'Splain to me 1984?

[Richard Hakluyt]

An interesting thing about re-reads is that features of a book that seemed unimportant at one time can become far more salient under one's changed circumstances.

Take, for example, Winston's wanker of a neighbour and his revolting children.

This seemed very unimportant to me in my first two reads of the book (when I was a teen and as a single man in my late 20s). But, in my recent re-read, that little sub-plot really hit home and made the novel significantly more depressing.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I disagree with the thread consensus.  I think 1984 is probably one of the most read books around.  Certainly one of the  'important' novels that are widely read by the mainstream anyway.

Agreed, I would assume that people had read it if I was in a pub discussion for example.

[garbon]

I've read it several times but it is intertwined in my mind with Brave New World.

[Malthus]

I've read it several times but it is intertwined in my mind with Brave New World.

When you work in the pharma industry, that's not surprising. 

[Razgovory]

I'm not sure if there really very many actual totalitarian governments that have actually existed.  It's very hard for the state to control every aspect of someone's life.  The Soviet Union under Stalin is one of the most well known though I think the closest was Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge.  I think Nazi Germany aspired to it but never was competent enough to achieve it.  North Korea very well may be one, but it's hard to tell because nobody really knows what goes on in that country.

The GDR was probably more successful in that aspect than the Nazis.

Yeah the DDR also way up on the list.  I don't know much about it though.  To me a totalitarian government means there can't be any life outside the state.  That just takes a lot of effort.

[Habbaku]

I've read it several times but it is intertwined in my mind with Brave New World.

My high school made us read that instead of 1984. 

[Josquius]

I must say I've never read Brave New World.
But then I only first read 1984 two or three years ago.
My school chose the really crappy options for English- I could see elsewhere in the coursebook we had that one of the options available to us was Animal Farm. Yet they chose something so rubbish I can't even remember what it was...a bunch of short stories maybe.

[Josephus]

What strikes me about "1984" references is that they're pretty much limited to "1984" and "Big Brother".  It's like no one ever read the book, and just parrots what everyone else says.  It's sort of similar to all the free market advocates being able to reference Adam Smith himself and the butcher with his lack of benevolence, but nothing else.

That's not true at all. I've been known to also say "Doublespeak."

I've used the phrase "Hot for teacher" before.   

I get it.  [Van Halen, 1984 joke]

[Josephus]

I've read it several times but it is intertwined in my mind with Brave New World.

My high school made us read that instead of 1984. 

One of the best courses I took at university was a course on Utiopian and Dystopian ficiton. While the Utopian stuff was crap we read some really good Dystopian ficiton including 1984, Brave New World, This Perfect Day by Ira Levin and Anthem by Ayn Rand. Loads of good stuff.

[Barrister]

Anthem by Ayn Rand. Loads of good stuff.

[Josephus]

Anthem by Ayn Rand. Loads of good stuff.

Best Rand book, IMO (the shortest one, too)

[Richard Hakluyt]

The trouble with the utopias is that, in general, they are even worse than the dystopias 

[Sheilbh]

The trouble with the utopias is that, in general, they are even worse than the dystopias 

Well all utopias are dystopias and vice versa.  It largely depends on what you're willing to have and what you get in return.  Utopia's a great example.

[Alexandru H.]

One of the most interesting (and neglected things) about "1984" is that the victims of the novel are party members, not simple proles. The usual guy, as the novel suggests, is not followed around, is not being subjected to psychological manipulation: he is allowed to drink, gets porn and lottery... Winston's conviction that the proles are the future is so extraordinary because he somehow is the only person that thinks that. Not even O'Brien (that is aware of all the problems of the regime) can comprehend the possibility of the proles taking over.

Since real totalitarianism was impossible in the XXcentury, as far as the technical possibilities would allow, Orwell insists on the communist pattern of imposing control upon the new elites. While the old societies would try to subject the lowly people while maintaining peace with the other leading factions of society, the new ones transform upper politics into a wargame of uneasy truces and devious backstabbings, pushing the rest of the people in a space devoided of any political discussion or debate. The scary part of the novel is not Winston's suffering, but the fact that Big Brother managed to train proles into insensitive cattle, that have no interest whatsoever in politics and leadership of their society.

[The Brain]

You can't let your students see that movie. Full frontal nudity? You will lose your job so fast your head won't stop spinning until we have a white president.