually turn into the world described in the book.

It's hard to say I “like” this book, because it is disturbing and frightening. But it is also important and despite having been written in 1949, it feels like it could be about 2019.

Me pareció fantástico. Siempre he pensado en el mundo así, y muchas veces en charlas terminamos hablando de este libro o de lo que significa o trae en controversia para que se cambie en cierto punto el paradigma. Me pareció perfectamente escrito, y también creo que George Orwell es un excelente escritor. Lo único que no hizo que le pusiera 5 estrellas fue que me pareció una lectura lenta.

It tells you what you know already .. so enjoy reading it.

Why do I discover masterpieces so long after they are written?
God damn Orwell.

Ingsoc and its cruel ways of ensuring a regime which discourages you to think anything against the party and the big brother, made me question a lot of things I did believe in and weigh them against whether a regime based on these principles would work in the long run.
Loved reading/listening to this one.

War Is Peace
Freedom Is Slavery
Ignorance Is Strength

2 + 2 = 4

:p

i'm pretty meh about it lol
part 2 chapter 9 took me 10 days to read and it was. painful

3.5 Stars for 1984 by George Orwell.

Well, how to do I feel about 1984?

Mixed I think is the way to describe it, this is a classic in Sci-fi and I really can see why, its powerful, well written and it has a strong (and believable plot).
I think the plot is equal parts the best and worst part of this book, amazing, scary and detailed but also slow and tedious in places.

I wont go over the plot, if you dont know the “Big Brother” style government plot from 1984 you are missing out, whilst its slow in places its scary how believable this felt for me. The government taking over every aspect of your life, controlling what you can and cant do even to the extent of “Thought Police” who arrest you for bad thoughts against “Big Brother”.

I'm very glad I finally read 1984 but the slower parts of the story mean I cant give it 4 stars, must read for classic sci-fi fans!

The all time favourite. The masterpiece. The chef's kiss.

I would read this piece anytime in a year with a blink of an eye! It has amazing plot with all the background details, likeable characters with very realistic reactions and behaviours AND the sad twist at the end.
If Mr. Blair would be alive today I would kiss his feet thousand times.

In this day and age of unhinged politicians, dictators, and world-wide pandemics, who hasn't heard of George Orwell's science fiction classic Nineteen Eighty-Four? This novel has been both loved and reviled ever since its post-war publication in 1949. Written as a warning against totalitarianism on the back of the horrors of WWII and the Cold War, Orwell explores the dark sides of complete government control and the dangers of mindlessly following orders and the authorities.

Book content warnings: violence, physical and psychological torture, gaslighting, sexually explicit scenes.

Summary
In the totalitarian state of Oceania, citizens are brainwashed into following the Party and its all-seeing leader, Big Brother. The citizens are constantly monitored by an entity who works for Big Brother, known as the Thought Police, and are often taken away by the government when found ‘guilty' of going against society, never to be seen again. One such divergent thinkers is Winston Smith, who slowly starts to rebel against the system by joining other dissenters called the Brotherhood. However, Winston is eventually caught by a government spy for having committed thought-crime, and is subsequently imprisoned and tortured until his spirit is broken. He then returns to being a brainwashed, obedient citizen who follows Big Brother.

Winston represents a hope for freedom and free thought in a society where everything is highly controlled by an overseeing group. His tragic end of returning to his original way of thinking shows how these groups can exert their power and control over ordinary citizens by using their fears as weapons against them. The Party's slogan in itself showcases how control is achieved: the ignorance of the people is the evildoers' source of strength. The less that people are educated and aware of what the governing body is up to, the less they will want to rebel and overthrow the system and, by breaking individuals who have a fighting spirit, like Winston, control is achieved over the masses. The strength and power of the leaders lies in making an example out of one or two ‘antis' and showing to the rest of the population that disobedience and resistance are very dangerous things.

This theme of extreme surveillance and scrutiny was reprised by the philosopher Michel Foucault in his book Discipline and Punish (1975) in which he established that there is a self-governance at play when one knows (or thinks) that one is being watched. Foucault adapted Orwell's idea and applied it to the prison system, but the idea of self-surveillance and self-punishment is something that can be seen outside of the prison cell. It is an action that is performed by all humans, regardless of the level of external surveillance and its associated threat (for example, a child may behave better if they know that their mother is potentially watching).

