I must be missing something, but I dont see how this book is always referred to as legendary negative utopia. I found the book, not interesting and to a point darn right depressing.
Ok, its a negative Utopia it will be depressing I get that much, but the entire story is boring I was depressed even reading it.
I'm spending 10 hours in an airport/planes and I'm a captive audience reading this thing and I find myself wondering around thinking about anything but the book.
I can see some parallels between the book and the government, but i think thats not reason for its use. I think people scream 1984 without actually ever having read the book to begin with.
If someone actually read the book and understood the book, you would think vastly different about comparing a government today to one in the book.
First of all the government isn't even a government anymore, its a ruling party that rules not for love of its people, but for the sheer power it has and will continue to have. A government building street cameras to watch traffic can't even be a straw man argument for the telescreens in the novel.
I was really surprised to see that the "government" actualy thought of itself as evil. I was really taken back by that actually. O'Brian goes into a lot of detail as to why they "had" to be evil, but they only have to in order to keep and maintain their power.
I was happy to see that Julia wasn't a trader and didn't turn Winston in, but I did feel bad for them when O'Brian set them up. Winston fell into that trap damn hard, and as O'Brian told him, Winston knew it was as trap
Its a good story I suppose, and I can see some parallels to a Totalitarian government (say a separatist southern US government). Blocking sex and all, but you could see a totalitarian Liberal government in the same light (mandated exercises and all, somehow they can still smoke).
I suppose you could look at it one of two ways. People have got to be real sheep to fall for a government like that one in the book, and/or this type of situation just couldn't happen.
Ok, its a negative Utopia it will be depressing I get that much, but the entire story is boring I was depressed even reading it.
I'm spending 10 hours in an airport/planes and I'm a captive audience reading this thing and I find myself wondering around thinking about anything but the book.
I can see some parallels between the book and the government, but i think thats not reason for its use. I think people scream 1984 without actually ever having read the book to begin with.
If someone actually read the book and understood the book, you would think vastly different about comparing a government today to one in the book.
First of all the government isn't even a government anymore, its a ruling party that rules not for love of its people, but for the sheer power it has and will continue to have. A government building street cameras to watch traffic can't even be a straw man argument for the telescreens in the novel.
I was really surprised to see that the "government" actualy thought of itself as evil. I was really taken back by that actually. O'Brian goes into a lot of detail as to why they "had" to be evil, but they only have to in order to keep and maintain their power.
I was happy to see that Julia wasn't a trader and didn't turn Winston in, but I did feel bad for them when O'Brian set them up. Winston fell into that trap damn hard, and as O'Brian told him, Winston knew it was as trap
Its a good story I suppose, and I can see some parallels to a Totalitarian government (say a separatist southern US government). Blocking sex and all, but you could see a totalitarian Liberal government in the same light (mandated exercises and all, somehow they can still smoke).
I suppose you could look at it one of two ways. People have got to be real sheep to fall for a government like that one in the book, and/or this type of situation just couldn't happen.
- and its propaganda machine changing documents to make anyone believe anything the Party wants it to - from who the Party's political enemies are, to whomever Oceania happens to be winning its wars against, even though it appears they may be losing at one point near the end), its mythologically powerful figurehead (substitute Big Brother for Uncle Joe - or indeed today substitute it for Kim Jong-il) and its interesting treatment of political prisoners ("erasing" them from history, breaking their mind by making them submit to Big Brother through any means necessary but most notably through that terrible thing hidden in Room 101, and then killing them). The telescreens, while prophetic in today's 24-hour surveillance world, appeared to be a metaphor for the far reaching power of the Party to root out traitors, most notably those possessing the dreaded thought crimes - the committing of which warrants a visit from the secret police, the Thought Police.
