1984 Appreciation Thread

[Prometheus]

You f*cked up if you die without reading 1984.

Certain eras in history seem marked by a widespread sense that one's life is determined and constrained by large impersonal forces of many kinds--historical, political, military, social, economic, judicial, biological, elemental, instinctual--too powerful and dominant to be affected by the individual self. I believe we are in one of those eras right now. George Orwell captured this zeitgeist so well.

One question at any rate was answered. Never, for any reason on earth, could you wish for an increase of pain. Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes, no heroes, he thought over and over as he writhed on the floor, clutching uselessly at his disabled left arm.

When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instant of death we cannot permit any deviation. In the old days the heretic walked to the stake still a heretic, proclaiming his heresy, exulting in it. Even the victim of the Russian purges could carry rebellion locked up in his skull as he walked down the passage waiting for the bullet. But we make the brain perfect before we blow it out.

Do not imagine that you will save yourself, Winston, however completely you surrender to us. No one who has once gone astray is ever spared. And even if we chose to let you live out the natural term of your life, still you would never escape from us. What happens to you here is for ever. Understand that in advance. We shall crush you down to the point from which there is no coming back. Things will happen to you from which you could not recover, if you lived a thousand years. Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves.

We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

[quote]
"The real power, the power we have to fight for night and day, is not power over things, but over men." [O'Brien] paused, and for a moment assumed again his air of a schoolmaster questioning a promising pupil: "How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?"

Winston thought. "By making him suffer," he said.

"Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.

The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy

[egokiller]

The best thing about 1984 is that you only had to wait one more year for the NES to launch.

History was made!

[dunksby]

1984 gets a lot of recognition but a book equally as good which usually gets ignored is Brave New World. I'd say Huxley's novel is as essential a read as is 1984.

[Akrazotile]

1984 gets a lot of recognition but a book equally as good which usually gets ignored is Brave New World. I'd say Huxley's novel is as essential a read as is 1984.

Theyre conceptual equals.

1984 has a more compelling storyline, and Orwell is the superior technical writer. IMO.

But both are very important, yes.

[rufuspaul]

1984 gets a lot of recognition but a book equally as good which usually gets ignored is Brave New World. I'd say Huxley's novel is as essential a read as is 1984.

This. Plus it had more sex.

[Prometheus]

1984 gets a lot of recognition but a book equally as good which usually gets ignored is Brave New World. I'd say Huxley's novel is as essential a read as is 1984.

Perfect.

Brave New World was written and published in exactly one of these eras as well - during the Great Depression in 1931 and 1932. And of course, similar dystopian ideas are explored.

Share some of your favorite passages from Brave New World.

[JohnnySic]

1984 is a GREAT book but some elements in it are silly. The telescreens - you couldn't even breath the wrong way without someone knowing about it. GTFO.

[bladefd]

1984 is a GREAT book but some elements in it are silly. The telescreens - you couldn't even breath the wrong way without someone knowing about it. GTFO.

What's silly about that?

[Akrazotile]

1984 is a GREAT book but some elements in it are silly. The telescreens - you couldn't even breath the wrong way without someone knowing about it. GTFO.

Well technically it was not a certainty that you were being watched at any given moment, just a possibility.

It does stretch credulity a bit that the Inner Party would have the sheer man power to watch people often enough to catch the amount of transgressors as they seemed to. Even tho the IP only monitored the Outer Party and not the Proles, you

[Akrazotile]

What's silly about that?

Please do not contribute in this thread.

[Ben Simmons 25]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is underrated. Cocksucking central bankers.

[JEFFERSON MONEY]

Both of those, along with Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, and Lord of the Flies are standard in U.S. high school curriculum IIRC.

[Prometheus]

Both of those, along with Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, and Lord of the Flies are standard in U.S. high school curriculum IIRC.

And yet, I come across a lot of adults who have never read it.

[Prometheus]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is underrated. Cocksucking central bankers.

December 23, 1913

[DCL]

1984 is like a round 1 question on who wants to be a millionaire.

you don't really want to be friends with people who miss those.