Why Was It Banned?
Ironically, Nineteen Eighty-Four was banned in the United States for being “pro-communist,” no doubt because of its representation of the disdain of authority and the novel's conclusion of Winston returning to blind obedience. [1] In Poland, the novel was made illegal from 1976-1989 because it was too political. [2]

It is no surprise that such a book would be unpopular with certain governments. However, to think that Orwell's novel is pro-communist is to miss its entire point: the dangers of having communist and totalitarian regimes as governing powers are highlighted through the fact that Winston is re-indoctrinated into believing in these powers. The novel clearly warns its readers through this allegory to not repeat the same mistakes of the past, most notably the mistakes that led to and supported WWII.

Why Should You Read It?
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a cautionary tale about giving away too many freedoms and too much power to a governing body. Its ideas are about resistance and the importance of free will and freedom of thought. The novel's unique language of “newspeak,” “thought-crime,” “doublethink,” and “2+2=5” all reveal a truth about linguistic and political control of information. This probably sounds familiar to readers of this novel in the 21st century, in an age where notions of “fake news” and “alternative facts” have infiltrated society and are used to push forward certain political agendas.

Orwell's novel has been called prophetic because of the similarity between its themes and recent developments around the world, but in fact, it is not prophetic as much as it is saying “what happened during WWII and the Soviet era can happen again, and it will reoccur if we as a society are not more careful with how we distribute power.”

__________

Sources:

[1]. www.thefileroom.org
[2]. “1984.” Beacon for Freedom of Expression.

Had super high expectations which brings my score down. It is defo a good book but I much preferred “Brave New World”. Made me recognise a lot of things in our own culture that are scary

I loved this just as much as I expected. Considering this book is 70 years old, it still reads like a modern book, while hitting a strange chord in our modern world.

كانت تجربة جديدة جيدة جداً مع هذه الرواية ، أول مرة أجرّب الاستماع إلى الكتاب الصوتي والقراءة في آن واحد :)
___

حينما نلقي نظرة على الواقع السياسي، سنجد أكثر ما تنبأ به أورويل حاصل فعلاً؛ تزييف التاريخ ، السيطرة الإعلامية ، المراقبة المكثفة ، النزعة نحو المادية ...

فالمجتمع الذي يصوره أورويل مجتمع بلا روح ، أشبه بالموتى بل أعظم من ذلك!

الرواية بالمجمل جيدة جداً وإن أحسست بالملل في بعض أجزائها خصوصاً لما بلغت منتصفها لكنها تحسنت تدريجيًا حتى نهايتها.

This is scary af.
Hats off to George Orwell imagination.

A future in my past written in a distant past. What an amazing book. Orwell's writing has lasted near perfectly (i.e. modern and in context) some 70 years later (which frankly blows my mind).

The story breaks into three parts as we make our way into Winston's mind. Part 1 reads like I'm learning around his world and how he experiences it. The mundane work, the acceptance of his role, whilst he secretly scratches his mind back.

In part 2, I feel like I'm taking into Winston's heart as he re-experiences the world and the life and love that still exists in it. I loved some of the expressions and sadness that came with those expressions. Such as Winston knowing that what he was doing was against the “rules”, and that it was simply an inevitability of being caught and tortured.

He believes that he's given up his body already to the world of 1984, and when the Thought Police catch him, they'll take his mind, and so long as he protects his heart, he'll live on.

Part 3 is mostly from inside of Winston's mind, as O'Brian works firstly to break Winston's mind, but then puts it back together in The Party's form. The place that O'Brian (and thusly The Party) comes from is entirely bleak and worse, believable in my own reality today.

O'Brian utters phrases like:

> Nonsense. The earth is as old as we are, no older. How could it be older? Nothing exists except through human consciousness.

Bleak.

Eventually, there's no winning. There's no happy ending. There never could be. Winston's heart is pierced, he's made to love Big Brother, and only then, when he's fully remade in The Party's eyes, does it end. For him, and for us.

So many things about this book are foundational to my belief systems. I originally read it as required reading in 1984 in middle school and have always considered it one of my favorite books. From the concept of constant surveillance to NewSpeak and DoubleThink, this is one heck of a deep read. The illicit affair that centers the story is practically laughable in retrospect.

This book is shockingly prescient. It was intended to be so and specifically targeted the year 1984 as when Orwell thought the things in the book would come to pass. He missed the target by a few years, but certainly hit the bulls-eye regarding outcome. It's truly awe-inspiring that Orwell was able to see this coming in 1948. I remember reading it back in 1984 and thinking, “wow, what a horrible world to live in. I'm so glad America could never end up like that.” What an naive idiot I was. For years, I've been thinking that this will be one of the first books made criminal in various countries as they abandon freedom of speech and implement authoritarian socialism.

