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Topic:
Modern Classics of World Literature (currently disc. "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck)
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Zombi_2_1979
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
11/18/06 12:18pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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In relation, I've just started "Animal Farm", quite insightful, introspective, and very very funny.
Many times Orwell is mentioned by others quite flippantly and underspoken for, yet, he was an author that was hitting all cylinders.
I will have to look up his other works and essays whenever there it's convenient.
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JediNemesis
Registered:
Mar '03
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Date Posted:
11/18/06 12:41pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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For our A2 year (last year of high school, non-Brits  ) in English Lit we had to do a long essay comparing aspects of any two works of fiction we wanted. I did 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. I actually can't remember the essay title, now but this is entirely beside the point 
I love 1984 in the sense that it's a stunning work of literature, painfully realistic in the authenticity which with Orwell presents the sheer banality of Winston's life: ulcers, horrible canteen food, foul paint-stripper-alike Victory Gin.
The detailing means the book takes a regime every bit as vile and extreme as the GFFA Empire and brings it very close to home. It's getting more so, too; the government can't spy on you through your TV (yet) but CCTV cameras are spreading like the plague, surveillance technology is at an all-time high, there's proposals in Britain for all-purpose ID cards (yeah - make it so the forgers only have to fake one thing to steal your identity. Good one.) and some of it's already happened.
Someone mentioned the Soviet children being trained to spy on their parents; the Hitler Youth did it too, and in several cases parents were executed on the basis of testimony from their kids. The Spies network is a sort of mutant cross between the Hitler Youth and the Scout Movement. Even the damn Junior Anti-Sex League seems to be worming its way into existence - how long before 'abstinence before marriage' becomes 'abstinence full stop'? Okay, that's a little far-fetched, but still.
Orwell's Oceania is an extrapolation from the society he lived in - taking the extreme viewpoints and following them to their logical endpoint. Not quite sixty years down the line, we're still heading for that same endpoint:
Military violence? Check. Surveillance all the time? Check. Increasing centralisation of government in the hands of a few individuals (the Inner Party)? Check.
Orwell even points up the polarisation in society that's still taking place - puritanism vs. barbarism. The Party are uptight, chaste, efficient and fundamentalist; the proles are closer to animals, eating, drinking, gambling and otherwise frittering away their lives in miserable poverty, with multiple children born out of wedlock as well as in. Orwell was thinking of England when he wrote his book, and indeed Oceania's capital is still London; but at the moment that social polarisation seems much more prevalent in America.
Okay, socialist rant over. I apologise. But what I started off trying to say was that 1984 was a prescient book when it was written and, if anything, has been getting scarier as time goes on. It should be compulsory reading for anyone in favour of universal ID or global surveillance.
Failing that, I'd recommend it to anyone. Pursuivant to the 'best vs. favourite' debate currently showing in the JC's Favourite Film thread, I'd say that 1984 falls firmly into the best group. It's a stupendous piece of literature and a chilling indictment of social mores, but not a book one enjoys reading. It's compelling rather than enjoyable; hard to put down, but harrowing as hell.
So yeah. Classic. Indisputably classic.
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General Kenobi
Title: Comms Admin
SW & Film Music
Classic Trilogy
Registered:
Dec '98
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Date Posted:
11/18/06 12:55pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
- Date Edited:
11/18/06 12:56pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
General Kenobi
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JediNemesis posted:
Failing that, I'd recommend it to anyone. Pursuivant to the 'best vs. favourite' debate currently showing in the JC's Favourite Film thread, I'd say that 1984 falls firmly into the best group. It's a stupendous piece of literature and a chilling indictment of social mores, but not a book one enjoys reading. It's compelling rather than enjoyable; hard to put down, but harrowing as hell.
I actually found it rather enjoyable as well as compelling. Orwell's writing is brilliant.
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Zombi_2_1979
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
11/18/06 2:53pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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General Kenobi posted:
JediNemesis posted:
Failing that, I'd recommend it to anyone. Pursuivant to the 'best vs. favourite' debate currently showing in the JC's Favourite Film thread, I'd say that 1984 falls firmly into the best group. It's a stupendous piece of literature and a chilling indictment of social mores, but not a book one enjoys reading. It's compelling rather than enjoyable; hard to put down, but harrowing as hell.
I actually found it rather enjoyable as well as compelling. Orwell's writing is brilliant.
