1984 George Orwell
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You'd never guess with that avatar and allXanadu84 said:
OT:It could go either way and as far as it coming true i dont think it will come to the extremes in the book but certainly it is happening to some extent and always will in times of trouble.
This series of events sound familiar to anyone:
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
I agree with Homage to Catalonia. It's certainly one of his best. The first act of the book, where he describes the culture of the Spanish anarchists speaks to me as the perfect society. It's too bad that the moral of the story is that while some, if not most people are reasonable and can live a life of communal respect, that there is always an extremist who will ruin everyone's vision of a good life.Spectrum_Prez said:
1984 is one of the most chilling books I've ever read. People here attack the pacing, but I think it's intentionally jarring. The whole point of the novel is to keep you in an uncomfortable position to give perspective of just how evil totalitarianism is. Everything is cold, desolate and hopeless. He throws these incredible scenes at you, like the two-minute hate. Everything is kind of slow up to that point, and you get a few pages of intensely descriptive writing that pulls you out of your comfort zone and then he throws you back into this hopeless, desolate world. I always found it to be genius.
On the topic of Animal Farm, I always found that while the story was woven much better, that it lacked the punch of 1984. They both approach the same subject from different angles. The message in Animal Farm wasn't nearly as intense and it didn't have the same immediacy. Seems more like the Grimm's fairy tale version of 1984.
I just started a sleeve dedicated to literary reference, mostly philosophy stuff, but I felt the need to dedicate a large portion to Orwell, as 1984 was one of the first books that got me into reading. I'm very excited about it.
You can see John Hurt as Winston Smith (the movie was the best reference we had to go off) and the chair from Room 101 soon there will be a smaller portrait of Julia and O'Brien with a few other small references. I also intend on having the portrat of Orwell (god damn he is an ugly one)in his service uniform during his time in Spain.
Thirded. Animal Farm had good characters and a plot that was actually interesting.JemJar said:
And I, too, really hate the way people say "Take a look at the USA; 1984 already happened!" Unless we're filmed in our own homes and no-one is allowed to critizise Prez Obama or they'll get imprisoned we have not reached a 1984 society.
(sigh)
Yes, 1984 is a great novel. But it was intended as a warning not bloody prophecy or a how-to manual for despotic cretins.
Yes, 1984 is a great novel. But it was intended as a warning not bloody prophecy or a how-to manual for despotic cretins.
Fiftheded.Glefistus said:
(Yes, i know.)
One of my favourite books, and one of the most important and influential novels of all time; which is an exceptional boast for a book which is in essence, incredibly depressing to read. I would not recommend reading it and listening to something like Nine Inch Nails at the same time.
Maybe not in your country, but it was happening here. The natural political pendelum swing saved us after 8 years but during that time, our government randomly spied on private citizens who had committed no crime, looking at private emails and phone calls. The 4 big cell phone companies handed over EVERYONE'S phone records. Resources that should have been spent going after child predators were instead spent spying on small political groups who had never spoken of or advocated terrorism or overthrowing the government. Innocent people with ties to terrorism that were innocuous at best, including some American citizens, were whisked away on concordes to nations that still practice mideval forms of torture, such as placing a detainee's hand in boiling water. The executive branch began to ink a billion+dollar deal with a large advertising firm to start a propaganda campaign until the press got wind of it. The CIA sent "liasons" to hollywood to "raise awareness and interest" in foreign espionage and military action. At least 2 reality shows were in the works. 24 and Spy Game were the only notable results. A war was started with a country that had no ties to the attacks on our own. We gave the UN, Geneva and the rest of the world the finger, and xenophobic, jingoistic paranoia was encouraged with Nazi-esque propaganda tactics and brand new phrases like "known unknowns and unknown knowns," "if you're not with us, you're with the terrorists," and "enemy combatants." Also, Dick Cheney shot a guy in the face.The_ModeRazor said:
Never trust a guy who looks like a Batman villain and shoots people in the face.
Like Animal Farm I think it was ideas and philosophies that Orwell tried to put forward, not the likeliness such an event will ever happen.
China isn't properly communist at all. It retained the convenient ability to repress the people, but it trades with the rest of the world, it's economically worlds away from communism.Edhed said:
In the interests of full disclosure I have only really read half the book, it became quite depressing towards the end. I believe that Orwell was rather prescient in certain aspects of his portrayal of a dystopian future such as the amount of personal information the government has access to but that (hopefully) the difference is that there are well known laws regarding how and when the government can actually see said information.