I think it should be required reading for everyone in the world, but especially for all members of “Western Civilization.” (I would just leave it every human being, but after reading this, can you even imagine this being allowed in China?) It highlights again and again the truth that no matter which side of the aisle you may consider yourself to sit, the real “us against them” is citizens vs government. No corporation or other entity will ever have the power over you as an individual that government does. And giving any government more power will ONLY end up in ceding more of your liberty to them. And like a glutton, giving it a little power only makes it ravenously hungry for more. And it soon comes to a point that it will take that liberty from you against your will “For Your Own Good.”

This is the world in which we live today. People are Sheeple and they are literally demanding the government be given more power over us all. And both sides of government power are sitting in their offices laughing as they play the citizenry against each other, all the while taking more power for themselves.

Remember this: the farthest person opposite you on the political spectrum has 100% more in common with YOU than ANY professional politician ever has or ever will.

This book is one wild ride! I love that in around 300 pages this book can keep surprising you with twists and turns. I enjoyed the dark dystopian backdrop to this novel and I loved the use of language and memory as weapons of suppression. I really enjoyed the complex relationship between Julia and Winston and I felt it allowed the story to have a deeper layer of narrative. The only point in the book that I dragged myself through was the bit in the middle of the book when Winston is reading Goldsteins Book and the few pages of that is rather academic and stuffy and could have been condensed or revised in my opinion. Also the ending was slightly dragged out for me but I am not sure whether that's because I read the book fragmentarily throughout the week. Overall though I really loved the book. I think it has so much to say about the modern world we live in and I think it deserves multiple reads in one lifetime to fully glean out Orwell's genius. For now I am content giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

read this one in high school, didn't realize I'd never rated.

A bit slow at times, but good overall. I enjoyed the false hope Orwell suggests, and then abruptly squashes into obliteration.
I never read this book in high school like I was assigned to do, but I believe reading it now as I am older, I understand it a lot better. I am left with a hopelessness that I don't think would have been there if I had read it as a kid.

In this imagined world, change and hope are useless. It is not possible to change the system. It will never change and will never be better, in the tradition sense of the word “better.”

Looking at our world, I often times feel this way. How do we change and get better against a huge, huge problem? I am but one person in this huge fight and don't even know what I can do to make things better...

A delightfully frightening masterpiece. The most surprising thing to me is how relevant this book continues to be. That Orwell was so incredibly in tune with totalitarianism to create a projection of a horrifying dystopian future in 1949 is just unbelievable. Way ahead of his time.

This is a really good novel. I cannot BELIEVE it took me this long to read this! The writing is spectacular, pulled me right in and kept me there even after I looked up spoilers to look up how it ended. Wow, this was good.

A fascinating read. I found Orwell's dystopian world to be thought provoking and relevant, even in current times. A most compelling book. Highly recommended!

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past”. Gorge Orwell wrote 1984 at 1948. He is among the deep thinkers at his time. Within 1984 Gorge Orwell picture a restricted society in which people have been watched and brain washed so government could have full control. There is a minister of truth in charge of amending the past so people do not have the truth and knowledge about the past. People been trained to believe “ignorance is strength war is peace freedom is slavery”.

Winston is the main character of the book. The author shows how the intuition is screwed within this society so Winston intuition is telling him Julia is an agent and member of the party however it turns out Julia is just in love with him. Winston thinks O'brien is a member of the brotherhood and it turn's out he is an agent working directly with the party.

Winston got access to Goldstein book and he thought this book is wrote by freedom fighter or brotherhood. This book contains some facts and conspiracies, however it turns out it wrote by party members so they can find and detect people that looking for truth and brain wash them. Thoughtcrime is the most unforgivable crime in this society and though police watching people all the time.

Gorge Orwell illustrate in his book how corrupted government or so called big brother control and rule the nation by killing the freedom, peace and knowledge. Big brother is at top of the pyramid and comes after it the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles.

This book is not an easy read, I was lucky I watched the Movie first and been through the audio book twice until I could be able to connect the dots and enjoy the book.

Holy.shit.

En algún momento podré dar un review más profundo sobre este libro... cuando las sensaciones y emociones que me produjo se calmen y vuelvan a su lugar.

A really good political dystopia book. The world Orwell creates is very detailed and well thought out. My only complaint is that it's a little over the top, which is kinda it's job as satire, but it's still somewhat jarring. I can understand camera's in everyone's house, but they're monitoring your facial expressions?

Jak jsem se mohl dostat k té knize až teď? Na druhou stranu jsem rád, že jsem se k ní vůbec dostal. Utopický román, který zjevně nikdy nezestárne, protože se historie opakuje pořád dokolečka a v současnosti toho přináší hodně k zamyšlení. Nejen, že se začnete dívat na politiku jinak, ale začnete oceňovat tu svobodu, kterou ještě máme.