I haven't made any significant contribution to this discussion really, but there is not a single dull moment in "1984". My mind literally hung on every word written by the man.
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JediNemesis
Registered:
Mar '03
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Date Posted:
11/18/06 3:01pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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Exactly. It's compelling, unputdownable, impossible to forget. It can just by no stretch of the imagination, , simply by virtue of the bleakness of the story, be described as a fun book.
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Zombi_2_1979
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
11/18/06 3:18pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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And the function of Newspeak is particularly eye-opening, eliminating the masses ability to communicate and convey human consciousness and emotion unto another. Thus an acquiecent society has been entirely lobotimized of free speech and human rights.
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DarthIshtar
Title: Former CR
Registered:
Mar '01
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Date Posted:
11/18/06 3:48pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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I am always fascinated by Orwell's use of dialects in this for distinguishing both classes and levels of philosophical morality.
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
11/19/06 6:08am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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Zombi_2_1979 posted:
General Kenobi posted:
JediNemesis posted:
Failing that, I'd recommend it to anyone. Pursuivant to the 'best vs. favourite' debate currently showing in the JC's Favourite Film thread, I'd say that 1984 falls firmly into the best group. It's a stupendous piece of literature and a chilling indictment of social mores, but not a book one enjoys reading. It's compelling rather than enjoyable; hard to put down, but harrowing as hell.
I actually found it rather enjoyable as well as compelling. Orwell's writing is brilliant.
I haven't made any significant contribution to this discussion really, but there is not a single dull moment in "1984". My mind literally hung on every word written by the man.
I didn't enjoy it so much as I was stuck and chilled and completely freaked out by it.
The only really borin part was when Winston was reading The Book. It was interesting, but looooong.
The language, "Orwellian language," can be seen today as well, especally in politics. Many (or at least in the US) tend to say one thing but mean another.
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"Not till the moon falls. Not till the world ends."
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Zombi_2_1979
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
11/19/06 11:49am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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Fantastic choice for the discussion opener.
I sincerely hope Heller's anti-war novel "Catch-22" will be visited in the future. My choice as the funniest book written in the 20th century which explores the rationale of war and our grasp of sanity to hilarious results. And contributed a new catch-phrase to the dictionary by book title. There is scary parallels between this book and certain policies adopted today.
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darth_frared
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
11/21/06 2:38am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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Zombi_2_1979 posted:
And the function of Newspeak is particularly eye-opening, eliminating the masses ability to communicate and convey human consciousness and emotion unto another. Thus an acquiecent society has been entirely lobotimized of free speech and human rights.
it's more interesting, though, to see how much the so-called masses have done thier bit to end up in the protective environment of big brother and indoctrination. how much of each individual contributes to the grander vision?
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
11/21/06 10:59am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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In the American South, slaves were generally kept illiterate. It's basically the same idea.
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KissMeImARebel
Registered:
Nov '03
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Date Posted:
11/21/06 1:24pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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I have a confession to make....I've never read 1984.
I really want to, but in high school we had to read a bazillion books like it (Farenheit 451, Anthem, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies) and I'm sorta sick of the theme.
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
11/21/06 2:09pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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I've read Lord of the Flies and my project this weekend is Brave New World, so I can see where you're coming from, but this book is definately a must-read, if only because so many poeple have that many aspect of it (Big Brother, for example) have worked their way into common culture.
And yeah, the masses of the Outer Party definately keep it going, but I don't think they have much of a choice. They're trained not to know what's really happening, and with Newspeak cutting out antonyms and synonyms and so many other words, soon they won't be able to have thought processes that lead to rebellion. Winston was very right in saying that if an uprising is to occur, it has to comes from the Proles. Besides, any Outer Party member who was to break free and rebel would end up in Room 101 or vaporized (or both).
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KissMeImARebel
Registered:
Nov '03
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Date Posted:
11/21/06 2:15pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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NYCitygurl posted:
I've read Lord of the Flies and my project this weekend is Brave New World, so I can see where you're coming from, but this book is definately a must-read, if only because so many poeple have that many aspect of it (Big Brother, for example) have worked their way into common culture.
I'll definately have to make sure it stays on my to read list then. I've been debating crossing it off, lol.
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
11/21/06 2:27pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing 1984)
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Don't, by any means, though if you're sick of the subject, you could probably wait a while. Let me know when you read it what you think!!
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